By my Side ~ Tom Felton fanfic

Chapter 22: For the Future

'No worries.' I smiled back. 'But honestly, if we can't trust each other after all these years there's something wrong with us.'

'True that.'

I laughed softly. 'What about Ebony? Does she know?' Ebony was his girlfriend.

Suddenly, Dan's expression got darker. He hasn't told her. But the thing that distracted me the most was the Dan all of the sudden looked... Stressed.

'Sorry I -'

'No it's fine.' He shook his head quickly.

There was a nervous silence. 'What's wrong...?' I asked slowly.

Dan breathed in and out heavily before answering, 'We've barely talked for over two months.'

I was too shocked to say anything. They always got together really well and even if they had a fight, that would've been solved by a week at the latest.

'What happened?'

'It started from my height.'

I stared at him, confused. 'Height?'

'Yeah...' He mumbled, clutching his hands. 'I know I'm short and I was fine with it. I didn't mind people, I don't know, commenting on that but... Some people started to take it too far these days... I haven't grown, I've stopped growing in the past year... And Ebby started to talk about it a lot, and I mean a lot, about three months ago saying that the girl taller than the guy is... Weird. I told her so many times you that I can't help or change that, but she just won't listen... Then we got into a fight and... Yeah.'

'Oh Dan...' I brought him into a tight hug.

'Sorry...' Dan said in a barely audible whisper when we parted. 'I just made the mood dark.'

'No don't be. I want to help.' I shook my head, smiling gently. 'I leant from experience but try and not keep it in for too long; don't be afraid to tell anyone who you trust. No one will judge.'

Dan nodded. 'Yeah... Thanks.' He smiled slightly.

'Anytime.' Then, when I thought it was a good time to change subject, I asked, 'Hey, do you have any minced beef?'

'Yeah - Hamburg steak?' His face lit up immediately: he was in love with the them since the first time he ate it.

'Mmmhmm. Can I make it?'

'Course you can! Can I help?'

'Absolutely.' I said, standing up and walking to the kitchen with him.

I took out the ingredients and placed them out on the counter.

'What do you want to do?' I asked him, my hands on my hips as I looked at the ingredients.

'Um... Can I do the meat?'

'Sure. Just mix them with your hands until they're all apart.'

'Yep.'

As he started to do that in the glass bowl, I brought out the chopping board and knife and started to chop the onions finely.