word count - 3525
d a n
What on Earth is that infernal screeching noise?
I rolled over in bed, cursing at having to stretch my arm out from under my warm, squishy duvet to turn my alarm off. I forgot it was Monday morning, and I have lessons. Brilliant. I closed my eyes, with my phone still in my hand, to let myself wake up before burning off my retinas with my light. After a few minutes I jumped up into a sitting position, worried that I fell back to sleep and missed class, checking my phone I grumbled and saw that it was only 8:11am. Stretching out I heard my back click and swung my legs out of bed, my feet landing on the cold floor. I reached under my bed and pulled out my earphones, plugging them into my phone and pressing shuffle on my favourite playlist. I slouched over to the other side of my room, listening to the music, which was waking me up slightly more, and rifled through my wardrobe to find something to wear. I pulled out a plain white t-shirt, dark grey cardigan and black skinny jeans, which I then slipped on.
After straightening my hair, trying to flatten the bits at the back, which were always stuck up after I woke up, I headed down stairs in search of some sort of breakfast, still listening to my music. My mum and dad had already left for work so I sang along out loud whilst making my porridge, which I ate quickly ignoring how it burnt my tongue. I rushed upstairs, quickly cleaned my teeth and grabbed my bag before heading out the front door into the rain.
Ugh, now my hair's going to go curly!
I almost ran to the bus stop but couldn't be bothered so I just trudged along, miserable whilst the rain slowly frizzed my hair and dripped down my face. On the bus I tried to partially dry my hair with my cardigan sleeve, but that was wet too, so I just gave up and listened to my music.
I managed to get into my first class a few minutes early so my favourite seat right at the back was thankfully free, not that anyone else wanted to sit by themselves by the breezy window apart from me anyway. I placed my notebook on my desk with a couple of pens lined up neatly next to it and waited for everyone else to come in, enjoying the silence. A few minutes later more students started to trickle in, some of them I didn't recognise as not everyone showed up to every class, one of the perks of the sessions being non-compulsory. I did recognise some, but I wasn't friendly with any of them. The seat next to me remained vacant as more and more students filed in. Then a student I only recognised by site, not by name, walked through the door, his black hair flopping over his face, rainwater dripping from his damp fringe down his pale skin. He headed for the back of the class with his head down until he reached the empty chair next to mine and slid into it. He didn't say anything or even look at me, which was probably a good thing as I was staring at him, confused as to why he sat next to me and slightly afraid of him. I recognised him from around the college, where he'd usually be smoking, drinking coffee and lounging about on the grass with his friends. He had black hair, which remained poker straight even in the rain, this I was jealous of. But he also had his ears pierced multiple times, a single lip ring, and sleeve tattoos, which poked out of his black t-shirt under his black faux leather jacket. His right hand was tapping a black ink biro on his un-opened textbook, I knew we wouldn't get on at all if he was planning on doing this for much longer, it was beginning to make my leg twitch.
The black haired boy was still staring straight ahead, not saying anything, so I decided to break the silence.
"I've not seen you in here much before." I say, trying to catch his eye. My arm accidently brushed against his and he pulled it away quickly, his pale blue eyes flickering over to my arm and then up to meet my gaze.
"Yeah, I haven't really been coming to class recently." He replied, his voice deep and warm. I hadn't expected him to sound so nice; I thought he'd be rude and harsh like most people were in response to my overly friendly attitude.
"My name is Dan." I said, stretching my hand out for him to shake. He looked at my proffered hand and let out a small chuckle, his eyes glancing back up to mine.
"I'm Phil." He said a laugh still etched on his lips, not taking my hand but sliding his under the table to rest on his lap instead.
Well Dan, what did you expect? What 17-year-old shakes hands in greeting? Idiot...
I tucked my chair in a little bit more and opened my notebook, embarrassed but not dwelling on it. I flicked open my notebook and wrote the date: 19th October.
