for him | skephalo, fluff

arrangement

~Zak's POV~

I do a heard count and confirm that both Scarlett and Clay are gone.

"I leave for one goddamn minute," I grit through my teeth.

"Hmm?" George, Ant, and Darryl say in unison.

"Nothing. Where's Clay, I wanna tell him something," I ask the group.

"Oh, Clay and Scarlett went out to go buy some activities for us." George explains. "They're still in the driveway, you can catch up with them,"

I nod and start to walk out of the house to go to George's driveway. I see Clay and Scarlett going into the George's car. "Clay! Can we talk?"

I knew I couldn't let Clay and Scarlett get out into the public. If they did, Clay could get Scarlett alone, kill her, hide her body, and act sad and say she got kidnapped or make some other excuse everyone would believe. If it wasn't under the eye of anyone, Clay can easily frame the public or third parties for his murder.

Clay saw me and immediately tried ignoring me. "George said that I'm coming along." I tell the two so Clay has to let me talk to him, "I'll pay,"

Clay unwillingly opens the door for me. He lets me in the backseat, Scarlett sits in the passenger seat and Clay enters the driver. He starts up the car and sighs, the group rides in silence, everyone in the car able to hear the phone of Scarlett.

I start to hear my phone ring, I check and it's a call from Darryl. I answer.

"Hello?"

"Hi! Where are you?" Darryl asks.

"I'm going to the store with Clay," I tell him.

"What? I thought you were just going to ask him something. How come you didn't tell me, I would've came," he whined causing me to giggle.

"Sorry, I was in a rush. I'll see you later, ok? I love you!" I tell him.

He started to giggle too. "Ok! See you later. Love you too," he whispered his last three words. I hang up the call. I would've brought Darryl, but that would only make it harder to save Scarlett from Clay.

Clay parks at a small yet popular store. It looked expensive, as if Clay purposely chose to bring us here knowing I offered to pay. We let Scarlett go inside the store first so Clay and I could talk. Scarlett enters into the store alone, Clay and I stay inside the car. I take Scarlett's place in the passenger's seat. Clay stares at me, trying to intimidate me with his narrowed eyes.

"Look. I think we both know that this is not a good idea. Remember Vincent? That was a stupid idea and I don't want anything like that to happen again. I'm willing to work with you one last time only if you wait one more week,"

He takes his eyes off of mine and softens his expression. "I don't need you." He hisses, "I can do this by myself right now,"

I start to feel angry, why couldn't he just be cooperative for once? "You're just mad because of what happened to Vincent! And that's fine! But this isn't right, it'll only make things worse. Look Clay, I learned from what happened. We made a mistake. A big one. But that's how we learn. I know we had a deal, but either way it's going to go through, we can either wait and do this smarter, or do it now and have it on our conciseness that we did something wrong for not waiting,"

He grunts, I take that as a sign that he knows I'm right. "You weren't there. Vincent told me that he wanted me to be happy with George. She's getting in the way of that. This is how I make things right for Vincent,"

I sigh while rubbing my forehead in frustration. "Either way we'll have her gone. It's just a matter of time. We can't risk anything. Plus, it's pretty selfish for you just to rush this just so you can be happy,"

He swiftly turned his head to look at my face. He clenched his fists and held onto the neck of my shirt, pulling my face closer to his. "Selfish? You want to talk selfish? What happened to Vincent is completely your fault. I only did it because you told me to. That's selfish on your part. Selfish is you getting jealous because you won't let your boyfriend talk to anyone else besides you. You are tearing Darryl apart. He thinks he's happier with you. He thinks he's happier because he's safe from his parents. But he's not. He's worse. He told George and I that he believed his parents could change for the better. He believed one day he would be able to forgive them. He loved them even after what they did to him. He was a forgiving soul. But you didn't see that. You think you're making him happy? You're not. You're just ruining everyone else's life. Talk about selfish," he scoffs. He lets go of my shirt, freeing me from his grasp.

I take a second to comprehend what he had just said. I process a response but think of nothing. I try to talk, but nothing comes out. I was choking on a response that didn't exist. I felt defeated. Clay was right, Darryl would probably be happier dead than be with me. The thought hurt me. I finally well up the courage to make my case against Clay.

"You think I don't know that? Why do you think I'm trying so hard to save Scarlett? So you don't make the same mistakes I did with everyone in Darryl's life. I'm trying to make things right. Making an extended time period probably won't fix anything but it'll give us time to make sure we're doing the right thing. As I said earlier, I'm willing to work with you one last time." I respond, keeping my voice on a volume that only Clay and I would be able to hear. "I'm doing this so you and George can be happy. So you don't make any mistakes. A life I screwed up for me and Darryl,"

Now the roles were reversed. Clay was the defeated one. As much as it didn't show, I was still able to tell by the way he didn't immediately respond. He sighs as he combs his fingers through his hair.

"Fine." I hear him mutter. "But this is the last time we work together. After this, we go our separate ways. I think it'd be better if we worked on our own so that we don't have to feel guilty for making a mistake the other makes." He says, clearly shading me but keeping an indifferent voice. "We both have to promise not to snitch, and respect each other's decisions after. We can obviously still stay friends but not work in this way together anymore,"

I nod and keep in a confident look. "Deal. I agree,"

He starts to smile, not like his usual toothy, lighthearted smile but more like a smile full of determination.

It was sad that we wouldn't be working together after Scarlett but it was a great chance for new beginnings.

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Thank you for reading part 38 :)

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