“Okay here” I said handing Darcy the CD.

“It’s done?”

“Yep” I grinned down at her. She stared up at me, the CD still in her hands, her eyes getting shiny “No please don’t cry on me again” I laughed.

“Sorry” She laughed and sniffed, wiping her eyes “It’s just no one’s ever done something this nice for me”

“It’s not much” I said “Didn’t take too long”

“Zack you just spent six weeks of your life doing this for me”

“But it’s okay because I got extra credit for it” I laughed.

“Oh so it was all for your benefit?” She giggled and I smiled, leaning against the locker next to her as she carried on putting her stuff in her locker.

“No, it wasn’t, I just wanted to make you happy” I smiled down at her and she looked at me.

“Well thank you” She shut her locker and hugged me tight around my shoulders. I sighed and wrapped my arms tightly around her waist. The hallway was empty, people having gone home a long time ago. “Zacky you have to let go, we can’t do this” She said

“No I don’t, there’s no one else here” I said, my lips ghosting over her earlobe. She shivered and I felt her press herself closer to me. My hands moved to her hips and I pushed her back against the lockers. She was breathing hard as I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“But Zacky we… we can’t”

“Why not?”

“Because Connor’s coming to meet me here” She said “In a minute”

“He doesn’t… never mind” I said. I sighed and took a step back from her, but my hips remained on her hips. “I’ll see you tomorrow” I said letting go. I shook my head and started walking off down the hall to the front of the school, on the way out I pass Connor, but he was too busy flirting with another blonde.

I rolled my eyes and walked to the car, I got in and started the ignition, turning the radio on and letting the loud music blast through the car and out of the windows.

When I got home I went straight to my room to start on my homework, I managed to get it done with some time to spare before Mom called me down for dinner.

“Zacky I still don’t understand why you don’t tell her how you feel” Zina said, she was home from college for the weekend and Mom had obviously told her all about my relationship problems.

“Mom did you tell her?”

“Yes she did now tell me”

“I can’t tell her”

“Why not?”

“Because she has a boyfriend, and he hates my ass, and second I spent so long trying to prove to her that I didn’t like her that she thinks now that when I do try to tell her that I like her she thinks I’m trying to pull one over on her”

“You’re a fucking idiot Zack”

“Zina, language” My Mom said

“Sorry mom” She said “But still you have to agree that he is, he has to just tell her how he feels about her”

“But he’s like his Dad in this, he can’t confess his feeling a lot of the time”

“I’ll tell her Zacky” Zina said

“No, if anything that will just make it worse”

“Well then grow a pair and tell her how you feel!”

“You don’t get it”

“What don’t I get?”

“That if he tells her he has to put his pride on the line” Matt spoke up.

“Matt shut up” I said, he never said anything, but now he chooses to speak up.

“But you will Zacky, and that’s why you’re scared to tell her”

“I know”

“Exactly”

X-X-X

I was sitting at lunch when Matt burst through the doors of the cafeteria and came right to our table, he grabbed the back of my shirt and yanked me out through the doors with him.

“Matt what are you—“

“Zack this had gone on long enough I wasn’t going to say anything because she told me not to, but you have to see this I can’t ignore this anymore”

“Matt what’s going on?”

“He’s been beating the shit out of her, normally they weren’t huge, but she’s fucking black and blue now, Zack she can barely stand up, let alone dance” He said as we walked into the studio. Darcy was there, sitting on the floor, sniffing quietly.

“Darce” I went to her, kneeling down beside her “I need you to stand up” She looked up at me and I saw the dark bruise that shadowed over her cheek. I gritted my teeth as I helped her stand up, she winced. I looked down her neck, brushing some of her hair back, I followed the trail of bruises and marks down her shoulder, gently pushing her cardigan off her shoulders to show even more marks. A little sob bubbled in her throat and I took her face gently in my hands.

“Why didn’t you tell me he was doing this to you?” I asked her.

“I couldn’t, he said he’d kill me” She whispered, I knew Matt was still there.

“Don’t worry Darce, he’s never gonna hurt you again, I’ll make sure of that” I kissed her forehead and let her go before walking out of the studio doors.

“Zacky where are you going?” Matt called after me.

“To find Connor” I spat “This is the last thing that motherfucker is ever going to do”

I stormed through the hallways, people seemed to jump out of the way, sensing the rage that was radiating from me as I pushed my way back into the cafeteria. I saw him then, sitting with Darcy’s friend’s, his arm around the blonde from yesterday.
I stormed over to the table, grabbing the front of his shirt and yanking him up onto his feet.

“So you think it’s okay to beat the shit out of women?! How about I kick the shit of you and see how much you like it?” I growled in his face. He looked confused for a moment before the recognition of my words slowly dawned on his face and a slow smirk spread across his features.

“Bitch had it coming” He said “She deserved it after what she did” His words only ignited my fury even more and I threw the first punch, feeling the satisfying crack of his nose under my knuckles. He stumbled back and people ‘oohed’ as Connor straightened up and wiped the blood from his face. He growled and took steps to get closer to me but I was ready and I flew at him, tackling him to the floor. The fight consisted of punches being thrown, and it got to the point where I had my hands around his windpipe in a crushing force before I felt two set of hands pulling me back, I fought against them to get back to Connor who was also being held back, I could taste the blood in my mouth and I could see the state of Connor’s face but I was still so enraged I wanted to get back and completely kill him.

“Zacky what are you doing?” I stopped struggling to see Darcy standing a few feet away from us.

“This piece of shit thinks it’s okay to beat women!” I yelled to the cafeteria “He thinks it’s okay to leave marks like that all over his girlfriend, so really he fucking deserves this!”

“Wait he did that to her?” Brian asked me.

“Yeah”

“Piece of shit” And he swung, sending Connor sprawling to the floor once more. We nodded to each other and then he and Matt dragged me away to the nurse to get my face cleaned up.

They left when Darcy came in. She stood in the doorway until the nurse was done bandaging my knuckles and cleaned my face up.

“Zacky why did you do that?” She asked standing in front of me as I stayed sat on the bed. I ducked my head. She sighed and moved closer to me so that she was standing between my legs. She forced me to look up at her. “Zacky I know you were mad but you’re gonna get into so much trouble for this”

“It’s worth it though, no man should ever hit a woman” I said resting a hand on her cheek.

“But Zack if it had been anyone else then you wouldn’t have gotten so pissed, why… why me?”

“Why you? Are you seriously going to ask me that?”

“Zacky, I need some answers, I need to know why you did that” I sighed.

“I’m fucking crazy about you Darcy, babe I have been for weeks and I’ve just been too fucking cowardly to say anything to you because I was worried you’d think that I was lying to you because I’d spent so long trying to convince everyone, fucking hell trying to convince myself that I didn’t like you but I just couldn’t do it, and then to see that he put his hands on you like that”

“Zacky you like me?”

“No shit” I said sarcastically.

“So I like you and you like me” She said slowly.

“Yeah”

“So if I kiss you now you wouldn’t push me away?”

“No”

“That’s okay then” She said moving closer and pressing her lips against mine. It was the most tender kiss I’d ever received and it was amazing.