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From Bad to Worse

Zara struggled to remain calm as the two Eon sisters made their way over to his table. "Oh man! If it isn't the man himself!" Elena exclaimed as her and Cerci took seats at his table, "We haven't seen you in a while! Where've ya been?!"

"Just...around campus," Zara mumbled, sinking into his seat slightly.

"We missed you~" said Cerci with a slight pout, "and you never told us about what happened with your confession!"

"Oh right!" nodded Elena, "Yeah we've been dying to know! So how'd it go?"

A small whisper escaped Zara's muzzle that wasn't caught by either of the Eeveelutions. He flexed his toes anxiously before he gathered his wits to respond. "...Not great..."

As the words left his lips, the cheery demeanor both sisters had slowly died out. Both had their ears lowered as what he had said set in. "...Oh..." said Cerci, "...really?" Zara chose only to nod in response.

"Dude..." said Elena, "...I'm really sorry to hear that... What happened though? Did you just seize up or something?"

Zara felt himself panic as he realized that he had suddenly forgotten what his alibi was. Shuffling his feet beneath the table nervously, he said, "A little...yeah..."

"Did you at least tell her how you feel?" asked Cerci.

Zara's heart was racing faster; he still couldn't remember what he had planned to say. "...I tried, at least..."

"Yeah, but did you tell her?" asked Elena. At this point, Zara was afraid to look either of them in the eyes out of fear of them seeing through his lies. He did his best to contain himself by choosing to only nod in response. "...And? What'd she say?"

Zara chewed on his bottom lip, his neck about as stiff as a rock by now. His heart throbbed in his chest, and his head was feeling light. He had NO genuine idea of what to say to her, and every passing second of silence made him feel all the more panicked. He flexed his toes tightly and muttered, "She said she was...wasn't interested..." His heart continued to hammer until one of the sisters finally replied.

"Really?" said Cerci, "Did she say why?"

Zara's heart hammered again. "...She...just didn't feel the same way...f-for me-about me."

"Mmm," grunted Elena through pursed lips, "That's it? Nothin else?"

Zara's heart raced faster as he began to wonder if he'd been caught out. "Mmhmm..." He fought the urge to whimper as the group sat there silently. He could feel their eyes burn at him with every agonizingly sluggish second that passed by. He cast brief glances at them as the torturous silence dragged on. The tension his toes were curled with could've broken bricks, and the rate his heart was going could easily be mistaken for a marathon runner's in the middle of their final lap. His entire back was tense, and his upper body was essentially locked in place.

"Zara?" Elena called, "Did you hear me?"

"Huh?" Zara jerked, glancing over to her. Evidently, she had spoken, but had blended in with the white noise of the crowd around them. "Sorry...what did you say?"

"I asked if you were okay," Elena replied.

"O-oh... Yeah, I'm ok." Zara fought off the urge to twiddle his thumbs, fearing that it would give himself away.

"Are you sure?" Elena asked, "Cuz' you still seem...out of it."

"Is there something you're not telling us?" asked Cerci. Zara's ears flattened as his heart throbbed.

"...No," he answered simply. Wanting to give himself an excuse to not go into further detail, he stuffed more food in his muzzle and chewed for a very, _very_long time.

"...Ok, you can cut the act now," said Elena, causing Zara's heart to nearly stop.

"W...what?"

"C'mon," she went on, "we can tell you're lying."

"We can?"

Elena rolled her eyes. "Okay, I can."

"W-wait a sec. How can you tell that he's lying?"

"You never noticed? Whenever he's trying to hide something, his ears flatten against his head."

"Really?"

"...No," Elena replied, catching her sister off guard, "but judging by the way Zara's hand just moved over his ears, I'd say we've got a reason to suspect him now." Zara's hand snapped right back down to his lap, never having realized that he had raised it to cover one of his ears until she had pointed it out. "Okay, that's it; it's time to spill it. Something happened and it's bothering you. And now you've been avoiding us instead of letting us help you. WHY?"

"Hey, sis, calm down. You don't need to--"

"NO," Elena cut her off with a firm shake of her head, "I'm SICK of this! For nearly our entire lives, we've known each other. And yet he STILL doesn't wanna trust us!"

"C'mon, Elena--"

"No, I've HAD it! I'm TIRED of this stupid guessing game! We've known each other for 13 goddamn years now! How can you STILL not feel comfortable enough to tell us things?! We tell you again and again that we're here for you, but every time something starts to bother you, you just mope around and just let everyone feel _sorry_for you!"

