the breakup [skephalo]

[22] The Operation

a/n: ELLO READERS

trigger warnings: strong language, references to abuse

THE BREAKUP, ch. 22
Fourth period was really awkward for Zak. He sat right next to Darryl and could literally feel the resentment rolling off of the boy. Messing with his own hair, Zak awkwardly stared at his phone throughout the entire class period.

When lunch finally rolled around, Zak noticed that Darryl sat away from the table. Brianna sat with Darryl so he didn't feel alone. Skeppy felt a general frustration from his whole friend group towards himself, so he was pretty uneasy for the rest of lunch.

Eventually, it was gym. That's when it happened.

"Yo!" Jacob shouted out, bringing both Darryl and Zak's attention to him. The boys were in the locker room, putting on shorts and T-Shirts. They noticed that Jacob had his phone in his hand and was staring at it.

Zak immediately rushed to Jacob's side, his heart racing at whatever he could be looking at. "What?" He asked frantically, unsure if one of his friends started more drama about the situation. Anyone would be able to tell that he was overwhelmed by all of it, which was probably why he was acting so anxious about it all.

The phone in Jacob's hand showed Dave's Snapchat story. It was a video with a couple cops escorting Alice out of the classroom. The text on the video read; "ayo i think alice is getting in trouble".

"Do you think she's being arrested?" Darryl questioned him in confusion.

Zak shook his head. "No, Mr Brown said that the whole situation is up to the district right now. I'm pretty sure it only has to go to the police if either one of us presses charges, which I'm not going to," He explained to his friends.

"Why the hell wouldn't you press charges?" Jacob snapped. "Dude, this girl fucking abused you and you literally have clear evidence of her doing it! You should put Alice behind bars."

Zak scoffed. "First of all, Alice is a minor, I doubt she'll be put behind any bars," He pointed out. "Second of all, even with evidence, the odds don't work in my favor at all. The principal literally told me the chances of Alice being guilty, the statistics aren't helpful one bit."

Darryl was taken aback. "Statistics?"

"Odds?" Jacob added.

"Dude, she... she hit you! What does that have to do with statistics?!" Darryl argued in anger. Even though he was currently upset with Zak, he still cared about the fact that Alice hurt him. Deep down he still loved Zak and he wanted to get revenge on her.

Zak shook his head. "I don't know!" He shouted back. "I seriously don't know guys, okay? All I remember is Mr Brown telling me that 96% of domestic violence cases have male perpetrators. Even if I'm in the 4%, they're definitely not going to be that harsh on Alice considering that she's a rich 16 year old white girl that has daddy's money."

Jacob sighed. "He's right," He murmured to Darryl. "She's rich. Even if the charge goes through, she can easily get it removed. It's not worth the hassle." He looked down at the ground solemnly. "It's best to leave it in the district's hands."

"But Mr Brown's clearly bias!" Darryl exclaimed. "Obviously she's not even going to get into that much trouble!"

Zak groaned. "That's fine. The point of releasing the audios wasn't to get her into trouble, it was just to expose her. I wanted to knock her down a few notches, that's all," He assured Darryl.

"This isn't right," Jacob sighed. "If the roles were reversed, you'd be expelled."

Zak rolled his eyes. "Okay, let's just be glad the roles aren't reversed then," He sassed back. "The only way to even get Alice in trouble is for her to be causing a really clear disruption at the school, which is pretty much impossible. We should just drop the subject."

The boys stood in silence, feeling nothing but helpless. Zak felt as though he had control for those few moments before he released those audios. Now he's suffering the consequences for exposing the devil of the school. He just wished he had something else on her. He hated waiting to see what happens next.

Suddenly, Jacob's head shot up. Darryl and Zak looked over at their friend with raised eyebrows. He seemed to have an idea.

"What if we can prove that she's causing a clear disruption?" Jacob said.

Darryl's face scrunched up. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it," Jacob insisted. "It's not only Zak that she's been tormenting. She coerced Clay into bullying George, then outed Clay. She also spread false rumors between both Clay and Zak about them hooking up. Not only that, she's the reason that both Darryl and George had to come out earlier than they wanted to, since she outed Zak," Jacob pointed out.

"She also fought Brianna!" Darryl spit out. "We have video of her being drunk at a party, too! You're so right, Jacob!"

Zak seemed a bit on edge with the situation. "What are you guys suggesting?"

Jacob had a huge smile on his face. "Zak, if we get enough kids to report Alice for breaking various rules with proof, then she could be expelled!" He declared. "We have all of the evidence we need!"

Zak's face slowly formed into a smile. "Really? You think so?"

Darryl beamed. "Yeah!" He exclaimed. He then held his hand out. "Operation Expel Alice."

"Operation Expel Alice," Jacob agreed, placing his hand on top of Darryl's.

Zak sighed with a smile, placing his hand on Jacob's. "Operation Expel Alice is a go."

~

a/n: tommy just found out what WAP actually meant on stream today and i was laughing so hard, i think he's scarred for life