for him | skephalo, fluff

picnic

I hand everyone in our group a hotdog and we continue to eat. A group of little boys appear in the park, playing tag. The silence disappears and gets replaced by a bunch of little kids screaming. Sam and Valerie giggle at some inside joke. Clay, George, and Scarlett stay silent while eating.

Darryl seems to admire the little kids. "Whatcha looking at?" I ask trying to soften my voice. He subtly points at the little kid.

"Remember when you were young and played games like that?"

Clay laughs. "I'm pretty sure everyone has done that," Clay remarks sassily.

"Yeah, but don't you guys miss it?"

Clay continues to laugh, "What, do you want to go and play with them?"

"No," Darryl replies slowly.

I push Darryl playfully, "It's ok, you can go. We'll watch you,"

He scoffs. "Don't be ridiculous," he mumbles.

There's a silence. "Hey Darr?" I say in a quiet voice.

"Hm?"

"Do you want to be a dad?"

Clay and Scarlett both give us confused looks. "Oh God, they're about to have sex in front of us," Clay jokes.

I glare at him. Darryl shrugs. "Obviously not right now. But in the future it's really up to you,"

Scarlett whispers something in George's ears that results in George nodding. "How can two boys have a child?" I hear Scarlett mumble.

"Adoption, dumbass," I mumble.

Scarlett's head whips around to look at me, but I return a challenging look. Darryl giggles nervously. Valerie smirks at me.

There was another silence, my ears focused on the sounds of the kids. Darryl said it was my choice if we were to have kids in the future, but I didn't want to choose the wrong option. I was open to having a kid, but if Darryl didn't want one I didn't want to have one either.

Valerie and Sam start to giggle, "I have a feeling that Zak wanted this to be a private date and then Darryl invited us,"

I laugh along. "That's exactly what happened,"

Darryl looks at me and frowns. "Aww, Zak. I'm sorry! I thought you just wanted to hangout so I invited our friends,"

I giggle at his apology. "It's fine, we can have one any day," I reassure him.

Darryl's phone dings. He picks it up, I can't help but notice his wallpaper. I know what it is but I still ask.

"What's your wallpaper?" I ask.

"Huh? Oh. It's just the picture we took we Vincent in that photo booth a few months ago," he says softly, obviously upset by the thought of Vincent not being here anymore.

The word 'Vincent' triggered Clay's senses. He looks over to me with a nervous look.

"I miss Vincent," Darryl says sadly.

I start to feel more and more guilty. The only thing that washes these feelings down is lying, making empty promises.

"It's going to be ok. Vincent is probably ok. He's strong, and something I admire about him is that he always makes a way," These words came out of my mouth but still had the power to hurt me.

Darryl nods, Clay starts to sweat. "I know," Darryl sighs, "but I miss having him around. Plus, I always think the worse of things,"

"Who's Vincent?" Scarlett and Valerie ask at the same time. Scarlett's question seemed more directed to George.

"He was a good friend of ours. But he's gone missing recently," George explains.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Scarlett says.

"Oh! That's that one French boy in our advisory!" Valerie understands. We nod.

Bringing up Vincent brought another awkward silence. George and Scarlett whispered throughout the picnic. Bringing up Vincent made Clay uncomfortable, but now George excluding him from their conversations made him even more tense. Then, something happened that probably made Clay even more stressed.

"So," George raises his voice, stretching out the 'o'. "We just wanted to say something,"

Everyone's attention was on George.

"I've invited Scarlett on this picnic because," he doesn't speak for a short amount of time trying to build tension.

"Go on?" Sam insists.

"Scarlett is my girlfriend,"

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Thank you for reading part 35 :)

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