Phil didn't seem up to talking, though he didn't seem totally freaked out by me so the class wouldn't be too awkward. I took to staring out of the window, waiting for the teacher to come in. The leaves that were still hanging on to the trees were dried up and brown, occasionally fluttering to the ground in the chilly wind outside. It had finally stopped raining but the puddles outside were huge, not something you'd want to walk through, and the leaves skating across them were becoming soggy, losing their autumn crunch. It was cold sat by the window, the glass being quite thin and the wood framing it having cracks and damp clinging to it due to old age. The only radiator in the room was just to the left of Phil, so I could feel some of its warmth wafting its way through the air to me, it was like sitting in two climates at once.
The teacher, Miss Franklin, finally walked in, muttering apologies for being late, and slapped her bag and folders on her already cluttered desk. How someone could work on such a messy desk baffled me, I just wanted to go over a tidy it for her, I even offered to once but she thought I was being funny so dismissed it. In reality it would have made me feel much more settled were she to have taken me up on the offer.
She scribbled the date on the whiteboard with a squeaky pen, which was red, of all colours. She didn't seem phased by the little coloured specks of marker pen still dotted over the board from its last few uses. The specks made me cringe though.
Why would you not just clean in properly?!
Phil let out a little sigh, opened his textbook to the relevant page, and resumed his pen tapping. I fished in my bag for my textbook only to find it wasn't there, and feeling irked I glanced over at Phil's trying to read what the page was about out of the corner of my eye.
The teacher started reading a paragraph out loud, which was fine, I didn't need a textbook for that, but then she assigned us the task of making an essay plan for the question at the bottom of the page. I bit my lip.
Crap...
I didn't want to just sit there and do nothing, but I was too uncomfortable to ask Phil to share his textbook so I just squinted and desperately tried to figure out the question at the bottom without turning my head in Phil's direction. Phil's hand reached over and nudged the book further away from me, turning it slightly sideways, which made it even more difficult for me to read it. I drummed my fingers on the desk. I'd left it too long to ask for a spare textbook now.
"You know you could just ask me to share my book, Dan. I don't bite." Phil said quietly, not looking in my direction but softly chuckling.
"Oh, I-erm it's fine..." I replied, smiling awkwardly.
"Dan, just share mine." Phil said, glancing up at me, clearly amused at my embarrassment. "I wanted to see how long you'd suffer in silence but I'm not that mean." Then it occurred to me, he'd moved the book away from me on purpose, he was laughing at me.
"Hmm, thank you. I guess." I said, fake scowling at him. He seemed to be easy to talk to and have a natural confidence about him. I pulled the book towards me a bit more so it was between us now, and I could finally read it. I groaned when I read the question though; I'd done this one as a practice question at least three times now.
"What? Don't you know the answer?" Phil said, responding to my moan.
"Yeah, I do. That's the problem." I replied, resting my cheek on my right fist and looking at Phil again.
"Oh... Lucky you, I have no idea what it means at all." Phil muttered, nibbling on his thumbnail and re-reading the question.
"I can help you if you wanted?" I said, my voice trailing off. I knew I could come across as a bit of a control freak at times, and I didn't want him to think I was a know-it-all who looked down on him. "I don't have to." I bit my lip waiting for his reply. Finally, after reading the question again and skim reading the paragraph above it, he gave in.
"Erm, yes please. If you can?" He said, his blue eyes looking into mine again. The sun moved from behind a cloud then and its bright rays reflected in Phil's eyes, showing up the little flecks of yellow and green amongst the pale blue.
"Yeah, of course." I said, dragging my eyes away and searching in my bag for my notebook with all my practice essays in. Flicking through I found the first version of my essay and handed it over to Phil to read through, to help him understand my interpretation of it and hopefully see what the question was asking. "I've answered this question a few times during my free periods and stuff, that's the first time I answered it, so it's not as good as the last couple of attempts but hopefully you see what I was getting at with it." I said in a rush as Phil turned the third page over and finished reading.
