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*Insert Chapter Title Here*

Phil just followed Dan all the way to the library. While technically, they weren't allowed to eat in the library, they did have one section that you could. However, a lot of people ate there, so Dan usually pretended to go there while the librarians were looking, then scuttle off to a corner the second they weren't. Phil didn't know that, so when he saw where Dan was pretending to go, he actually went there and got two seats.

Dan just sighed internally and trudged over to him, resigned to the thought of eating there once. He was already self-conscious while eating alone and unaware, what more could eating in front of others do?

It turned out a lot.

With every bite, he could feel the other students stare at him, each one feeling like daggers stabbing into his back. Every time he chewed, he could almost hear their judgmental thoughts, condemning him. Every time he swallowed, he could almost feel their disgust, settling on his shoulders like weights. They were choking him with their expectations, sliding their hands around his throat and squeezing, squeezing and squeezing and squeezing until he could barely breathe. He could feel his fists clenching, but he wasn't doing it. He stared at his white knuckles, attempting to bring his sandwich to his mouth, but he couldn't bring himself to. His hands trembled more and more until they were shaking as much as his hold on reality. Dan swallowed roughly, once, twice, and more or less slammed his sandwich back onto the table. Phil was eating oblviously, munching happily on his pb&j. Dan had lost his appetite.

For the rest of lunch, Dan sat uncomfortably as Phil ate his meal. He drifted in and out of awareness, not really focusing on anything at all. He was in the midst of unawareness when he felt someone poke him. He fell back to earth, blinking once or twice to help him focus. It turned out to be Phil (who else would touch me without attempting to hurt me?), looking at Dan expectantly.

"What?" It turned out less harsh than Dan would have thought, but he shrugged it off.

Phil looked way too elated about getting Dan to respond, flashing a brilliant smile. Dan automatically squinted at the brightness. What is he? The fucking sun?

"Well, I was just wondering if I could have your number?" Phil's voice raised in the end, turning what would've been a sentence into a question.

Dan felt like all of his past injuries had burst to life, knocking the wind out of him and roaring in his ears. No one had ever voluntarily asked for his number, much less a cute (cute? Sure, why not) boy. His parents had just put their number in his phone and his number in their phones. Past partners for long-term projects had either just taken his phone and gotten his number, or just forced him to do all the work. What should I do? Should I play it cool, be like 'oh sure, here it is?' Should I just put it into his phone, no words exchanged? Wait, I can't give him my number. Then he would text me and I would feel and all of my hard work would disappear. But what can I say that would be believable about not giving him my number?

"Hey, it's fine if you don't want me to," Phil said gently.

He just gave me an out. All I have to say is-

"N-no I was just, um, just trying to remember it."

-not that.

"Well, just give me your phone and I'll text myself. Then I'll have your number and you'll have mine."

Dan could feel his face flushing, though for once, he did know why. Silently, he handed over his phone, hoping his butterfingers affliction wouldn't suddenly appear. Thankfully, his wish was granted, as he had safely handed it over.

He watched as Phil created a contact for himself, and smiled when he saw that Phil had put the lion emoji by his name. He watched as Phil texted himself not a simple 'hi' but instead a lengthy text describing Dan, featuring 'chocolate brown eyes' and 'same haircut but opposite side' and 'too tall (aka taller than me).'

Dan couldn't help but interject at that. "It's I am."

Phil paused in his furious typing. "What?"

Dan cleared his throat a bit. "Uh- it, uh, it wouldn't be 'taller than me.' It would be 'taller than I am."

Phil blinked, smiled, and changed it. "Better?"

Dan looked down, flushing a bit. "Um, yeah." He couldn't really believe that Phil had changed it just for him. (BY TROYE SIVAN BUY BLUE NEIGHBORHOOD ON ITUNES)

When Phil finally finished typing, the text went off the screen. He clicked send, and a buzz soon came from his own phone. Dan continued to watch as Phil put his contact as not 'Dan,' but 'Danyul' with a molester moon by it. He had to protest at that.

"Hey! I-I think I deserve better than a molester moon."

Phil beamed widely at that, handing his phone over to Dan without a fight. Dan scrolled through the emojis, not really looking for one in particular. His thumb hovered over the skull emoji for a second, before deciding that was a bit too dark to be one Phil's phone. He continued scrolling, looking harder. He finally found one that he liked. It was nothing fancy, just a patch of dark fog, but he liked it.

Phil raised his eyebrow. "Fog? I would've pegged you for more of a skull emoji."

Dan attempted to smile again. "I almost did, but I decided that was a bit dark for your phone. So instead, I chose the dark fog one."

Phil nodded his head sagely, as if he was a great king.

Dan was just wondering what to do next, how to keep it from getting awkward, when the bell rang, signalling that lunch was over. Dan gathered his backpack, throwing away his trash, but waited for Phil against his own better judgment.

Phil gathered his backpack, and threw not only his own trash out, but also the trash left by other lazy and rude teens.

As he jogged up to Dan, he asked, "What class do you have next? I have English."

Even as he felt relief, Dan also felt a twinge of sadness. He shoved that twinge deep down, burying it beneath lifetimes' worth of indifference, until he couldn't feel a single glimmer of it. "I have History next." At Phil's crestfallen face, Dan just couldn't help but add, "but they're in the same hallway."

Even as Dan cursed himself for wordlessly promising to walk with him, even as he wished that he had never met Phil, when he saw Phil's ear-to-ear grin, when he saw how ecstatic Phil was from something as small as saying he'd walk with him , he felt the walls around his heart crumble away just a little bit.

A/N: You know it's been a while when you can't remember your intro. Heloha? Miyav? Something like that.
Word count: 1236
Anyway, I'm going to go on an official hiatus! Sorry for the two/three people that read this. I'm just going to start stockpiling chapters so that I can write more and then update more regularly. So, yeah. Ciao for now.