fragments → garmau • mcd au

[10] dante

monday;

"Ahem." I'm walking, when someone clears their throat behind me. I turn around and Dante is standing there, his blue hair wavering, his sapphire eyes nervous.

His backpack was slightly crooked and his hands were behind his back, he was sweating and he had multiple brusies over his face; fresh too.

"What do you want." I say, fixing my hood of my black hoodie.

"Uh, I want to be your friend." He mumbles the last part, and I adjust my glasses.

"I have a hard time believing that." I grumble, and I'm about to walk away, looking down at the floor when two outstretched arms hold me by the shoulders.

"Give him a chance, Garroth."

Aphmau.

I look up and she's standing there smiling, and I give a small smile too. I roll my eyes and turn around, and Dante is still standing there.

"I never join in when they beat up people because I don't want to. My brother drags me into these things because he says it's good. Laurance is a big jerk, but he isn't the boss of that group. Zenix is." He says, and my eyes widen, Aphmau beside me.

"Who's Zenix?" She asked, and Dante looked at me.

"He's a sophomore, but he's extremely terrifying. He had brown eyes, and wore a mask and a hood. Still does, but now he has glowing red eyes and always yells at people. He has to be put in his own class because of this behaviour. Garroth used to be his tutor for English until he changed." Dante said, and Aphmau put her hand on my shoulder.

"How does a sophomore control your entire group?" I asked softly, and Dante disappointingly shakes his head.

"He just...does. I told my brother I really didn't want to be involved in the group anymore, after what they did to you last Friday; but he didn't take very lightly. Nobody did." He said, pointing to the brusises and fresh cuts on his face.

"I can tell." I say, and Aphmau sighs.

"You can hang with us." She grinned, and walked over to him. She pushed him in front of me, then took her place beside me yet again. I leaned against the wall next to me, and I looked Dante up and down.

His plain white jumper was matched with his denim jeans, and normal black sneakers. His eyes didn't look so much as nervous as they were, but relieved.

"Who didn't take it the best?" Aphmau asked, and Dante sighed.

"Nicole. She got her fox that she hides in her bag to attack me too. When I was in the group they kept shipping me with her, it got too loud and crazy for me." He shrugged, and I nodded.

"I'm luckily doing the project with Cadenza though, Nicole partnered Laurance and Gene partnered Sasha, so Cadenza offered." He smiled, and Aphmau smiled back. I just pushed up my glasses and ran my hand through my blonde hair.

"Speaking of which, it's English now and after that's lunch. Do you wanna eat with us?" Aphmau offers, and Dante smiles and nods.

"Yes, please."

•••

"So, what's your story? I told you mine and Garroth is being Garroth so..." Aphmau rambled, stuffing other spoonful of rice in her mouth.

Dante looked at the both of us, seeminlgly comfortable in the small corner we usually sat in.

"Well, my brother was good until something happened and he just switched..." Dante trailed, his eyes slowly discolouring; fading to a matte blue, no longer sparkling.

That's the thing.

Anybody who lives in Phoenix Drop, has this weird thing about their eyes. When they're happy, they sparkle and glisten; how Aphmau's is most of the time. When something bad or sad has happened, the eyes lose their sparkling and go slightly discoloured.

Discoloured like how mine are.

"Like Laurance." I shrug, and they both look at me.

"Laurance was...decent in junior year. Then when we came back for sophomore Zenix was beside him as a junior and his eyes were no longer green. They were blue." I mutter, and Dante shakes his head, Aphmau frantically looking between the two off us.

"What?!" She squealed, and I could hear Dante shushing her.

I wanted to shush her so many times, but I just couldn't.

How did Dante, of all people, do it?

"We don't know what happened, but we focus on now. He's popular, a jock, has a squad that my own brother is in, and is an absolute jerk." Dante said through gritted teeth, and I looked over subtly at the group.

Laurance was constantly winking at Aphmau, it was disgusting.

The picture of Aphmau and Laurance kissing suddenly appeared in my mind, and my head started aching; accompanied by the urge to get away from the crowd.

"I... I have to g-go use the bathroom." I stuttered, and Aphmau turned to me, her expression changed from joy to concern.

"Garroth? You're extremely pale, are you alright?" She asked, putting her arm on my shoulder. The scene where Zane piercing the over-sized sword through her heart replayed over and over my head.

"Y-Yeah, j-j-just give me a m-moment." I shakily stood up from the bench, and both Aphmau and Dante watched me as if I was about to fall over, because truth be told, it felt like I was.

It was when the world around me began to blur, when I realised what was happening.

I am having a panic attack.

•••

I could hear the constant chatter from outside the bathroom; not including the constant sniffing from me. I splashed the freezing cold water from the sink onto my face, washing most evidence of my tears.

I shook my head and looked in the mirror.

The edges of my eyes were red, and my blue eyes remained matte and boring, not sparkling like Aphmau's and most of the time, Dante's. Like usual.

I turned to the door and placed my hand on the knob, bracing myself to go outside again.

Why is this happening to me now?

What did I do?

Who is making me feel like this?

•••

Song: I'm Not Alright
Artist: NightcoreReality

Emotion-packed chapter :P

Hope you guys like it!

Cya!
-Zero