Metanoia.「skephalo」

17 | Addictions.

He regretted doing such a stupid thing. Yet he was addicted to it, still to those days.
Pathetic.

"Boop." Zak softly poked Darryl's cheek with his index finger, making him snap back into reality.

The older boy lightly flinched and quickly traveled with his eyes from the sheets then back at Junior, with a lost and sorry look on his face, trying to understand what Zak could have possibly said or asked him, in vain.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry, I spaced out." admitted, stopping his eyes on him, who was smiling slightly at his reaction.

"I know, that's why I booped your cheek." pointed out giggling softly, covering his mouth with his sleeve. "While you were lost in your world full of muffins, I asked you if I did this right." explained, sliding the sheet he was working on towards Darryl, and placing the same finger he used to poke his cheek on a specific exercise.

Darryl quickly ran his eyes on the piece of paper, carefully analyzing the calculation, seconds later finishing, he looked up at Zak smiling.

"It is." proudly announced, widening his smile.

The short boy had been struggling on that type of exercises for the whole two hours they've been studying, and finally got it right.

"Really?" asked, his voice pitch took off. "You're trolling. There's now way I did it." he let himself fall against the back of his chair, without looking away from him.

"You really did! I'm so proud of you, little muffin." exclaimed, messing his hair up.

Zak giggled softly, then rose his arms in the air accompanied by a small victorious sound.

'God, how can someone be so cute...' thought Darryl, admiring the short boy's smile.

"Oh shoot," he murmured right after checking the time from the older boy's phone wich was laying on the table. "It's getting super late, I should go." added, giving a fast glance at him, looking then back down.

"You don't have to, after all we still have more than one hour before your training starts."

"Are you sure I'm not a bother? Both for you and for your roommate?" Zak asked arching his eyebrows and fixing his hair passing a hand through it.

"Of course you aren't! Actually, you're the opposite. I like staying with you, Zak." admitted, giving him a sincere smile.

Stunned by both his words and smile, the short boy couldn't help but feel appreciated for once. Didn't last long, though. His smile faded away quickly.

'Lies.'

"Thank you, I guess..." muttered, looking back down. "By the way, now that i think about it, I never saw your roommate." pointed out, desperately changing topic.

"Oh, right. He rarely stays here, he always stays over his boyfriend's house. I don't even know why he's still here, to be honest." explained shrugging, not even thinking too much about it.

Zak got instantly sick at the word 'Boyfriend', almost feeling stabbed by it. He didn't hate gay people. He really didn't. But he felt obligated to.

"Oh, cool." murmured avoiding eye contact by packing his belongings up.

Darryl didn't seem to notice the small change in Zak's expression and behavior. Was it a good or a bad thing?
Who knows.

Most likely bad.

"Hey, why don't you stay over for dinner?" the blonde boy excitedly asked, leaning towards him.