Disordered Eating (Skephalo)

Skippy

Darryl's POV

We were driving for a little while more, and Zak decided it was time for him to turn on his phone. I should probably get Zak a different phone, since George got him that one. Zak was probably not happy looking down at that phone.

When the phone turned on, it started vibrating like crazy. Apparently Zak was getting messaged and called a bunch when he was gone. He was shocked at the amount of messages to the point he said 'whoa' out loud. He quickly turned his phone to silent before his phone started sounding like a dirty object.

"10 calls from Carol. 30 messages from Carol. 1 call from Andy and 5 messages. 100 messages from George. 10 unknown- actually that's probably Vincent's messages, and 6 calls from like scam places," Zak said with shock.

"Who's Andy and Carol?" I asked. I never heard him mention them before.

"Carol and Andy are my foster parents. They check up on me sometimes randomly or if George tells them something. I guess George told them I left," Zak said.

"Foster parents? Shouldn't they take care of you then?"

"Nope. Once you're eighteen, the system doesn't care about you and some foster families can't keep you without support," Zak said. "Andy and Carol were good to me while I was with them, but they probably couldn't afford me. I wish it went down better."

"Do they know how George really is?" I asked.

"They think George is still the sweet friend I had in my last years of school," Zak said.

"Anyway, apparently Carol was told I went missing. Not dead, but left a suicide note. She freaked out. I don't know what to even say to her. I told her I am okay and I found somewhere else to live. I told her I won't be living with George,"

"How did she take that?" I asked.

"She was confused. Andy was more so upset when a cop showed up to ask about me," Zak said. "Also, I don't even want to read all of George messages. I just texted him telling him I am breaking up. You're probably wondering about Vincent too. Vincent was someone I met in the psych ward."

"You gave someone there your number?" I asked.

"Yeah, he was my roommate. He was a good person. Apparently he left France because he felt abandoned, but then came here and felt even worse. He didn't even try to attempt, but he ended up at the psych ward with me."

We ended up at my apartment by this time. I'm glad we were both distracted by us talking. Neither of us had enough attention to focus on the bridge as we drived through it. I only thought of it when we got back.

Rat was super excited to see Zak when we walked through the door. Zak leaned down to pet Rat and gave the dog a treat. Rat's tail wagged and begged for more, but Zak didn't give another one.

"So Zak..." I started to say.

"Yeah?"

"Would you like to try something now?"

"Sure I guess. After being tube fed, nothing you have will be as painful as that. At least, I hope it works that way," Zak said.

We walked over to my kitchen table and I could tell Zak was sweating a bit. He seemed really nervous. I walked over to the counter and grabbed a spoon and a jar of Skippy's peanut butter. Zak's eyes widen.

"How much is in that?"

He immediately reaches for the jar and turns it over to the nutrition section. He mumbles it to himself. I can see him tense up a bit.

"Zak, eventually we're going to need to work on not looking at the numbers."

He nods and looks down at the jar and spoon again. I stand there as he shakingly picks up the spoon.

"Deep breaths Zak. It's okay to do this. It's not bad."

Tears come out of his eyes a bit, but he wipes them away. He takes the spoon and dips it into the peanut butter. He takes a big breath of air.

He lifts the spoon to his mouth, closes his eyes, and eats it. He opens them when he swallows the peanut butter.

"That actually... tasted good. I forget how some things taste... good," He said and takes another spoonful.

He eats a third spoonful and suddenly puts the spoon down. He lets out a tiny cry. I hold him and keep whispering to him it is okay to have the peanut butter.

He picks up the spoon and dips into a fourth. He eats it through tears. I can tell he's really trying.

"If that's all you can handle, that's okay."

"It's really good, thank you Darryl," He said and then sobbed.

"We can work more on skippy as we go along," I said and hold him close to me. I gently rub his back.

He wants to go to his room and lay down alone for a bit. I decide to let him go there. He seems to have taken a nap when he comes back out an hour later.

"Zak, would you like to play minecraft with me?"

"I don't have an account," He said.

"It's okay. We'll make one and I'll pay for it," I said.

Zak gets his laptop and opens it up. We go onto mojangs page.

"What should I call myself?" He asked.

"I don't know. Something that matters to you."

"Maybe skippy? If skippy is the start of my journey, it's important to me. Its not important to us," He said.

"Skippy is probably taken, but we could try Skeppy?" I said, knowing that any OG name like that would be snatched.

"Skeppy works," He said and typed Skeppy onto the username box.

He set a password and I bought him his account. He was now Skeppy on minecraft! There was so much we could do and play together.

We played for a few hours until it was time for us to sleep. Zak asked to cuddle with me in his room. I of course, said yes.

We wrapped our arms and legs around each other, giving each other kisses and massages. He felt very cold in my arms, so I tried my best to warm him. We murmered I love yous to each other until we fell asleep.

I had dreams of Zak the whole night, of us doing fun things together.