for him | skephalo, fluff

dumb reasons

I turned as he took his arm off my stomach. I looked at his face. He looked away, but I could see he was crying and his glasses were fogged.

I wonder why he's here.

"What are you doing here, Zak?!" He scolded. "This is a suicide bridge you muffin!"

If he knew this was a suicide bridge then he's here for the same reason. I felt confused. He made plans to hang out tomorrow, so why was he here.

"Was this planned." He mumbled. "We were gonna hang out tomorrow"

I felt angry. "Why were you here then!? Huh!?"

He took a step back, almost stepping into the street. He was taking deep breathes. "Why are you here." He said flipping the question on me.

"Let's talk somewhere else." I suggested. I was mad at him. I led over to the bus stop. I planned this day for so long just for him to stop me.

"What were you doing." He muttered.

"You probably wanted to do the same." I scoffed and looked over at him.

He had his hands in his lap as he watched the car go by.

I just assumed he was doing what I was. "I'll tell you my reason if you tell me yours."

He nodded. So he was here for the same thing. "Well. Life has just gotten hard since high school started. I just feel like living is a chore and I'm just tired of it."

A moment of silence. "That's it?!" His voice high and loud made me jump.

He was starting to get on my nerves. "What's your reason."

He stared at me hurt. I rolled my eyes. "We had a deal." I was started to get annoyed at him. Always having this 'innocent' look in his face.

I saw he started to talk, but stopped. "Go on." I said.

I don't care if I was being rude or making home uncomfortable. He judged my reasons. I'll see if his are good enough.

"My parents." He mumbled. "They hide food from me and only feed me once a week. They abuse me. They threaten to kill me or give me away. They don't accept me."

I saw tears fall from his eyes. He looked at me and smiled. "Pretty dumb, huh?"

"You have friends, don't you?" I asked.

"Not until today." He sighed.

The bus pulled up. We both got on and paid for ourselves. I didn't know how to comfort him. We sat in silence for a bit.

"Don't do that again, okay." I heard him say.

"As long as you don't." I said turning to look out the window. He left out a soft chuckle. That convinced me that he was going to do it again and just didn't want to run into to me again.

"Why did you ask to hang out when you were going to do this." I asked him.

"I'm not sure myself. It felt right, the second I said it the more confused I got." He giggled at his confusion.

"So, are we going to hang out tomorrow?" I asked knowing I didn't want to. I hoped he would say no.

"Sure."

Maybe I should've stayed silent. Saying it felt right. Maybe this is what he felt when he asked to hang out.

"So where are we going?"

I think he thought where the bus is going because he said, "I'm going home."

I heard him sigh made me remember his parents. I felt bad for him. "You can stay at my house for the night."

"Really!" His eyes lit up.

"Why not."

He started talking like he did in computer science. Ranting about random stuff until he got tired of talking. The topics were dumb but he was great at making them interesting.

I started to forget about what happened earlier. About how we both could've left this world.

The bus stopped at 3 locations until it got to ours. We both got down and started making our way from the bus stop to my house. "How long am I staying."

"Not long. You don't have any spare clothes." I told him. I didn't care how long he stayed. My feeling of annoyance that I got from him started to fade. We were having fun.

I pushed open my door to see my sister in the living room. My parents were cooking lunch which seemed to me a salad.

"Hey mom. Can my friend stay here for a few nights. We're not sure how long."

"Sure. As long as his parent are fine with it." She was dicing tomatoes to place in the salad.

I cringed at my mom's words. I saw my sister turn her head and look at Darryl. She gasped. "Darryls staying over?!"

I ignored her. "Let's go to my room." I pulled him upstairs as I watched him wave at Sam. I sat on my bed and he sat on the floor.

"I'm not sure what I want to do." I told him truthfully.

ding

I checked my phone to see a text from Vincent. He was complaining about homework again.

I ignored it. I would ask him if he wanted to hang out but I kind of waited to just hang with Darryl. It was a weird feeling.

"Boys! Lunch."

We raced downstairs and took a seat at the dinner table. Sam saved a seat next to her which she meant for Darryl but I took it instead. Sam gave me a death glare.

"So." My mom started to speak. "Who's your friend."

Sam was twirling around her hair. "His name is Darryl." I looked at him who was staring at his bowl of food.

"Are your parents okay with you staying here, Darryl?"

We both looked up at each other. He nodded and looked back down at his food.

"Is that a yes?"

I placed my hand on his arm out of instinct. He looked up at me. He nodded to my mom again. My dad looked at my hand on Darryl's arm and cleared his throat.

I took my hand off his arm and continued eating.

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Thank you for reading part 3 :)
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