"You've already done this question three times? We've only been back for a month..." He said, flicking through my collection of essays. "You have really neat hand writing." He then said simply. Stupidly, I felt a blush subtly warm my cheeks. My handwriting had always been something I tried to keep neat, and something people had occasionally picked on me for, saying it was too feminine.
"Oh, thank you, I think." I say, slightly confused as it wasn't really relevant and I didn't know if he was mocking me or not.
"Yeah... Right well, I don't get any of what you wrote but it sounded clever." Phil said, stretching his arms behind him and resting his neck in the palms of his hands.
"Well that's what happens if you don't show up to any lessons." I reply, a hint of bitterness seeping through. The lessons weren't compulsory sure, but they were necessary if you actually wanted to pass.
"Sorry boss." Phil said, throwing me a casual wink. "But seriously, can you explain it to me? Please?" Phil fake pouted as he pleaded with me, and I gave in far too easily to his puppy dog eyes, sparkling in the sun that seemed to constantly bounce off him.
"Fine, but you've got to actually listen." I say, my control freak side coming out, as it always did when someone was friendly with me, or tried to flirt.
Wait. Was that a flirty wink?
Either way, it made me both uncomfortable and happy.
"I will, I will! I do actually want to pass." Phil said, chuckling again. He laughed a lot, or maybe I just laughed a little and everyone was always this happy.
We spent the next hour breaking down my essay into points, links and evidence and making a plan for Phil's own essay. Then Miss Franklin said with the remaining 30 minutes we had to write the essay using our plans. I heard a quiet 'thank you Dan' from my left as everyone started to write, and a small smile broke across my lips. It felt good to help someone.
Phil was so different to what I'd expected of him, I guess you really shouldn't judge a book by its cover.
Over the next half an hour no one spoke, but I heard Phil occasionally muttering, reading his plan and essay quietly to himself. Phil was right-handed and I left-handed so our elbows bumped into each other sometimes, which made Phil jump every time and pull his arm away, flinching at the contact.
p h i l
The bell rang, echoing through the classroom, making everyone jump. I was actually enjoying writing this essay, which was rare, and it was all thanks to Dan. He might be a bit of a bossy control freak but he did help me learn something today, which was also rare.
I ripped the essay out of my notebook, ready to hand to Miss Franklin to mark, and stood up, scooping my books and pen into my bag, which I slung over my shoulder and hugged the left over folders to my chest. Dan's eyes were on the slightly crumpled paper in my hand.
"What?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him. He looked up at me and blushed, like he was caught doing something.
"N-nothing, it's just that your work is all screwed up now." He said; his eyes flickering back to the paper as though it caused him pain.
"Well what else am I supposed to do with it?" I replied, chuckling at his oddness.
"I hand mine in still in the book." He said, simply, finally tearing his eyes away from my essay and looking up at me. He was still sat on his chair and from this angle his brown eyes looked cute, giving him the overall appearance of innocence, despite his witty tongue.
"Yeah well you would." I smirked and walked to the door, putting my essay on the pile on the spare desk at the front, throwing Dan another small smile before heading out the door.
I walked towards the main building with the coffee shop in, using my bag to shield my face against the heavy rain, which had started to fall again. Jogging slightly, I darted under the over hang of the sports block to escape the rain for a while. I pulled out my phone, wiped the screen dry with my sleeve and checked for messages. Sure enough there was one from Alex asking to meet at our usual spot. I typed out a quick reply, struggling to not sound too blunt and irritated, there was no need to ask the same thing every day, we always met there and always will.
As I walked to meet Alex I thought about the essay I'd just handed in, which lifted my spirits a bit, I thought I might actually get an okay grade for this piece of work. I turned into the dry coffee shop and joined the queue, picking up an apple on the way.
I almost dropped the apple though when someone came up behind me and squeezed my sides in what was supposed to be a fun and playful gesture, but it just pissed me off and made me jump.
"Hey Philly," Alex said, tapping me on the nose with her index finger, making me pull away. It set my teeth on edge when she kept touching me even though I asked her not to.
"Hi Alex." I sighed, trying not to sound too miserable.
