What we do in the Dark

Chapter Two

The light from the room made it hard to open my eyes as I woke up. Closing my eyes tightly I clung to my pillow, wrapping my legs around it and nuzzling my head into the soft plush fabric. Except the fabric wasn't soft, I smacked my head into something hard.

"Ow." My pillow spoke in a raspy morning voice.

"What the f-" my eyes shot open, and I was met with soft black hair.

"Uhh... Jasper." Zev!?

I unwrapped my leg from his hip quickly and moved back a few inches, but Zev had my arm wedged under his. "Y-yes?" Well, this was awkward.

"May I ask why you're spooning me?" He didn't sound uncomfortable, just kinda amused.

Somehow during our nap, Zev had kicked his covers off resulting in us doing whatever this is. "Well, may I ask why you're allowing me to spoon you?" He just laughed.

"Well to be fair I was asleep until you headbutted me." His hair smelt nice.

"Fine, you make a valid point. How are you feeling?" I was worried that maybe he'd feel sick.

"Good actually, I guess the water really helped." He laughed, shifting a bit to sit up. He sat up releasing my arm. He rubbed his eyes. "Actually I do feel kind of nauseous, but I'm sure it's just because I'm hungry." I guess whatever was making his body weak wore off over the few hours we slept.

I sat up next to him. I wonder how he's really feeling about what happened with that guy. I've noticed over the years of our friendship that he has the tendency to bottle things up. "Well do I have a surprise for you." He reached over to the side table to put his glasses on.

He turned back over to me with wide eyes before his lips broke into a smile. "Jasper you- you didn't." It's truly amazing how happy these things make him.

I reached off the bed and into my bookbag. "I did." I pulled out the cookies, and as soon as they were in his field of view, he pounced on me giving me a hug.

"You really are the best." I quickly passed the container to him, and he let go of me. Wow his strength really did come back. He opened the container and started to eat one.

"Zev your sheets are gonna get crumbs on them." This guy, I don't know why I feed his addiction. I quietly laughed.

He looked over at me with a face full of cookies. "Ibt's sfinse." As he spoke crumbs went all over his bed.

I half-lidded my eyes to show my frustration. "Really."

He swallowed before speaking. "Well, we weren't going to sleep here tonight anyway. I was gonna set up the fort, but then..." His voice faded from chirpy to depressed in a second. "But that guy..."

"It's going to be ok." I put my hand on his shoulder. He put the lid back on the cookies and moved them aside. He stared down into his lap where he was holding his hands together.

"Hey," I said softly, shifting so I was in front of him, taking his hands into my own. He closed his eyes and put his head down. His black hair falling around his face.

I looked down at our hands. Seeing the old scars on Zev's wrists almost made me want to cry. They were faded, him being 3 years clean, but I could still see them. I still remember when I found out.

I had known something was up with him but I didn't know him that well at the time so I just didn't interfere. It was when I saw how deep they were getting that I said something. I made him promise me that he'd never hurt himself again.

I know it's not really that simple, but I figured that if he had made me a promise that the next time he went to do it maybe he would remember the promise he made me and distract himself in another way. It was only a month into our friendship, but that whole situation made it stronger.