Demons

Chapter Nine

-A few days later-

It was raining in Huntington Beach for the first time in about a week, meaning that Zack finally had no excuse not to go into school. Obviously, living in California is a bit annoying for a vampire seeing as it’s constantly sunny; but now that it was raining and the forecast for the next few days was also rain, Zack had to go to school.

*

Zack and Brian managed to avoid each other practically all day; until lunch. It was Zacky that chose to be the brave one, approaching his friend who was sitting in the corner of the lunch hall with a surly expression on his face and an untouched bagel in front of him. He had his head resting on his folded arms and he was seemingly staring at the bagel, but really he was just staring past it into thin air.

‘Hey, Bri,’ Zack said as confidently as he could as he sat down next to Brian. Brian didn’t shift his eyes from whatever they were focussed on, and he didn’t move his body at all.

‘Hey,’ he mumbled in response, and after he did so he pulled one of his hands free of his folded arms and slyly wiped his eyes, a sniffle following after he spoke.

‘You okay?’ Zack asked hesitantly, recognizing the thickness in Brian’s voice. He was crying.

‘Mmhmm,’ Brian replied, shifting a little further away from Zack and bringing is head up, straightening his back and faking a yawn to try and make Zack think he was just tired. Well, no, thought Zack. You were crying, I’m not a fucking idiot.

‘Hmph. Are you gonna eat that?’ Zack said, poking the bagel with his finger. Brian chuckled, quietly, and shook his head.

‘Nah, you have it.’

‘Thanks.’ Zacky picked up the bagel and nibbled at it, before setting it down and yanking the lettuce out of it, shooting a playful glare at Brian who was watching him with some sort of amusement.

‘Fucking lettuce. Ugh,’ Zack grumbled, flicking the leaves at Brian in distaste. Brian yelped in protest, frantically scrabbling to brush the lettuce off of himself.

‘Don’t fucking throw it at me!’ He whined, and Zacky just smirked with a shake of the head as he began to munch on the bagel. (Yes, vampires can eat human food.). The two lapsed into silence for a moment or two, before Zack cleared his throat and put the bagel down, noticing that Brian was frowning deeply.

‘What’s the matter?’

‘Just thinking,’ Brian sighed, and Zack frowned.

‘Ya know, uhm, I’m sorry about what I said.’ Zack kept his eyes fixed on his friends face, watching, and eventually Brian turned to face him, though his eyes were still lowered as if he were trying to avoid the smaller boy’s eyes.

‘I’m sorry too.’ Zack rolled his eyes- Brian was always the one to apologize for things that weren’t his fault.