"Elena--"

"I'm not finished! Y'know how stressful it is for us to see you so sad and depressed?! Hell, do you even think about how seeing you like that makes us feel?! It's fine for us to feel like that when we can't do anything, but we CAN! And the only reason we don't is because you won't LET US! WHY, Zara?! What do you gain from that?!"

"ELENA!"

"For fuck's sake, Zara, look at yourself! You're sitting here, sad and alone, and instead of taking the help we're offering you, you're trying to push it away!"

"Would you QUIT IT?!" Both sisters recoiled in surprise; this time, Zara was the one that had shouted. And he had done so with his lips curled back, his teeth bared, and with tears gathered in his eyes. "JUST...SHUT IT! I just don't want to talk about it!"

It took a moment for Elena to recollect herself. "W...well why not?!"

"Because there's no POINT! You're not-y-you can't HELP me with this!"

"How the hell do YOU know?!"

Zara bit down on his lip and flexed his toes. "I-I said I don't want to talk about it."

"Well guess what?! We're talking about it!"

"Elena, seriously, I think we should--"

"No! I wanna hear this! Why do you think we can't help?!"

"Y-you just can't! Okay?!"

"Why? Are we not good enough?!"

"No! That's not--"

"Do you not trust us?"

"That's not it either! I--"

"Are we the problem?!"

"Yes! A-n-NO! I-I mean--"

"WHAT?!"

"I-n-no! Let me explain--"

"Oh GOOD! That's what I've been WAITING for you to do!"

"N-no, I mean, mmMmm," Zara's entire body was clenching up now.

"Well go on! Explain how we're the problem!"

"Y-you guys aren't--"

"Then WHAT?! You're not making any SENSE!"

"Well..." Zara trailed off as he suddenly became aware of the amount of people staring at them.

"What?! Zara! What?!"

"Hey come on, just let him think."

"NU-UH! He's had PLENTY of time to think! So go on, Zara! Why are we the problem?!"

"It's only one of you!" Zara blurted without thinking. The regret came as soon as he registered what he had just said.

"Oh! So it's just one of us, huh?! Well go on! Which one of us is the problem?!"

"I didn't--"

"Which one of us do you hate?!"

"I don't hate either--"

"Zara! Enough blabbering! Just tell us what's wrong already!"

Zara felt every single strand of fur on his body stand up as he felt everyone's eyes bore into him. He was shaking like a leaf and felt as delicate as one. He felt like he'd cave in from even the slightest breeze.

"Zara!" Elena boomed, making his heart jump to his throat. Wiping his tears away, he could see that Elena had tears of her own. Though her expressions portrayed how agitated and frustrated she was, her tear-ridden eyes portrayed how upset she was over all of this. This only made Zara feel worse. This was FAR worse than anything he imagined would happen if he told her the truth, and he hadn't even told her! He so desperately wished for a way out. An escape, an excuse, something. He couldn't even focus enough to make a perceivable illusion. His heart was racing a mile a minute, and his head felt dizzyingly light. He tried to say something to stall for time, but nothing was coming out. It felt as though nothing in his body wanted to respond to him.

"Okay seriously, sis, I think we need to leave him alone." Elena didn't budge, instead continuing to stare Zara down. "Sis, look at him! Do you really think he's gonna want to tell us anything at this point?"

Elena pressed her lips together. "...Fine. I'm sick of his shit anyways..." Without another word, she stormed off and left both Zara and Cerci behind. The Sylveon looked back and forth between her sister and Zara, seeming to hesitate on who to approach. Eventually, she decided to leave the Zoroark be and went after her sister. With both of them finally gone, Zara felt the amount of eyes that were now on him. Riding on the verge of tears, he abandoned his leftover food and rushed out of the building as quickly as he could. Already, his tears were threatening to spill out, but he fought against it and struggled to keep them contained. He tried to cloak himself in an illusion, but he just couldn't muster up the mental energy to do so. He had no clue what to do now. If he went back to his dorm room, Jasper would wonder why he was such a mess. If he stayed out, he'd risk bumping into Cerci and Elena again. He'd wanted to be alone earlier in the day, but now he needed it more than ever. Weighing his options, he reasoned it'd be better to just go to his dorm. Curfew would take effect soon, and he was in too much turmoil to be able to make an illusion anytime soon.

