•0•0•

Zak stared at the message in silent shock, a feeling of crushing rejection starting to slowly creep in as he tried to take in what his long-time crush had just messaged him.

Zak took a deep breath and responded as nonchalantly as he could.

''

He deleted the sentence and came to the conclusion that would be a horrible, terrible, did I mention horrible- idea.

Zak rolled his eyes at Bad's indignant message before replying sassily.

Zak felt himself go slightly red at the heart Bad left on the end of his text, but brushed it off as Bad's weirdly touching way of showing platonic affection.

Zak still had to grasp the fact that Bad wasn't into him - it hurt, a lot. He'd always expected that he wouldn't be into him but there was a tiny little bit of hope in him, and now that he's 100% sure that Bad wasn't into him, he was crushed beyond words.

Shaking his head and ridding himself of Gay Thoughts™️, he looked at his clock and realised that is was 12:00am: on a school night.

'Ah shit, my mom will whoop my ass if I'm late to school tomorrow,' he thought mutely.'

He did his usual nightly routine and went to bed before his parents would figure out his questionable consciousness at such a late hour.

•0•0•

Darryl wandered idly into his Math classroom and sat down in his usual seat, glancing at his recently realised crush on the other side of the room. His black hair was slightly messy but somehow still attractive, a blue hoodie that matched his bandana were worn carelessly, with a charming personality to match.

His crush glanced in his direction and Darryl tore his adoring gaze away from him in alarmed panic, before rubbing his eyes and taking a deep breath, flopping his head onto his desk.

Turning his head around, he looked back at Zak - who was now talking to his friend, Vincent - his bandana was haphazardly wrapped around his eyes along with black bracelets adorned all over his wrists.

His mindless thinking was interrupted by a snap of fingers in front of his face with a quiet mantra of, "Darryl? Darrryyylll?? Earth to Darryl? Are you there?"

Darryl shook his head and his eyes met with the familiar face of his long-time friend, Dream.

"Oh - hi Dream! I guess I just zoned out," he replied, lying through his teeth and looking everywhere except at the boy in front of him. Dream looked at Darryl suspiciously, before laying his eyes on Zak and smirking deviously at Darryl.

"You like Zak, right?" He asked, coming across as more of a statement than a question. Darryl felt himself go red and buried his face into his hands. Smiling in bemusement, Dream put a comforting hand on Darryl's shoulder.

"Not gonna lie, Darry, it was kinda obvious."

Darryl muttered something unintelligible and looked back up at Dream, "Whatever, just don't tell him or anything - I don't really think he's into me..."

Taking a sneaky glance at Zak, he looked back at his flustered friend and smiled maliciously. He nonchalantly began to stride over to Zak and his friend.

In alarm, Darryl stood up and grabbed at Dream's green jacket and yanked him back over to his desk.

"Are you insane?! I'll be made a laughing stock for the entire rest of my days in this place! And Zak will totally hate me - he doesn't even know me!" He whisper-yelled at Dream, shaking him furiously by the shoulders.

•0•0•

Zak yawned tiredly before returning to his conversation with his best friend - though he was barely paying attention. His mind was still preoccupied with the events that had occurred last night.

His eyes wandered over the classroom and his gaze met with emerald green eyes framed with large, rectangular glasses staring shyly at him under a head of blondish-brown hair, before the other frantically looked away and left Zak looking at the boy in curiosity.

"-And then the baguette pingspoofed 14 times as I was th- hey are you even listening to me?" Vincent asked, looking at Zak before following his gaze and noticing the boy he was staring at. He looked suspiciously at his friend before realising -

"Oh my God you like him-"

"VINCENT! Shut up, I have a crush on someone else," He whispered the last part under his breath and glowered at the taller boy. Vincent chuckled at Zak's indignant babbling as he attempted to justify his staring at the other boy.

The bell rang, signifying the class had started and the teacher walked in as everyone frantically sat down in their seats; pulling out their notebooks and pencil cases.

•0•0•

Lunch time rolled around and Darryl sat down, pulling out his phone to see a text from his internet friend.

He turned his phone off and sighed in

exasperation. Dream looked at him in curiosity as Darryl put his phone in his pocket.

"Were you talking to your crush, damn I didn't know you guys were that close already-"

"Nope, no - that's where I stop you right there Dream, that was just a friend of mine," Darryl replied back, giving Dream a deadpan glare and crossing his arms.

Dream nodded at Darryl, "Okay Darry, I gotcha there, I see you're still pining from afar-"

"Oh my goodness, shut up Dream," Darryl muttered as a blush crept on his face.

•0•0•

Zak stuffed his phone into his hoodie pocket and slumped onto the table and whined. Looking up from his phone, Vincent stared at Zak's slumped form before he opened his mouth to talk.

"Zak? What's wrong, did something happen to you?" He shook Zak's shoulders gently and Zak groaned quietly before sitting up and looking up at Vincent tearfully.

