Darko's POV

He lied. He told me that he sees her as a sister. He... he lied.

I really don't know what I expected to see when I opened that door. Maybe I was hoping Taylor was upset over something, and Bella was just being a good friend. Or they were snooping through Lyra's stuff, at the very worst. No, neither of them would do that. Then again, I didn't think they would be kissing each other either. Hell, I don't even know who they are anymore.

I.. I thought Taylor and I had a moment before. We danced. We... this is fucked. I'm fucked. That was just all in my head. It was just a dance and I'm so fucking dumb.

Rushing down the hallway, a few stray tears fall on my face. It hurts to wipe them; my fingers fly to my cheeks, the tender skin still sore. I shove through the few crowds remaining at Lyra's party; where the hell is Stefan? Ugh. A random girl shouts something at me when I bump her, and I fight the urge to stick the finger at her when she yells at me.

I go into the kitchen. Stefan's not here. Ugh, he was just here with Lyra.

There are two guys near the fridge; I've never met them before. One's an entire foot taller than me, but half my weight, and the other looks double my weight. They both have green coloured hair and are wearing exclusively black clothing.

As I go to leave, one of the boys leans in and starts kissing the other boy. Eyes the size of saucers, I stop, feet glued to the spot. My breath hitches. I can't look at this. Nope. No. Feet, please move. Please.

One of the boys looks at me and tells the other boy to stop. The other boy asks why, then notices me staring. I gulp. Fuck. He squints his eyes at me, shaking his head. "Would you like a camera, jackass? Stop creepin'."

He grabs the other boy's hand and leads him into another room, looking daggers at me. Christ. Taylor... I wish... ugh. This is fucked. At least my feet are working again.

As I begin to walk, I run straight into Nicole. Great, as if this night couldn't get any worse.

"Oof - Darko! Hey! I didn't see you there, sorry."

I lower my head, muttering an apology. "I really don't have time for this - "

"So, when are we next seeing each other? I should be free in a few days; do you want me to let you know?" Her voice is nasally and irritatingly upbeat. She lifts my chin up, and double takes when she sees the spiderweb bruising around my jaw. Hating how close she is to me, I jerk my chin off her finger. I shove my hands in my pockets and look down, struggling to fight a stray tear that's finding it's way down my cheek.

"Shit. Are you okay? Have you been crying?"

Fuck. I swear I see someone look at me. Nicole, leave me alone. Please. I bring the barely frozen pea bag up to my face, trying to both numb the skin and hide any other tears.

"Do you want me to find someone? I think I saw Lyra nearby—"

"No! No. Just, stop," I say, taking a step back from her. "Leave me the fuck alone, okay? Look, Nicole, I'm in a shit mood. I don't have time for this."

A gasp sounds behind me somewhere. I can't pinpoint the spot, but I've made much more of a scene than I wanted to. Nicole blinks, mouth hanging open. She doesn't move a muscle and stammers over and over again, unable to form any coherent sentence.

I shove past her before she can properly reply. I'll deal with this shit tomorrow, I just want to go the fuck home.

Reaching the backdoor, I go outside. Sweat starts to form in my armpits. On the bright side, I've finally found Stefan. He's with Lyra's Dad.

Their conversation drops the moment Stefan lays his eyes on me. "Bro, are you okay?"

My mouth starts to speak, but as words come out, tears do too, so I slam it shut and shake my head no. The pea bag comes in handy again, hiding parts of my face. Lyra's dad's phone starts to ring. He fishes it out.

"It's the police. I'll see you two around, okay?"

We nod to him, and he answers the phone disappearing inside. Stefan looks at me with more concern painting his face.

"I knew you were beat up, but why do I get the feeling something else has happened?"

Nope. No. I'm not saying anything. I shake my head. "Can we just go please; I'll explain later."

I absolutely will not be explaining later. But it's a lie that I need Stefan to buy so we can leave. And, thankfully, he does.

Stefan nods. He gently grabs my arm and starts leading me back into the house, toward the front door. "Come on bro, let's get out of here."

We're out in the front yard. He's fumbling in his pocket, trying to get his keys, when he starts chuckling to himself. "Here, this'll cheer you up. Did you see one of the other students puking behind Lyra's bin? The smell was enough for me... bleh.

It works. I chuckle a little. It encourages him – big mistake.

"How about those gay kids, the two emo boys in the kitchen. They were practically eating each other's faces! Damn fags. I knew they were in the kitchen, but they didn't need to make a damn fruit salad in there."

He shudders in disgust before bursting out in laughter. He finally finds the car fob and unlocks the car, opening my door for me with a smile. He nudges me with his elbow. I think he's expecting me to laugh or something; my knuckle tightens by my side. "Really, Stefan? Seriously, get fucked. Why have you always got to make fun of gay people? Huh? Why?"

