// blurry face was ranked #386 I feel like I'm going up in the world (of fan fiction) //
dan
Dan walks into school the next day, looking down at the bandages wrapped over his hands where the glass stuck into his skin.
His mother may be sucky and stupid, but she is a doctor so she cleaned Dan's scratches and dug the tiny pieces of glass out of his skin before bandaging them up.
Dan pulls his earphones out, wrapping them around his phone, which he slides into his pocket as he arrives at the school gates. Dan prays he won't get asked about his hands, but he knows that he will.
"Hey Dan!" Pj says as he approaches, "how was your- What happened to your hands?"
Dan had already thought up a well rehearsed lie. He wasn't very good at lying though, and he'd forgotten the lie he'd thought up.
"Uh... My window broke," Dan says, "I slammed it too hard and the glass shattered onto my hands."
"You'd have to have some serious biceps for that," Pj says doubtfully.
"No, well, you see, my window is really old, like my house so..." Dan says, "y'know, it was already worn out."
"Right..." Pj says, obviously still not quite convinced by Dan's lie, Dan doesn't blame him either - a window? - Dan wants to punch himself for being such an idiot.
"Hey guys!" Connor says, approaching them and saving Dan from any further investigation from Pj.
Dan shoves his hands in his jean pockets to avoid any further questions from anyone. He doesn't know if his heart or brain can take any more terrible lies.
Dan struggles to concentrate during school. His mind is focused on his parents. When he'd walked back inside, his father was nowhere to be seen and his mother was in the kitchen, cleaning up the broken glass.
She'd stopped in shock when she saw her son, intoxicated and hands dripping with blood. She'd rushed to help him. But when Dan woke in the morning, she'd already left for work.
He doesn't know why his parents are so desperate to hold onto their marriage. Was it for his sake? Because if it was, they should know the they'd help Dan's sanity by getting a divorce. Or was it something deeper? Or just the fact that deep down, they refuse to accept that they aren't right for each other, that they've lost their love.
Whatever it is, Dan just wishes they'd get a divorce. Most kids dread their parents splitting, but after living with constant fighting and the infidelities of his parents, he's had it. He just wants them to go on their separate ways and stop ruining his already ruined life.
"And I suppose you can tell us what we're studying this term in drama Mr Howell," his teacher says from the front, "since you've been paying attention."
"Uh..." Dan stammers, his cheeks growing hot and pink and his eyes flicker towards the ground, but then the guy beside him - Charlie, Dan thinks - leans over and whispers 'elements of a good production', and that's all Dan has so he says it.
"Um, elements of a good production?" Dan says, hi response sounding more like a question than an answer.
"Yes," the teacher replies with a surprised look, "yes, that is what we're doing! We can see that-"
Dan tunes out again for the rest of the lesson, too caught up in thoughts about his own life, and what else could go wrong.
After the bell rings, Dan finds the guy who helped him. It isn't hard, he has a bright blue hoodie on and light brown hair.
"Hey, uh, thanks for helping me out there," Dan says.
"No problem," Charlie says with a shrug, "you looked bloody terrified so I thought I'd help you out there."
"Thanks. I haven't seen you around much, or spoken to you really..." Dan says.
"Yeah well, I am new this year," Charlie says with a light laugh.
"But I swear I know you... Your voice..." Dan says, his eyebrows scrunched up I'm confusion, "you're so familiar."
"I went to another one of your schools. I think it was the one where you lasted three weeks. We were brief friends," He says with a laugh, "before you left cause of all the asses."
"Oh, right! Hey uh, could you please not mention my condition to anyone," Dan asks, "I'd rather keep it hidden from experience."
"Yeah sure," Charlie says, "so... Want to show me around? I didn't make any friends on my first day."
"Course," Dan says with a smile, "follow me."
***
Dan arrives home in a relatively happy mood, but of course, that is shattered when he sees that both his parents are home.
Dan walks in hesitantly, opening the door and peeking around into the dining room, where his father is sitting on a chair, his head hung in guilt as his mother yells at him.
"Cheating! How could you?! You disgust me!" She's yelling, and Dan feels his blood boil with anger.
"That's rich coming from you!" Dan yells, stepping into the room, making both his parents turn and look at him.
