Metanoia.「skephalo」

33 | Back together.

Zak's dark chocolate eyes widened as they rested on the familiar, pale and bandaged hand stretched out on his side, steady in midair.
Without hesitating another second, he abruptly turned towards the owner, speechless at the sight of a tired but smiley Darryl, all dressed up into a black suit and a red tie.

The short boy didn't lose any second checking him out, and immediately threw himself into his arms as he squealed Darryl's name.

"Oh my God! Tell me I'm not dreaming and you're actually here, please." he nearly sobbed, his face buried in the small space in the between of his neck and shoulder and his legs wrapped around the blonde boy's waist.

"I'm here, Zak. I'm here." the other softly replied, reassuringly caressing his back. "I'm so, so sorry... I really am. Forgive me, please..." he begged, holding into the smaller boy.

"I forgive you." Zak whispered before partially breaking the hug, his hand now cupping Darryl's face. "You're here now, it's all that matters."

Their foreheads leaned onto each other, and only then the raven-haired boy noticed the dark circles under his eyes, evidencing his shiny emeralds.

At Zak's soft smile widening across his lips, Darryl's lower lip started to tremble lightly.

"Oh, God." Darryl murmured, hugging back the younger boy and carefully tightening his arms around him, afraid to lose him. "You have no idea how much I love you, you muffin top..."

Only after sighing happily and after lifting his eyes up Zak noticed Harvey standing not too far away from them, all smiley and proud. In fact, he immediately mouthed 'I told u.' as he rose two thumbs up.
Before he could turn on himself and make his way back to the school gym, the Junior thanked him with a grateful smile.

"I can't help but excuse myself, Zak..." he felt Darryl's warm breath slam against his ear, his voice sounding agonizingly mortified. "I was so scared and... Ashamed of myself. I just wanted to disappear, and I acted so selfishly thinking only about myself that I left you behind in position way worse than mine..."

"It's okay, really." the younger replied, his voice squeaking slightly. His small hand caressed his head through his blonde hair. "I understand."

The two didn't want to let go of each other, both too scared to lose the other as soon as they would break the hug.

"What you said yesterday was awesome. I'm so proud of you." the older suddenly mumbled, caressing softly Zak's back.

Starting off with a confused frown, the baseball player widened his eyes and partially parted the hug.
Their eyes met immediately, and he fought not to lose himself into his emerald ones.

"You- You were there?!" his squeaky voice questioned as his eyebrows furrowed ulteriorly.

"Oh, I thought you saw... A lot of people filmed your speech and posted it on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat..." Darryl explained, halting a moment to move a tuft of raven hair away from Zak's eyes.

"And a lot of people also tagged me under the videos and in the comments section to make me see it. Most of them were telling me not to let go of an awesome and brave human being like you..." he continued with a soft and loving smile printed on his lips, nonetheless, his eyes didn't resist and wandered away from his chocolate ones. "And only then I realized how dumb and useless hiding in my room was."

Zak arched his eyebrows as he smiled softly at his explanation, then cupped his face with his cold hands again.

"Hey..." he reassuringly started, waiting for Darryl to look back at him before continuing. "You needed time for yourself, it's not dumb at all." his smile widened. "I love you, okay?"