Metanoia.「skephalo」

08 | Truth.

It was lunchtime, and Darryl, waiting for Zak, was frantically walking in circle under the stairs of the stadium, unable to stay still.
Questions and insecurities filled his head, making him more and more anxious as time passed by.

'What if he didn't found the letter? What if he did and decided not to come? What if someone runmagged in his locker and-'

"Hey Darryl." a voice behind him quietly greeted, cutting off his thoughts.

The Senior stopped walking, taking a deep breath before turning towards the voice.
Zak was there, wearing the hood of his hoodie and hands in the jeans' pocket, he looked stiff and his eyes were pointed at the ground. It was visible how much he felt bad.

"Oh my goodness, you're here." murmured relieved, getting closer to him. "Thank you, Zak."

He brusquely looked up at him, anxiously shaking his head.

"No, no, please, don't thank me or excuse yourself anymore. I've been an assh--... a jerk, I'm sorry." he quietly admitted, looking back down.

"It's okay," Darryl replied, laying a hand on his shoulder. "I can't even imagine what you're going through, so there's no reason to be sorry about how you acted. Just, don't forget I'm here if you want help or simply vent, okay?" he smiled as the little boy glanced at him. "But now Zak, we really have to talk about what happened with the school journal."

The Juniour flinched, taking a step back from him while anxiously messing around with the sleeves of his blue hoodie.
It was visible how his breathing increased, yet, his ability to mask his true emotions, made him look like he was totally fine, maybe just slightly upset.

"There's nothing to talk about." replied, aloof.

"Nothing? Zak, they committed a crime against us!" he exclaimed, confused.

Zak's mask started to fall apart once again.
Darryl was the only one with he couldn't act fine with.
That made him feel vulnerable.
He hated it.

All Zak was able to do was staring at him shaking imperceptibly, trying his best to not cede.
It was obvious where that conversation was heading to, and it was nothing good.

"Dude, uhm, I-I..." he stuttered, not having an excuse for the first time in years.

'I'm fucked, I'm so fucked.'

Darryl's expression became worried as soon as he realized there was something wrong with the short boy behavior.

"What's wrong?" worriedly asked him, arching his eyebrows.

"Nothing, I'm fine." lied, recomposing himself.

The Senior sighed, he wished that journal thing didn't happen.
Zak would be fine. He would be fine.
Yet, he wanted to punish the people who put the two in that situation.

"We are going to talk with the principal, Zak. End of the story." concluded, with decision in his voice, not soft as before.

The little boy shook his head visibly panicking.

"N-no Darryl, there has to be another way!" he talked back, clenching his fists while his heart was exploding in his chest.

"There is! Going directly at the police station!" retorted the blonde boy, even more confused by his reactions.

"I mean, a way where there's no fucking police involved!" shouted angrily, leaning towards the blonde boy.

"The police is the whole point of this, why- why are you trying to avoid it!?" questioned concerned, keeping his voice volume slightly lower than Zak's.