Book Worm

Chapter 12

"He's not just my English partner." Dan mumbles so only he could hear it, making himself chuckle lightly under his breath.

"For Mister Lester and Howell, and those of you counting dots on the ceiling, I am not expecting a small presentation on Monday per sé. Meaning, you are going to be up here and telling the class the highlights of your story. This will be worth about half of the complete project grade. The rest goes towards the creativity of how you will correctly express the point of your story, is this understood?"

The class nods, no hands this time. Dan's thankful.

"Alright, I'll let you have the rest of class to discuss your projects," He glances over at Dan. "Or, to finish up your reading. Get to work on the rest of those few chapters, Daniel."

With that, the class breaks into small groups, some genuinely reading or working on the assignment given, but others just talking about plans for the weekend.

"Dude, Mr. Straut was not up for your shit today." Chris grins, taking the seat behind Dan, PJ taking the one beside him.

"How did you know the near end of the book anyways? We've literally read about two chapters of it." Phil asks, grabbing a chair and pulling it up to Dan's desk.

Dan shrugs. "That night at the pier when you were like, half drunk off of lack of sleep you went on at one point about how it's so poetic that this Kayleigh bitch is going after Chad even when she was well aware of the dangers of the hunt." He smiles, staring over at Phil. "Don't worry, it was hella cute to see you completely die over the romanticizing of kidnapping in a novel." Dan laughs, noticing the blush slowly creeping onto Phil's face.

"Oh my god, why don't you two just fuck already!" Chris interjects the small intimate gazes the two were about to exchange.

PJ let's out a laugh, covering his mouth. "Damn Chris, Dan starts flirting and you are already recommending the fun stuff. What, are your fantasies of your best friend hooking up with our newest friend not being satisfied fast enough?"

Chris rolls his eyes, shoving PJ roughly. "Yeah, that's totally it. My bets said they were going to fuck in the storage closet yesterday, we're already off schedule, I'm not happy." He jokes.

"Oh my god." Phil groans, laughing. His face was about as red as a tomato and the giant smile on Dan's face won't seem to go away. "I'm going to actually scream."

With a laugh from Chris and PJ, Phil turns to Dan.
"So, mister smiles-a-lot, are we actually at your place for the weekend to finish this shit, or are we just going to try and pull an all-nighter tomorrow?"

"I mean, I'm totally down for a sleep over. I'm sure my brother won't mind, he loves you already."

"Alright, I'll go with you to your house on Friday then, and you can just take me to school Monday, sound alright?" He asks, his voice serious and his blue orbs completely focused on the task being discussed.

Dan admires just how committed Phil can be to anything. He could never just become serious at the drop of a pen, even if it was for a project that he was really behind on.

He nods. "Yeah, sounds great."

His hand finds it's way to Phil's and theirs fingers wrap together. This was a thing that was normal now. Only, they would usually do this when walking to classes, or during free period. But, Dan wanted to feel some part of Phil now. He just wanted to know that this was real right now, that he was actually safe.

***

Phil's POV

He groans into the book, the decently sized novel appearing as long as War and Peace. It was nearing twelve in the morning on a Friday. Phil was staying at Dan's for the weekend so they could get through this book that he once thought was one of the best things he's read. But, as of now his only opinion on it was why it had to have so many words.