He Changed My Life

Chapter 32

~ Dan's POV ~

It had been a while, five days since the stuff at the park happened. On the first day, Sarkis, Tezlus, and Matt talked with me a bit more. I was... affected... from my interactions with Zakaroth... Seeing Zakaroth looking like Matt, then knowing he can rip apart that form is terrifying. Still, Sarkis reassured me that Zakaroth can't actually destroy Matt's body, and only did that to try to manipulate and scare me. Which, it absolutely fricken scared me, that's for sure... Still, I'll be okay... I definitely still love Matt, I just... It's become very clear to me why I need to be careful, I suppose, haha...

Oh also, Sarkis said he couldn't detect any more Chaos than there already was in my aura. Tezlus assured us it was residual and compared it to Ignatius' aura which also had residual chaos from Matt. That was only slightly reassuring though, as the fact that Sarkis could detect it in me and not in Ignatius is kinda concerning to me... Like is Zakaroth affecting me more as time goes on or...? ...I... kinda don't want to think about it, heh...

Anyway, Maia came over that day as well. She hugged us all, glad we were alright, and we told her the true story of what actually happened. Matt had to leave the room for that, as he... well, you know... it didn't sit well with him. The next day, not much happened, but on the second last day, Tezlus and Sarkis went to an interview to talk about what had happened at the park on the news. The relic story held true, the media took it like we thought they would, and painted Sarkis as a hero who stopped the relic from destroying the whole town. Funny thing is, that's not exactly an exaggeration when it comes to Zakaroth, from what Sarkis told me... but nobody else needs to know that...

The last day, we rested, and then yesterday and today we had gone back to school. Of course, when all the students saw Sarkis, I could hear them whispering about the event and the false details we had put on the news as we walked by them in the halls. A few bold individuals congratulated Sarkis, called him tough, a hero, you know... In gym class, the guys were way more enthusiastic, and to a degree, annoying too, heh... Also, to no one's surprise, Dylan and his friends didn't try and stop harassing me or Matt, despite knowing we were both caught in the crossfire of Sarkis' recent heroic deed. Yet Matt... for once he's letting Sarkis take care of things. Whenever something happened, he used to step up and help, or at least defend himself, but now he kind of just steps back and lets Sarkis deal with it. I told Sarkis that Matt does seem a bit different to me, I noticed Matt's quiet... thinking really hard, again... sort of similar to how he was when he didn't know what to make of his crush on me, haha. Sarkis said he's tried to talk to him... but all Matt's ever said is he's worried about me. No matter how Sarkis or I try and reassure him, he says we don't understand... So... I'm worried, but... I can't do much other than continue to support him.

I decided to go over to Matt and Sarkis' place a bit after school for that purpose - to support Matt - and to hang out for a bit. To my surprise, Maia answered the door when I got there. She and Sarkis were watching a movie... Well, there was a paused movie on the TV, and Sarkis was on the couch asleep, heh. Maia said he was really tired today, and that he kept saying how annoying all the messages of praise he was getting on social media for what happened a few days ago, so he kinda just passed out on her shoulder halfway through their movie. I don't blame him, to be honest.

I walked past Sarkis as Maia gently sat back down beside him. I waved to Ignatius and Tezlus in the kitchen as I passed by, and went down the hall to Matt's room. I knocked on the door, waiting a moment before I heard Matt inside.

"Yeah?"

"Hey. It's me."

...

...I wasn't expecting the silence, to be honest. Nothing happened for a few seconds before I finally heard Matt come over to the door. He even paused before he opened it, and only opened it just a crack. He looked at me for a moment before looking down towards me, but not directly at me. His eyes were purple... he was sad...