egodeath

22

3rd person
     Darryl drove in silence trying to calm the tears flowing freely down his face. He was halfway to his parents house, a little under an hour away, the colors in the sky blending, showing him that this was an ungodly hour to drive. The regret started to sink in. He mentally slapped himself for leaving his friend. Zak's face full of hurt and confusion was burnt into his vision as he stared at the empty road ahead. Fuck. But he wasn't in a good enough place to be there either. This was quite the predicament, but he knew he had to stay away at least for a few days to cool off.

     He poked around the screen on the dashboard for a few seconds before the ringing of the loudspeaker filled the vile silence in the car.

     "Bad, what the hell do you know what time it is?" He heard Dream groan as well as the ruffling sounds of his bed sheets as he stretched and sat up to take the call. With this guilt of everything that had just happened and now this, Darryl just sniffled, strangling a cry that was about to escape his lips.

     "Bad? Hey it's alright I wasn't even really sleeping anyway, I was just talking to George and Sapnap," still just silence. Dream sighed into the mic of his phone, "Talk to me Bad, what happened."

     Darryl's knuckles whitened as his grip on the steering wheel tightened. Forcing himself to speak up, he called for a reason, well it was kind of auto drive, he wasn't sure why he had called. But he wasn't about to sit here like a silent idiot.

     "Bad?"

     "Yeah, sorry, I just- So much happened tonight," He sighed, "I didn't think before I called, I just- I don't- I was just driving and then- I don't know-"

     Dream shushed him cutting his panicked rambling off. "Well we're here now right? Just talk to me." Darryl could hear the comforting smile through Dreams words, although he couldn't even see his face.

     "I just thought he was finally getting better. I thought we were doing so well," Suddenly Darryl felt anger, not really at Zak, more at himself for being so blind, "Then I caught him after dinner, two fingers down his throat. And he was shirtless. Fuck Dream, he looks like a corpse."

     Dream winced at the visuals. Uncomfortable at hearing someone else's personal struggles behind their back. Sure he'd spoken to Darryl and Zak a couple of times. When Zak was at the hospital the first time they spoke about it a tiny bit, hard not to. But besides that, they stuck to less heavy conversations.

     "How is he doing?" Dream broke the awkward silence that had taken over the call momentarily.

     "I don't know, hopefully resting."

     "Wait you're not with him?" Dream cut in quickly.

     After a few moments and a deep breath, "No, I'm on my way to my parents house, I just need some time."

     "You left him there alone?"

      "Don't say it like that, you're making me feel worse than I already feel."

     "I mean... it's a pretty bad situation. But I understand. You're both adults, you're not responsible for him even though you're best friends. Your mental health matters too." Dream tried to reason, trying to push away the slight irritation he felt knowing Darryl ran away, but on the other hand he couldn't really blame him. Months of believing Zak's lies. Neither of them was to blame though.

"How could he do this to me Dream?" Darryl said through a cry.

"He didn't do anything to you, sure it hurt to see but, he's doing this all to himself," Dream said as calmly as possible, not wanting to set the other off.