Jealousy Kills | SkepHalo |

Chapter 11

It had barely even been a minute before a girl had entered the room with my friend's belongings. It was a girl I knew-- Finn. Or was his name Rose? At this point I don't know- he's the cross-dresser (and really rocks the e-girl look, not gonna lie). For the sake of my breaking sanity, I'm just going to stick to calling him Finn from now on. Well, at least that's what I always say. I'm still conflicted. He glanced around the room quickly, before settling eyes on the two of us. Darryl and I had been in the middle of a conversation before she came in, pausing it to see who was at the door. It didn't bother me at first, but the way she winked at him made me inexplicably uncomfortable. She did that to everyone- pretty much just a flirt to the boys of our grade, but when she did it to Darryl it just makes me angry for some reason. You know what that means! Shove your thoughts reaaaal deep and try not to think about it. That was my answer to every bad thought I have, and I think others relate to it too. Finn plopped Darryl's backpack onto the infirmary bed and smiled. "Hey Darryl, hey Zak." He greeted us both with a wave.

I didn't reply back, for once in my life I was afraid I'd audibly sound annoyed with her presence. Darryl, on the other hand, was just being a darling about it. His eyes seemed to shimmer as he smiled. "Hey Rose!" Even as he held an ice-pack to his injured face, it seemed like he didn't have a care in the world. It was admirable. At this point I was just staring at him, I think he noticed too because his face got all red. It's so weird, like this happens all the time. Whenever we end up staring at each other or even make eye-contact, he just.. gets all flustered. To admit, I do the same. It's so awkward unconsciously staring at people. Was he embarrassed too? I would just be uncomfortable to be honest with you.

Finn just seemed to look between the two of us before smirking. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, as I wasn't ever really good with communication or reading people. "What?" I asked defensively, my heart was stinging, waiting for a response.

"Nothing." Finn replied quickly, which I took as a bad thing. Bad for her, I mean. Finn got up and left, finally (no pun intended). I frowned and furrowed my eyebrows, still trying to decode this.. message. It was quiet, but then I heard giggling from beside me. I turned to look at Darryl- who was laughing at me. My current expression switched to a confused one, before I went to repeat myself.

"What?" I pouted, staring expectantly.

"It's just," He ran his hand through his dirty-blond hair before continuing, "you're doing a..." he pointed at my hand, which I was resting my chin on. The hoodie sleeve was pulled over, something you'd usually see a girl do. It was something I did quite frequently, sometimes when I would laugh a lot I'd do it and cover my mouth. I never really considered it too weird before, but now I realize this probably looks embarrassing. "You're doing a thing with your hands.. and your sweater." He finally spit it out, bursting into laughter when I moved my arms down.

"Shut up!" I got all flustered at this point, looking away with a clear look of frustrated embarrassment printed on my face. Wonderful, he probably thinks I'm weird. To be fair, I am... Well, I considered myself average, but we had interesting humor. (Psst. by 'we' I mean me and my friends in the idot group chat!)

"Nooo," he dragged out his o's in a sort of childish tone. "I think it's cute!" He was still snickering, but silence filled the room fast when we both realize what had been said. At first I wasn't going to say anything, but I've had enough of this fluff today. I lightly punched his arm- and I mean lightly. As if he might break like fine-china if I hit too hard. He was still recovering from his weird... nervous-system attack thing. I guess he still might.

"C'mon dude! Don't be weird." I had a grin on my face, and we were giggling together like a bunch of school-girls. This is what love was, probably. Not romantic, but strong friendship love. The feeling that haunts you when you go to bed but you don't mind. This person is practically at the center of your life. Was Darryl the sun to my solar system? Not really. Not yet, anyway. If he keeps acting like such an enjoyable dork, then maybe I'll admire him enough. I still love my family more-- I unconsciously flinched at that thought, but kept going-- and I always will. Unfortunately, the door slammed open again to break me from my thoughts, and from our giggling-session. I looked to the door.

It was no one I knew at first glance. The woman looked to be in her mid-40's -- it was apparent on her face. Her hair was bleach-blonde, and she looked to be wearing a business suit. I was about to assume this was a new staff (my school has been looking for a while now), but I noticed something about her eyes. Bright blue, as if they had stayed the same since she was born (have you ever seen a baby's eyes before?). It looked like something out of a magazine, which is why I immediately realized that this was Darryl's mother.

Darryl looked to be embarrassed sitting in bed, so he swung his shoes to the floor and stood up. He grabbed his stuff and shuffled over to his mom. She hugged him as a normal mother would when her child was in danger. It was a wholesome sight, but I felt uncomfortable sitting by an empty bed, so I focused on getting up. Not a hard task.

They were talking quietly to each other, his mom said something about going home and Darryl was assuring her he was okay. My smile appeared and then dispelled quickly. I wasn't upset by the sight, but my mind was racing on about how awkward this interaction was. I was just staring and smiling at the two of them. This would be a bad first impression. Darryl's mother- Mrs. Noveschosch, seemed to not care for my presence. Honestly, that was better than being friendly to me. I wasn't ready to meet his parents yet-- Vincent doesn't even know mine (maybe that was for a reason)! She did glare daggers at the nurses-- it wasn't their fault- but I have a feeling she said all she had to say on phone. "Let's go," she pat her son on the shoulder and lead the way out the door.

Darryl acknowledged the last of my existence for today, saying "See you tomorrow, Zak!" and heading for the door. He was leaving? Already? but we hadn't finished our talk! I wanted him to stay, today would be so boring- I might as well just be sad for the rest of today, even with Vincent around-- not the point! I needed to say something- anything, so that he would just look at me or something.

"Darryl, wait!"

Well, it worked. He was looking at me now with those beautiful emerald eyes. I should take a picture, it'll last longer. Not now. Tomorrow. Oh shoot-- I had called to him, I have to stop getting lost. I cleared my throat a bit, thinking of something on the fly. "Text me after school, alright?" I asked, moving the chair back to the table where it belonged.

"Okay." And then he left. Fair enough, I had to get to class anyway.

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Word count: 1324 words

Sorry for a late update. Wattpad was having connection problems for HOURS when I originally wanted to post :( My story wasn't saving so I didn't want to risk it. Now's a good time to mention that I will be updating more since I just finished an animation I had been working on for about a week, so I'll have more time to update. Another thing I just feel like mentioning is that when I make notes or 'word counts' at the end of my chapter, it isn't included in the final total words. I feel obligated to say that lol