We bought our coffees and went to sit around an empty table to wait for the rest of our group to join us. The coffee shop's back wall was clear glass, showing a perfect view of the main library next door. I sipped on my scorching coffee as my gaze wandered around the room, looking at all the different people, and trying to block out some of Alex's useless babble. The coffee shop's ceiling was very high, and the block's second floor corridor jutted out over the side of the seating area, above the main entrance doors. I was staring through the glass wall into the library for a few moments, not focusing on what I was seeing until a brown haired boy gave me a little wave on the other side of the glass. Dan was sat behind the librarian's desk, a confused smile playing on his lips. I gave a half-hearted wave back and looked away, opting to join in with Alex's conversation instead of continue staring, apparently at Dan, which would have only embarrassed us both.
"Who was that?" Alex asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.
"Oh, just some guy from my Politics class." I replied, my finger running over the rim of the paper coffee cup.
"Are you friends?" She said, shuffling closer to me and looping her arm through mine.
"I only met him today." I snapped and pulled my arm away from her. I crossed my arms over my chest so she couldn't try and link through them again.
"Jeez, alright I was only asking. Don't want any competition." She giggled and scrunched her nose in what was probably supposed to be a cute gesture.
"Alex," I sighed. "Just because I have previously been attracted to some guys doesn't mean I'm always attracted to all guys. I'm not going to just go off with some random guy and leave you." I said. As annoying and touchy-feely as Alex could be she was my girlfriend, of almost a year now, and I suppose we loved each other.
Then our friends Evie and Josh (who were a couple) and Thomas came over and dropped themselves into the empty seats around our table. Thomas ruffled his wet hair, spraying us all with cold water droplets, and laughed at our groans of irritation.
"God Tommy. You're so annoying." Evie moaned from the seat next to him, wiping droplets off her face.
We all chatted happily, catching up on everyone's weekends and moaning about our Monday morning classes. I only had a thirty-minute break before my next class and glancing at my phone I noticed that I was almost late. I leant over and threw my coffee cup in the bin next to me, scooped up my bag from on the floor, arranged my folders in my arm and stood up to leave.
"Right, well I've got to go now so I'll see you all tomorrow." I said, turning to shuffle out from behind the table.
"Babe, aren't you forgetting something?" I heard Alex say from behind me. I inwardly cringed.
"Sorry." I leant over and gave her a quick peck on the lips before finally escaping and heading to my History class. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, letting my feet carry me whilst I was stewing over the awkward public display of affection in the coffee shop and as a result I managed to walk into someone. The impact made me jump and drop my folders on the floor. I looked at them splayed out across the corridor and a fleeting thought crossed my mind that I could just leave them there, but a hand was already piling them up and collecting all the stray pieces of paper lying on the floor. Crouched down Dan shuffled the paper and folders into a neat pile and handed them over to me.
"Dan, oh, thank you." I said, taking my folders from him.
"It's alright, it was my fault. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." He said, standing up, blushing slightly from embarrassment and pulling one of his earphones out of his ear. I could hear the music quietly pounding away so it must have been pretty loud.
"No, neither was I." I replied, chuckling.
"Where are you headed?" Dan asked, his fingers fidgeting with the spiral wire on one of his notebooks.
"Just in here actually." I say, pointing to the classroom a few steps away from where we were stood. "I have History, and I'm actually kind of late already."
"Oh, right, of course. Sorry, I'll let you go." Dan said, giving me a weak smile and shuffling out of my way, continuing his way down the corridor.
"Yeah... See you later!" I called after him.
Why did I do that?
A/N
Oh man, I'm so pumped to write this fic! I've never written in first person before, not properly anyway, so I apologise if I mixed my tenses' up all the way through :')
I won't be able to update this everyday like Oblivious Hearts because these chapters are going to be so much longer. That, and I have to get my head back into what it was like to be at college, it feels like such a long time ago I was there haha.
Anyway, I hope you like it! Let me know what you think so far.
T x
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