the prince and the peasant | skephalo | DISCONTINUED

balancing friendships

~Darryl's POV~

He notices me. He pushes through the crowd of kids that surrounded him.

"Darryl!" Zak says happily to me. He walked toward me, shocking the other kids.

"Skeppy? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at school?" I ask him.

"I'm on lunch break. I came here to talk to you, where's Vincent?" He asks me.

"Oh, erm, Vincent needs some time alone," I tell him. He nods.

"Oh. I just came to ask where you were yesterday, I waited all night for you, and you know how creepy graveyards are at night," he tells me.

"Sorry about that. Vincent came over and took me to this place, and I ended up falling asleep there," he nods once more.

"I just came here to ask. I'll see you after school, m'kay?"

"Sure. See you later,"

He smiles softly at me. "Bye!" He waves goodbye and walks away. The other kids stare, stunned, surprised that the prince had just talked to me, a poor peasant boy.

I start to walk away too, in hopes to find Vincent. I forget all about my tray that I left in the cafeteria, I figured to apologize to the cleaners later since I felt guilty for making them clean it up.

I look around, everywhere in halls. Vincent was nowhere to be seen. I even check the classrooms. Some empty, a few with teachers planning something.

The last place I thought to check was the boys' bathroom. I slowly open the door and hear small sniffles come from a stall.

"Vincent?" I call out.

The sniffles become silent. I walk over to the only closed stall and knock.

"Are you ok?"

I wasn't sure if it was Vincent or not, but either way I wanted to help this crying kid either way. I hear the sound of clothing shifting.

"Go away," A voice mumbled. It was Vincent's.

I frowned. I knew Vincent was probably crying because of me. "I'll leave you alone if you tell me what I did,"

The stall creeks open, revealing Vincent sitting on the seat of the toilet with teary eyes. His ears and cheeks were both red, and his eyebrows were furrowed, giving me an angry expression. I bend down in front of Vincent and look him face to face. He looks away, embarrassed. I use my fingers to wipe his running tears. I wrap my hand around his cheek, he snuggled close to it. I hope that means he forgives me.

"Tell me what I did," I say.

He stays silent for a few seconds. "I'm scared," he whimpers.

"Scared? About what?" I say trying to make my voice sound as calming as it can be.

He finally makes eye contact with me. He has a hurt look in his eyes. "I'm scared you're going to replace me with Zak,"

"What? Of course I'm not going to replace you, you muffinhead!" I say a bit taken aback, "I've already told you this yesterday,"

He stares at me, blinking rapidly. "You've just been hanging out with him so much. And he knows things about you I don't even know,"

"That's not true! You know everything about me! I tell you everything," I reassure him, even if it's only half true.

He smiles. Vincent takes a deep breath, he's close to talking, but he gets interrupted by the sound of the bell ringing. I stand up. "Now come on, let's go to class,"

Vincent frowned silently until getting up again. We walk together to class in an uncomfortable silence. "Sorry for earlier, I was acting moody," he apologizes.

"It's fine, we all get moody sometimes,"

He giggles, "Yeah," he pauses for a second before talking again, "Darryl, um. Do you maybe wanna hangout again after school,"

Now I had to make a choice. Vincent or Zak.

I know it would've been better to hangout with Vincent, especially after I reassured him many times that I'm not replacing him, but it was smarter to choose Zak. Vincent doesn't know I promised to hangout with Zak. I can't break a promise to make a new one, so to save both of my friendships I'll just tell Vincent no and tell him that I'm helping my parents today. It was lying, but I already promised Zak.

I frown while I look at Vincent. "I'm sorry," I say in a sincere tone, "I'm planning on helping my parents on the farm today,"

He nods, his face painted with disappointment. We take our seat in class. I sigh, feeling guilty for lying to my friend.

Class carries on. We only had 2 more classes until we were done with school for the day. In those two classes I chose to reflect on the past few days. I felt like a horrible friend to Vincent. He thought I was replacing him, which shocked me.

I figured that maybe, if I give a day for Zak and Vincent to hangout without me, maybe we can be one big friend group. Like a trio.

Then again, Vincent seemed to not like Zak, which was shocking. Who wouldn't like Zak? Every time I brought up Zak's name, Vincent would just get silent. Maybe he was just jealous or shy.

I stare blankly at the walls while playing with my hair. I've felt so much happier spending time with Zak, but I wondered how I was making Vincent feel.

I thought back to the day Zak and I invited Vincent to hangout with us at the graveyard. He was silent and tense the whole time. Maybe because Zak was the prince? But he's always awkward and tense around me. Last time I tried to talk about it with him, he basically ignored me.

Maybe he doesn't like me anymore. But he told me that he loved me at the flower field. I groaned in confusion and hid my face in my arms.

———

After school, I say my goodbyes to Vincent and rush over to the graveyard. I sit on the pile of grass where Zak and I usually met at.

After a couple of minutes, I see Zak. He sees me and walks over to me excitedly. "Darryl!" He giggled.

"Skeppy!" I said said back.

He hugged me. "I missed you," he tells me.

I giggle again. "I leave for one day and you act like I died,"

"I thought you did! It gets so lonely without you. Everyone on this earth is boring except you,"

"Aw! Thank you Skeppy!" I say bringing him back for another hug. He laughed.

He grabs my wrist and leads me somewhere. "Where you taking me?" He giggles a little and turns to look at me.

"I think it's time I fulfill that promise I made with you all those years ago," he says, his voice modulated, filling my ears with a good sense.

"What do you mean?" I ask as he continues to walk me around.

"I'm taking you to the castle, silly!"

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Thank you for reading part 7 :)

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Words: 1182