Stefan's expression shifts from confusion to irritance. He scrunches his face up, taken aback. "The hell bro? What is your issue? Firstly, you're acting all weird and sad and won't tell me why, now you're getting all pissy because I made a joke. What the hell happened to you?"

"I..." I shake my head. "I can't tell you."

His eyebrows scrunch up, lips curling down as he shakes his head. "The fuck you mean you can't tell me? We're brothers. You can tell me anything."

His voice booms in my head. I try to lower my volume, but it comes out a lot shakier than I wanted it to. "Not this. Just, not this. Let's just go home, okay?"

Stefan's now noticing other people look our way. He sighs. "Fine. Whatever. Just know that when you do decide to tell me what's wrong, I'm here. Watch your attitude, though, I'm still your older brother."

I get in the car, and he slams the door shut. Just as he walks around and gets into the driver's seat, I spy Lyra by the front door. Shit, we forgot to say goodbye. Lyra goes to walk toward us and say something, but I think her father stops her from following us. Thank God. I wouldn't have been able to stop myself crying if Lyra came up to me.

#

I take a moment to actually look at myself in the passenger seat pull down mirror, and I wish I didn't. I run my thumb along my jaw and push the bag of peas onto my face. It's lukewarm at this point, and I throw it out the window in frustration. Stefan goes to say something, but I curl up and look out the window. Whatever he was going to say dies on his tongue, and instead he cranks up the radio.

The image of Taylor and Bella keeps invading my vision. Shutting my eyes, I take in a breath. My finger pushes down the window button, a cool breeze brushing over my face. What's outside?

Trees. Bushes. The odd streetlight that comes and goes illuminates a singular circle patch near their bases. I think I see a stray cat climbing a fence. Good, this is good. I'm thinking about these. Nothing else. Nothing else at all.

Stefan turns a corner. Soon, we're at a set of traffic lights. The area is familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

My eyes look a little further down the road. There's a building on the corner, broken down wire fencing surrounding its overgrown land. Weeds up to my waist dot the property; it takes me a few seconds to realise that there's a playground next to the building too. There's a swing set, one string on each swing snapped off, and a climbing structure, the slide either covered in leaves or holes. It's too dark; it could be either.

My attention turns to the building. I've been here before, I think. But when?

Stefan's voice invades my ears. "Do you remember that place?"

I shake my head.

"It was shut down a few years ago due to a fire incident. There's renovations happening in a month or so. It's the primary school we both used to go to."

My mind flashes to a park bench in the back of the park. I squint hard enough, and I can just barely make out the silhouette of it. I can picture it clearly – that park bench was a right of passage. You and your best friend had to put your initials on it, otherwise it was a fake friendship. Or, that's what the other kids in my class told me.

I swallow. My heart flips. "Y-yeah, I remember this place now."

Stefan's got a small smile on his face. "Those were the good days. You and Taylor were so young back then; I remember one day you both showed up wearing the same shirt, so you pretended to be brothers. You two knew each other so well, I'm so glad that you two are still friends."

Somehow, I manage to nod. Stefan's focus returns to the road and I look away from the playground, scrambling to find something else to focus on. The moon? Perfect. It'll do. If I blink, if I think for one more second about Taylor, I'll start crying.

It's pointless. Thoughts of Taylor start to fill my thoughts again, and tear upon tear falls as the traffic light turns green. It's as if a dam broke; no matter how often I wipe, my face won't stay dry.

Taylor is straight, he will always be straight, and I am way too fucking stupid to even think otherwise. Fuck you, Taylor. Fuck you, Bella. Fuck you, feelings. You're such an idiot, Darko!

"H-hey Stef, can you turn up the radio? I love this song," I barely manage to say. He gives me a thumbs up and cranks up the volume. It's some strange hypnotic melody, somehow both sad and upbeat. I face the window again.

Stefan's touch surprises me. I turn, and he's got his hand on my shoulder. He offers a sympathetic smile, before patting me. He must have seen me crying. The music drowns out the sobs, and he rubs my back as I let myself cry a little more.

We reach another set of lights, and he lowers the volume. "I don't know what happened bro, but you know I'm here for you, right? I'm sorry for yelling at you before, and for snapping back at you for that joke I made. The fight must have shaken you up a lot more than I thought and me yelling wouldn't have helped. Trent and Duncan are assholes. You say the word, and I'll fuck them up for you, okay? A big bro keeps his family safe, no matter what."

I sob. The light turns green, and he starts driving again. 'No matter what.' Right. Sure.