Metanoia.「skephalo」

05 | Change.

"Is it possible?" Darryl asked, leaning his shoulder against the door jamb as he waited for an answer.

"Sure, go ahead, Darryl." the teacher consented, smiling kindly at the boy.

"Thank you so much." he smiled at the adult before letting his eyes search for the short boy through the Juniors.

Zak felt an unusual panic building up, maybe for all those eyes pointed at him, especially for Vincent's ones.
But once he intercepted Darryl's glance, anger took over.

It was obvious what the Senior wanted to do.
He was playing safe.

'Why. Why is he doing this. He doesn't even know me, what the fuck does he want.' Zak thought, narrowing his eyes at him.

Clenching his fists, he abruptly got up from his seat, and ignoring everyone eyes pointed on him, especially the interrogatory ones of his best friend, he approached the closed door that Darryl closed as he walked out of the classroom.

Once outside, Zak leaned his back against the wall beside the door, crossing his arms as he glared at the Senior, clearly pissed.

"What do you want." he spat, narrowing his eyes at Darryl once again.

"Hey, no need to be so defensive and angry at me. I saw you and your note, and it's obvious something's wrong. I just want to help you." the taller by kindly explained with a concerned expression, tilting his head to the side.

"Wow. If with helping me you mean 'let's give Zak more fucking attention because he doesn't have enough of it already', you're doing it damn well." he harshly blurted out in reply, accompanying his words with a shake of his head.

"Zak, I'm not dumb. If I'd tried to talk to you in any other moment, you'd have avoided me and ran away." the blonde boy objected, sighing silently.

"I wouldn't have." he denied with a slight voice crack.

"You would have, Zak." Darryl retorted, his voice not as kind and patient as before.

"How do you even know?!" the short boy questioned with a massive voice crack, frowning. "Let me remind you that we meet only yesterday, and all we talked about was school stuff."

"As I said, I'm not stupid."

"You look like one acting this way." Zak spat, raising an heavy silence.

They stared into each other eyes for a long moment.

"Please, let me help you." Darryl broke the silence softening his voice, sighing lightly and arching both his eyebrows.

"I don't accept the help my best friend offers me, what does make you think you have any chance?" the short boy questioned harshly, shrugging and opening both his arms.

"Change." he replied, smiling softly.

"Huh?"

"People change. People need change." His index finger carefully placed on Zak chest. "You need change. And I'm here for you, a fresh start."

The short boy started at Darryl, frowning slightly at his words.

"I have no idea what are you going through, Zak, but I'm one hundred percent ready to help you. I want you to be happy, really happy. Don't think you tricked me into believing you are happy, because I know you aren't. Even if I stayed with you for only three hours." the older boy continued with his soft voice, arching his eyebrows. "I know you know you need a change."

Looking down and avoiding eye contact as he felt his anger increasing knowing how right Darryl was, Zak sighed, giving up. It was time for that change he was craving for.