Twisted // phan

two

Dan

As the bell rang signifying the end of English, Dan was extremely confused. Why had Phil left? Was it because Dan stared at him? Dan worried that he had offended Phil and that he would be beaten up later for it. Wouldn't be the first time the popular guy hates you, Dan thought with a grimace.

He made his way to the hallway and walked quickly, trying to make sense of his school schedule. Where the hell was room 203?

"Hey!" A voice called from behind Dan, starling him. A boy with light blue hair, glasses and a smile on his face walked hurriedly toward Dan, trying to catch up with Dan's fast pace. Dan slowed down to allow the boy to walk beside him.

"Hi." Dan said with a small smile.

"I'm Tyler." The boy introduced himself, "I couldn't help but notice that you look a little lost, is there a room I can help you find?"

Dan nodded, "Uh yeah.. 203?" He said, staring down at his schedule, "I think it's art class".

"Oh yay, art!" Tyler exclaimed, "I'm headed there now I'll walk down with you."

"Okay, thanks. My name is Dan by the way." Dan said shyly, following Tyler's lead.

"So Dan," Tyler says as the two walk down the busy hallway, "did you punch Phil Lester in the face or something? He usually doesn't start storming out of class like that until at least the second week of school. You must have really set him off."

Dan's heart sank. Yep, he was definitely going to get punched for this.

"No, I didn't punch him. I didn't even touch him." Dan started, "I think I just looked at him the wrong way."

"Geez that's rough." Tyler said, stopping at a classroom labeled 203. "Here we are."

Dan was quiet as he followed Tyler into the art room and watched as Tyler sat down at a table and tapped the spot next to him, motioning for Dan to sit next to him.

By the end of the class, Dan could say that Tyler was officially his first friend at this school. While they were working on their drawings they chatted about Dan's old school and Tyler gave him a run down on everyone in their grade, including Phil.

"Alright so Phil Lester," Tyler said, aggressively erasing a mistake on his drawing, "stay away from him. He's bad news."

"What did he do exactly?" Dan asked curiously, hoping Tyler would have a more accurate story than the friends at Dan's old school.

"Nothing specifically, I just don't trust how everyone always sucks up to him and how he thinks he's better than everyone else. If you want to stay out of drama, avoid those kinds of people."

Dan nodded but couldn't shake the feeling that what Tyler and everyone else was saying about Phil wasn't the whole story. Something about the twinkle in Phil's eye when he asked Dan what distracted him was innocent and made Dan think that maybe "bad boy Phil" was all an act. Not that he'd ever know.

Tyler continued babbling on about Phil and reiterated all the stories Dan had already heard, adding one about Phil sneaking into the Queen's Palace. Dan tried not to snort, how the hell did people believe this? He thought.

Tyler stopped stopped suddenly when he saw Dan's drawing. On Dan's page was a forest with extremely detailed trees and shading better than that of some professional artists.

On the bottom corner of the page was an empty space. Tyler watched in awe as Dan wrote "I know where you stand, silent in the trees" a quote from one of his favourite songs in the vacant spot. Dan then dropped his pencil and leaned back to admire his work.

"Woah." was all Tyler said, "How did you do that?"

Dan simply shrugged, "I just got drawing and the scene turned to a forest. It's not really that good, I need to work on my detailing."

Tyler's eyes widened, "If I ever drew anything even close to that good my parents would probably frame it and put it on the wall. No relative or family friend would ever hear the end of it, how can you say it's not good?"

Dan just shrugged and faked a smile. Tyler mentioning parents was enough to ruin Dan's mood. Dan was jealous of Tyler for having parents that cared, parents that got excited when their kids achieved something.

Just then, the bell rang signalling the start of lunch. Dan walked outside with Tyler leading the way to a table full of his friends. Dan was introduced to Conner, Louise, Cat and Casper. The table was in constant conversation, but Dan was suddenly distracted when he saw Phil Lester walk through the school gates, back from wherever he had gone during english. Every other student seemed to notice his return too. Phil went to sit against the brick wall when he caught Dan's eye. Phil simply rolled his eyes while shaking his head.

Dan turned back to his new friends.

"One second." He said, standing up. He braced himself as he walked toward where Phil was, sat against the brick wall.

Phil

Phil sighed as he saw Dan walking toward him. Only lunch and he's already coming to ask for favours Phil thought bitterly, that has to be a new record.

"It's rude to stare" Dan said, quoting Phil from earlier as he sat down next to him.

"You were looking at me. Freak." Phil said the last part under his breath, just loud enough for Dan to hear. Phil tried to ignore the pang of guilt he felt when he peered up at Dan and saw how crushed he looked. "Why don't you just go sit with your idiotic friends so you can use them instead of wasting my time." Phil added, avoiding Dan's hurt gaze.

"Sorry." Dan mumbled, quickly rising to his feet. "Please don't hit me I'll stay out of your way I promise." He said, almost too fast for Phil to hear.

Phil didn't respond. He just sat stunned as he watched Dan walk away and sit back at his table, his friends wide eyed - no doubt they were all gossiping about bad boy Phil and how rude he was.

Maybe he was trying to be nice, he thought. Wow Phil, you really are useless, someone at school might want to form an actual friendship with you for first time in months and even though you storm out on him in class and call him a loser he still comes to talk to you again. And what do you do? Tell him to fuck off. Good move Phil, good fucking move.

"You're Phil Lester and you don't need anyone." He whispered to himself.

But this time, he didn't believe it.