Metanoia.「skephalo」

01 | Conditions.

Zak winced pretty bad as his best friend's hand leaned on his shoulder, taking him away from his deep thoughts.

"Mh?" he hummed with a note of confusion, turning his head towards Vincent who was returning the glance with a concerned expression.

"Dude, are you okay? You're spacing out." the foreign boy pointed out with his thick French accent.

After staring at him for a pair of seconds, Zak brought his hoodie's sleeves, which covered his hands all the way up to the fingers, on his face, following the motion with a tired sigh.

"I'm..." the Junior started, his voice muffled by his hands.

Not finding an excuse for the second time that day, he sighed again, letting his hands slip away from his face.
Zak glanced back again at Vincent, who was patiently waiting for an answer with a light reassuring smile.

"I'm... not. I... I don't know, can we talk about this later?" he asked uneasily, hugging himself in discomfort. "I really don't want more unwanted attention, especially after what happened last year with those freaks of the school journal."

With an understanding nod, his friend agreed with him murmuring an 'Of course.' as he gently patted his shoulder before letting it slip off.
Thanking Vincent with a forced smile, the boy in blue looked back in front of him, getting back lost in his thoughts.

Time passed way faster than Zak expected it to, and without actually realizing it, he found himself in the queue of students waiting to purchase their lunch in the cafeteria.

Food was something that always disgusted him.
He would force himself to buy lunch because of Vincent, his worry and pressure on the short boy were already suffocating, and Zak really didn't want to involve him in his personal problems, especially now that the French boy looked happy.

Staring at the floor's funny patterns, his thoughts drifted on the party that was going to take place the same night. He really wanted to go, have fun, forget about everything bad happening to him, but memories stopped him to do so.

After sighing, Zak looked back up and let his eyes wandering around the cafeteria in search of Zelk, while the uncomfortable sensation of being stared at made him shiver.

As the Junior attempted to glance behind him as an attempt to discover the perp, the old lady behind the counter who was serving food recalled his attention with an annoyed 'Next.', causing him to flinch and turn his head back forward.

Choosing the food, and trying his best not to scrunch his face into a disgusted expression, Zak immediately forgot about the eyes on him and paid for the meal that consisted of one apple, a packaged salad and a can of soda.

Staking the items above the other, the boy in blue headed towards his usual table where Vincent, Dave, and Finn were already eating at, chatting and joking around.

As soon he got closer, the sensation of someone's eyes on him reappeared, this time followed by the feeling of something off. Something or someone was missing.

Frowning to himself, the boy in blue walked mildly faster.

Out of the corner of the eye, he cached a familiar figure storming towards him, and his reflexes as an abused kid, made him flinch pretty badly causing to the apple on the top of the other food to fall and roll on the ground.