Metanoia.「skephalo」

22 | Happiness.

"Grand slam by our number fourteen! There's actually a chance of winning this match now! We're back in the game, boys!" a cheerful young voice shouted through the amplifiers, followed by raising screams and yells caused by the fans on the stands, who all stood up simultaneously jumping and fluttering their flags.

Zak jogged towards the last base gradually gaining speed and did a somersault on it, opening his arms wide towards the stands right after, as he always did after every good action.

His eyes didn't even bother to navigate through the excited sea of people jumping on the stands, as they usually did, but immediately landed on Darryl, who was smiling proudly at him while shouting cheerfully along the crowd.
A real and genuine smile grew on the short boy's lips, who got wrapped by his teammates arms without notice seconds later, making him panic inside, but giggle on the outside.

"You did it Skeppy!" the asian sophomore shouted, followed by other congratulations from the other teammates.

"I told you, Harvey!" Zak replied, chuckling at one of the boys messing his hair up.

The Junior hated being touched and especially hugged, the fact that multiple people were doing so was doing nothing but making him feel sicker at every second passing.
Human contact was something Zak struggled with for all his life, it made him feel caged, suffocated and... contaminated.
The only person he was able to be with, free from those bulky feelings, was Darryl. He loved being wrapped in the Senior long and comfortable arms, burying his face into his chest filling his nostrils with his sweet and soft scent, and... god, he loved the feeling of his slender fingers running through his hair.

Zak kept questioning himself why he felt that way only with Darryl, and never found an reasonable answer.
The lack of understanding on what he was feeling, built up a lot of confusion and insecurity, getting worse as time passed.

"Alright guys, let's destroy their asses for real, this time." Skeppy exclaimed, looking up at his teammates who were still hugging him. "We have one last inning, we can do this!"

The boys cheerfully shouted in agreement, and unwrapping their arms from Zak's shoulders, they jogged towards their defensive positions on the field, while the Junior stayed still, glaring at Dave and Finn which stared with despise at the small group for the whole time, while standing as far as they could.
Thinning his eyes at them and turning on himself on the opposite side, he looked at Darryl once again, not sure what he was expecting to get.
The Senior started to gesture with his hands as soon as Zak's eyes landed on him, widening his sweet smile.

«You're doing amazing.» he said through the sign language, giving him two thumbs up once completing the phrase.

The Junior couldn't help but smile at the Darryl's sweetness, it was incredible how he would always find a way to make him feel better, and especially, appreciated.
Nodding in response at his signs, Skeppy turned on himself and got in position, ready to destroy the adversaries.

Somehow, Darryl made him forget about his father verdict, and it was much better that way.

'I'm gonna win for him.'

The opponent team gained four points, and managed to eliminate all of Zak's teammates, leaving them with a little to no chance of winning, since they were under of five points.

"Shit, this ain't going as I was hoping." the captain murmured to himself, waiting on the bench for his turn with the last teammate remaining.

Dave and Finn were always the firsts catchers, and Skeppy still wasn't able to tell if they kept getting eliminated purposely or not.
Still, he was way too stressed and overwhelmed to care about it, but he would for sure take actions if that game would end up with a defeat.