"You both disgust me! Sneaking around behind each other's backs, fighting all the time, you're setting such a great example for your child! Which, in case you've forgotten, is ME! THAT'S RIGHT, I STILL FUCKING EXIST!" Dan yells.
"Dan..." his mother starts.
"No, why are you still even together? Why can't you just divorce? It would make my life a lot easier and home a lot happier! I don't even have a home right now, because with you two, I can hardly stand to be inside these four walls!" Dan yells.
"Dan... I-I'm sorry. Your father and I, we need to talk. So could you please just... Give us a moment?" His mother asks quietly, and Dan sighs.
"I'll give you more than a moment, I'm going out. I'll see you later, not that you'll notice I'm gone," Dan says, turning and walking straight back out the front door and slamming it shut.
Dan walks all the way into town, selecting a cafe and slumping down at a table in the corner, ordering a coffee before pulling out his phone.
He sighs, taking a sip of the warm drink before scrolling through his tumblr feed, admiring all the photos or just laughing quietly at a funny post.
Anyway, it helps time pass for him, and his mind is distracted, which is a double win. When it hits five thirty, Dan decides he should head back home, and when he arrives back, both his parents are gone.
He sighs, walking to the kitchen and grabbing a snack before walking upstairs to his bedroom. He after he eats, he just sits cross legged on his bed.
He wants his parents to see how much they're effecting Dan and his life, but even after yelling at them twice, they still refuse to give up.
Dan himself just isn't too sure on how long he can last before his parents finally just tear him apart internally, way beyond repair.
Because Dan is already crumbling again, only this time, Phil isn't here to stop him from completely falling apart.
***
phil
Phil is worried.
What can he do? He's in America for another week before he comes back, and then he's supposed to be staying in the city to get used to things until university starts.
But he'll have to go back home, to find out who did call the cops to protect Dan.
He can't believe all this has happened so quickly and so... Without warning. Just when Phil was beginning to think that maybe he had a shot at a decent life, it had to be torn away.
Was he ever going to escape his old life, or would it be a part of him that he'd regret forever, and a part that would never stop haunting him?
Phil sighs, shaking his head and opening the curtains of his hotel room, stepping out onto the balcony and looking out at the large, brightly lit city.
He's in freaking New York now, he should enjoy himself while he's here, not worry. He can worry about it when he gets home. But as much as Phil tries to tell himself this, he keeps hearing two months in his head.
Two months isn't very long when you've got nearly 100 people to consider and they're all lying masterminds.
Phil starts to panic. He's never going to be able to find the real person! So what's going to happen to him and Dan? He'll have to get Dan away from them, unless he can somehow prove that Dan and him no longer have anything to do with each other - which they technically don't anyway.
But in order to do that, Phil would have to prove that Dan means nothing to him, and even then, Shane could just abuse Dan for the hell of it.
Phil manages to work himself up even more over this, almost becoming paranoid when his phone rings, and he's so glad to see it's Connor.
"Hey Connor!" Phil says when he answers the call.
"Hey Phil! Just checking up on how you are!" Connor says.
"Uh, not too good," Phil says with a heavy sigh.
"Why not?"
"Well, y'know how I told you Shane was gone?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, he's not. And he thinks I'm the one who ratted him in, so unless I find whoever exposed him to the cops in the next two months, Da- I mean, I'll pay," Phil says, correcting himself when he remembers Connor doesn't know about Dan and him.
"Oh fuck," Connor stammers.
"What's 'oh fuck'?" Phil asks, already scared he knows the answer.
Please no, please no, please no... Phil begs in his head, please let me be wrong, please let me be wrong, please, please...
"That was me that called the police." Connor says, confirming Phil's thoughts.
Phil inwardly groans. Now he has to choose between ruining Dan's life - by not speaking to Shane, Connor's life - by turning him in, or his own life - by pretending it was him.
And three guesses as to which one Phil was going to choose.
***********
an// hey guys! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! (it's Christmas where I am! It's like, 12:30am on Christmas morning lol) I hope you enjoyed your present of a lil' cliff hanger :)
175 votes and 100 comments for a new chapter!
Thanks so much for reading, I hope you're enjoying the book so far! So much drama... Anyway, I'll try to update before the new year!
Merry Christmas, and if you don't celebrate it, I hope you have a wonderful day anyway. ^_^