"Bad likes someone else."

Vincent blinked once before comprehending what Zak had just said.

"Wait- wait wait wait wait wait, Bad has a crush on somebody else?" Vincent asked, before banging his hand gently on the table and whispering, "Damn it," under his breath.

Nodding sadly, Zak went back to slumping over the table while Vincent mentally died inside with the knowledge that his ship had sunk.

Zak shook his head and sat up straight, sighing in exasperation. "I can't force him who to love, Vince - and I suppose it's my fault for never telling Bad in the first place. I guess I've just gotta move on."

Vincent looked up at Zak and gave him a gentle pat on the back.

"I'm proud of you, Zak - you're taking this really well," He said, smiling reassuringly at his friend.

•0•0•

Last period rolled around and Darryl glanced at his notes on Shakespeare, then up at Zak, who was seated in front of him.

'Man, I'm never going to be able to confess to him - he wouldn't like me,' he thought to himself sourly, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head to ignore the nagging thought of rejection in the back of his head.

He opened his eyes and attempted to pay attention to the class, but he caught himself staring back at Zak - that's when he realised that Zak was typing quickly on his phone under his desk, then discreetly tapping the '' button.

As soon as Zak and tapped the send button, he heard a ping come from his pocket and the entire class turned their heads to look at him - the teacher already striding towards him to confiscate the offending item.

Darryl took out his phone and placed it in the hand of the teacher, looking down at his desk awkwardly as to not meet anyone's eye.

Little did he know...

•0•0•

Zak looked in bewilderment at the blondish-brown haired kid from before as he heard the notification ping of a text sound from his pocket.

'That's odd, I sent that message to Bad. What a coincidence...' Zak thought to himself, keeping his eyes on the boy as he looked down at his desk - red as a tomato.

'Aww, cute.'

Frantically, he shook his head and turned around, looking down at his phone again, before sneaking it back into his pocket without trying to alert the teacher.

He glanced behind him and saw the cute nerd kid looking up from his desk and accidentally making eye contact with him, before he turned away and looked away, muttering a quiet, "sorry," under his breath.

'Dang he has a cute voice- No! I have to snap out of it. I don't even know his name,' Zak mentally scolded himself, trying to rationalise out his Gay Thoughts™️. He lifted his head up and tried to pay attention to the class.

•0•0•

Darryl ran up to his room and collapsed onto his bed as he took out his phone, scanning over the text he had gotten during class.

It was from Skeppy. Who else?

He sighed as he typed out his response.

Darryl found himself remembering the fact that he got Skeppy's text while Zak had sent a text to somebody. Instead of pondering on it more, he brushed it off as a coincidence and replied to Skeppy's text.

Darryl blinked slowly, trying to comprehend what Skeppy had just said.

He thought about the possibility of this method working, which was next to 0, but he decided to give it a chance. Wasn't like Zak was going to say yes, in any form of confession Darryl decided to give him.

Darryl sighed and put his head face-down onto his pillow.

'Oh my goodness, why on Earth did I agree to listen to Skeppy?' He thought to himself, turning over and putting an arm over his eyes - trying to think of what to do.

He wasn't particularly fond of the idea of lying to Skeppy, he sucked in a breath and decided his next course of action.

'Ok, I know what I'm going to do.'

•0•0•

Zak walked into school at the bustling time of 8:00am and shoved a few books into his locker, turning around and starting his search for Vincent. That is, until he felt a hesitant tap on his shoulder.

He turned around, expecting his friend Vincent, but he looked up and met the familiar emerald eyes of the cute boy in his English and Math class.

The boy stared down at his feet nervously, clasping his hands together - then bravely looked up and gazed back into Zak's deep brown eyes.

The boy opened his mouth to speak-

•0•0•

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry about this - this may be coming out of nowhere...Hey, my name is Darryl and I think I've had a crush on you for awhile - You-you're probably not into guys and I'm so sorry this came out of nowhere but I just had to somehow resolve the feeling of emptiness in my heart and I think, I think you could fill it..." Darryl ended quietly, silently looking into the other boy's eyes - waiting nervously for Zak's response.

Zak clasped both of Darryl's hands, taking Darryl by surprise, gasping softly.

"BadBoyHalo," Zak whispered quietly.

Darryl heard his breathe hitch and his eyes widen as his Minecraft username was mentioned.

"S-Skeppy?" He muttered, connecting the dots in his head as he suddenly made the realisation.

Before he could fully comprehend what revelation he had just had, he felt Zak reach up to his sweater and pull him down to kiss him. It was sweet and chaste, ending as quickly as it started - much to Darryl's disappointment.

"I-it's you! You can't believe how long I've wanted to do that!" Zak squealed, hugging Darryl tightly and placing a harmless peck on his chest.

Darryl felt like he was in a dream, he stared down at Zak and hugged him back gently, laying his head on Zak's fluffy hair.

And then the bell rang.

,