How to save a life ||PHAN||

6. Partners

I had been worrying myself to death about Phil, scared that he would kill himself, but what could I do? I was powerless in this situation.

All my worrying seemed to be for nothing when I walked into the English classroom the next morning and saw Phil already in his usual seat.
I expected that we were going to watch a video again in class, like we did during every lesson, but we actually got an assignment to do this time. We had to make pairs, but when I looked sideways I saw that Chris and Tyler had already paired up. Great. Thanks, guys.
A few people started walking around the classroom, searching for a partner. I stood up as well and walked to the front.
"You've got a partner?" I asked Phil, who looked up at me and shook his head quickly.
"Me neither," I said and sat down in the seat next to his.

After English, I walked with Chris and Tyler to the canteen.
"Nice one, Dan," Chris said to me.
"What?" I asked, not knowing what he was talking about.
"Pairing up with fag boy," he said and laughed.
"I suppose you're gonna make him do all the work?" Tyler said.
"Yeah..." I said, "Suppose so..."
We entered the canteen and walked to the table in the middle, where we always sat. I saw Joe and Zoe already sitting there.
"Hey," she said.
"Hi," I said while I sat down next to her. "I missed you yesterday. Where were you?"
"Sorry," she said, "Had some things to do."
"And I'm supposed to believe that?" I said, pretending to be mad.
She smiled, leaned forward and pressed her lips against mine.
"Guys, stop snogging," Tyler said, and Zoe pulled back.
"You always need to ruin the moment, don't you, Ty?" I said, a bit grumpy, but that was gone as soon as I felt Zoe's lips on mine again.

Finally school was over. I got my black leather jacket out of my locker and slammed it shut.
When I looked to the right I saw Phil at the end of the hallway struggling to open his locker.
I walked towards him, but he didn't seem to notice me until I was standing right next to him.
"W-what do you want, Dan?" he stammered, not looking at me.
I slammed his locker, and it opened in an instant. Damn things.
"Thanks," Phil mumbled while he got his books out.
"About that English assignment," I started, "When do you want to work on that?"
"Oh... uhm... I don't know... I haven't really... thought about it," he said, closing his locker.
"You're free now?" I asked.
Phil nodded.
"Let's go to my place then."
"N-now?" he asked, surprised.
"No, tomorrow morning," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "Of course now."
"Okay."
We walked to my house without saying much. To be honest, I didn't really know what to say. I had promised not to call him any names anymore and I didn't intend to break that promise; Phil seemed to be feeling how PJ had been feeling. He was vulnerable.
We entered my house, when I said: "My parents​ are not at home this week."
"Visiting my aunt," I added when I saw Phil's confused expression. But, as the words sunk in, he looked scared. Again.
"For god's sake, Phil, what's with that look? I'm not going to hurt you!"
"I'm sorry," he said softly while he sat down on the couch. "It's just..." His voice trailed off.
"Yeah?"
"Last week you hated me, called me names and pushed me in a pool, and now..." He signed. "What happened friday night at the bridge... Why has that changed your attitude towards me?" he asked, looking up at me with puppy eyes.
"I just don't want to make you feel any more miserable than you already feel," I answered simply.
"Thanks," he said. "I... I appreciate that a lot."
I gave him a faint smile, before getting my English book out of my bag.

Phil and I worked for hours on our English assignment. We had ordered pizza, and now it was almost nine o'clock, but we finished the damn thing.
"I can't believe we worked so long on this assignment," I said while I checked the time again on my phone. "My brain feels like a weak mushroom."
"Yeah..." was the only thing Phil said and yawned.
I quickly checked Tumblr, and while liking a few posts, I suddenly felt something on my shoulder.
I looked sideways, to see that Phil had fallen asleep... on my shoulder.
His head was slightly leaning on me: I didn't dare to move, afraid I would wake him.
I spent another hour on Tumblr before drifting to sleep as well...