The Monsters Inside and Out (Scott Howl x Depressed Reader)

54. Complete 180

You go back down the hatch you came out of. You go to your locker, grabbing your gym bag. Your eyes get covered by a pair of big hands. "Guess who?" You let out a light chuckle and say, "Scott?" He uncovers your eyes and lifts you up in a hug. "You're right!" He hugs you tight, and continues, "I didn't see you at all this morning! I thought you were sick or something.." "Nah, I'm okay." "Good! Now let's go to gym!" He puts you down, letting you shut your locker. You give a half-assed smile, he grabs your hand, and starts running to gym, dragging you along. Suddenly, everything feels wrong. You feel like such a piece of garbage. You yank your arm back, forcing him to let go of your hand. He slows down to a stop. He turns to you, and takes notice of the other people in the hallway. You stare at the ground, but you can tell people are staring at you or Scott. Your breathing starts becoming uneven. You feel yourself trembling where you stand. It feels like everything is going dark. You're grabbed and pulled into a room, and Scott puts his arms around you, rubbing small circles on your back. "Just breath. Breath." You feel a chill down your spine. His voice turned deep and soothing, a huge contrast to how he normally speaks. He holds you until you feel better. You pull away from him and smile. He smiles back, and the bell rings. He says, "Oh no! We need to get to gym! Ready?" He holds his hand out to you, waiting for you to grab it. You reach your hand out to touch his, but end up retreating before making contact. He cocks his head to the side, visibly confused as to why you withdrew. "Scott, I need to tell you something.." You explain the situation again. It feels like if you have to talk about it anymore today you might just explode. After finishing, you say, "Are you mad at me?" He takes a deep breath. "No. It's not your fault. Your mom is bad, she's a bad lady. She makes you feel bad, and that's not fair." "I know.." He suddenly starts turning red in the face. "And, uh.. If it makes you feel any better, it wasn't completely a lie." You feel the heat rush to your face and playfully hit his arm, "You're nasty, Scott Howl." He laughs and extends his hand out to you once more. You grab it and the two of you head to gym, hand in hand.

When you get to the locker room, you and Scott begin changing. You can hear the squeak of sneakers on the gym floor as the two teams face off in dodgeball. Once you're changed, you two step out into the gymnasium, and walk along the sides to meet up with coach. Once he sees the two of you approaching, he smiles widely. "Ah, there you two are! Where have you been?" Scott says, "We had some feelings to talk about but now we're okay!" Normally, you would be embarrassed letting someone know about your difficult feelings, but somehow, you didn't seem bothered this time. Coach says, "Fantastic! You know it's always important to be honest with your feelings, especially with people you care about!" You smile at Coach's upbeat personality, something him and Scott clearly share. He looks out at the game, and says, "Okay, (Y/N), you join Dahlia's team, and Scott, you join Damien's." Scott looks at you nervously, as if to ask if you're okay with that. You smile and say, "Okay, coach!" Scott smiles and runs over to the other side of the gym to join Calculester.

You get up to Dahlia, and she welcomes you, "Ah! (Y/N)! With you on my team I know we will prevail! Chaaaaarge!" It's an intense battle. You are bombarded with throw after throw. Your catching ability is severely lacking, so you must dodge the balls and pick them up later. You grab one, and throw it at Miranda. One of her serfs jumps out in front of her, and ends up getting hit in the nuts. Coach blows the whistle, signaling Miranda is out. Clutching his crotch in pain, he escorts Miranda to the sidelines. Dahlia says, "Nice one, (Y/N)!" She then takes two dodgeballs, one in each hand, and throws them over. One hits Vicky, while the other is caught by Scott. Coach blows his whistle again, and Vicky and Dahlia sit in their assigned sidelines. On your side, Calculester throws a ball so powerfully, it ends up bouncing off the back wall and hitting him right back. Coach blows the whistle. After a few more minutes, all that is remaining is your team, you, Liam, and Amira, and the other team, Scott, Polly, Oz, Zoe, and the leader of the Wolfpack. The leader throws the ball at you, and suddenly a magical rift appears in front of you. The Interdimensional Prince bellows, "Greetings my loves, I have come here on search of-" and immediately gets smacked with a ball. You quickly scoop up the ball and throw it back, and the Wolfpack leader attempts to duck under it, but gets hit in the face instead. Coach blows his whistle. Amira takes a ball and throws it at Polly. It fazes through her, and Zoe catches it. Polly and Amira both go to the side. Zoe throws the ball she caught at Liam, and he gets hit. Now it's just you against the strongest, fangirliest, and quietest people you know. You manage to throw a ball and get Oz out, but you're immediately pelted by a ball to your side. The ball flies into the air, and it is now your time to strike. If you catch this ball, you'll get the thrower out. In an ultimate turn of luck, you dive forward, catch the ball, roll back to your feet, and yeet the ball at Scott. It hits him at just the right angle to bounce off of him and hit Zoe as well. You, Scott, and Zoe look at the ball, dumbfounded. You look over at Coach, who is doing the same thing, and so is everyone else. It's as if no one can even fathom what just happened. You say, "C-Coach?" Coach looks at you, blinks a few times, and blows his whistle loudly. He lets it drop out of his mouth, and says, "Team Dahlia wins!" Dahlia's team cheers loudly, running up to you and giving you high fives and praising you. As the excitement begins to subside, Coach dismisses all of you to get changed.

As you change, the high from the game still lingers within Scott. "And then when you got my cousin right after the prince helped you on accident, it was just so cool!" Out of the corner of your eye, you see the buff blue goddess Dahlia approach you. You turn to her and she says, "Yes, (Y/N). That was very cool. It was an honor to fight by your side today. You have GOT to teach me how to dodgeball like you!" "Uh, I don't know what really happened, I just kinda.. reacted." "I understand.. You don't think I am worthy of such dodgeball knowledge, do not worry (Y/N)! I shall make you proud and teach me your ways!" She triumphantly walks away as if she's about to start an epic quest to gain your trust. You decide to let it go because she'll probably forget about it anyway. You and Scott both finish changing just as the bell rings. Everyone begins exiting the room, but as you walk past Scott, he grabs your arm. You look at him as he watches everyone walk out of the room. Once you're alone, he stands up, and pulls you into an embrace. He says, "You did really good today. I'm so proud. You've become so strong." You smile to yourself. You've heard it before, but you can't help but be happy when he says the little things. The tender, happy moment suddenly changes though, when you feel a drop of water hitting your head. You look up to see Scott with a few tears trickling down his face. "S-Scott, what's wrong?" He sniffles, "You've become so strong, but I've stayed.. So weak.." He crumbles down to the floor, breaking your heart. It doesn't sound particularly inspiring, but you say, "What the hell are you talking about?" "When I met you, you were so sad and lonely, but now, you've grown so much stronger. You don't stutter as much, you seem more confident, and happy. And I'm so happy you finally feel that way but, now that just leaves me. I'm still so lonely... (Y/N), there's something I want to tell you." "What is it?" He gasps for air between cries. "The thing is though, I don't think I'm ready. Is... Is that okay?" You kneel down so your body is level with his. "Of course it is. I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to do." He looks into your eyes. You scratch behind his ear, making him smile. He says, "Thank you." You stand up and hold a hand out to him. "You ready?" He smiles confidently and grabs it.