He hated that he had to, though; the anxiety of seeing someone now was already building up inside of him. He prayed that Jasper would give him the space he needed, but he had his doubts that would happen. The Cubone had already proven his desire to be there for him, and sitting by and letting him mope wasn't exactly "being there for him." He truly hoped that Jasper hadn't reached their dorm room yet so that he could just sneak in quietly without incident.

Having already reached their room, it was time to find out...

With a deep breath, Zara punched in his number code and slowly opened the door. "Zara?" came a familiar voice, "Is that you?" Jasper was back... Just what he needed...

"...yeah," he answered at a near whisper. Still trying to remain as quiet as possible, he made his way inside and eased the door closed. He kept his gaze low to the ground as he approached his bed. "...um...do you mind...looking the other way, please? I need to change real quick..."

"Uh...alright," he heard jasper reply. Already, Zara could tell that he knew something was up. He realized then that it would've have been smarter to enter in a less melancholy manner. He wasn't Dialga, though, so this realization was more of a nuisance than anything. With anxiety boiling up within himself, he proceeded to change into a more bed-appropriate set of clothes.

"...you can...look now..." Zara nearly squeaked. Wanting to mask a glance, he laid himself across his bed and slipped out his phone. During that time, he saw that the Cubone had managed to hear his almost nonexistent voice and was now facing his side of the room.

"...Sssso," he began, "...everything alright?"

"...mmhmm..."

"...You're sure?"

"...mmhmm..."

"...Alright... Just...remember, I'm here for you if you ever wanna talk about anything..."

Zara cringed; the two of them had just improved their relationship with each other, but he felt like he was undoing all of that from just this alone. With the fear of ruining yet another friendship outweighing his anxiety, the Zoroark gave in and said, "...I got into a fight..."

Jasper perked up upon hearing his voice. "Um, sorry, say that again? I-I don't think I heard you clearly."

Zara bit his lip and flexed his toes before clearing his throat and saying, "...I had a fight with a friend..."

"...Oh..." Jasper replied, "Really? Did anyone get hurt?"

Zara shook his head. "It wasn't...a fight fight... It was just an argument."

"...A really bad one, I'm guessing?" Zara only nodded in response. "I'm really sorry to hear that... Do you wanna talk about what the argument was over?"

Zara flattened his ears. "...well...you remember how we talked about my crush, right?"

Jasper nodded. "The one that was already in a relationship, right?"

"Yeah...that one... Well...recently, I've been trying to avoid her, but she ran into me tonight at the food court. So...she confronted me about it, and I tried to give her an excuse. But...she caught my lie and...things...got worse from there..."

Jasper stroked his chin thoughtfully. "So...did you tell her the actual reason why you've been trying to stay away from her?"

Zara shook his head vigorously. "No, but...I-I guess I should've?! 'Cuz we exploded on each other and-and now everything's bad between us. N-no, terrible between us! And now..." Zara whimpered and sunk into the bed, his ears flat and his eyes watering. His throat had tightened up on him and formed a lump that left him unable to speak any further.

"I'm...sorry to hear that," Jasper eventually replied, "Well...if you want my advice, I honestly think you should just tell her the truth." Zara's eyes went wide with horror and confusion, and he snapped his head up to face the Cubone. "You did say that things are really bad between you two. I don't see how giving her an explanation for how you've been acting could make things any worse." Zara shuffled around uncomfortably. "Zara...I seriously think you need to tell her. Things won't magically fix themselves if you leave them be. If you still wanna be friends with this girl, then you have to do something to fix this. If you need help, then I'm more than willing to. But you really need to do something."

Zara sighed through his nostrils and slumped back down. "...I guess..."

Jasper's tail sagged as he saw the Zoroark emotionally deflate. "Hang in there, man. You can make everything better again. You just need to put in the effort to make that happen."

"...thanks," Zara mumbled. Jasper said nothing else after that; he already knew that nothing else he could say would get to him. He was already spent for the day and, made evident by the fact that he was crawling into bed, he was done talking in general. The sight made Jasper's heart ache. Mere moments ago, Zara had been the most happy and energetic he'd ever seen him be. But now, the Zoroark was at a new all-time low. It felt as though everything that had happened earlier today...hadn't.

"...Goodnight," Jasper said softly, despite knowing that he wouldn't be getting a response. The Cubone then climbed into bed himself before shutting the lights off. Don't let this get to you down, buddy... You're more desirable than you realize...