"Did you hear about Mr's. Lamen's cat getting ripped to shreds last night?"
"Oh yeah, poor thing. She must be so broken up about it."
"Of course she is. You know, my dad thinks it was a wolf."
"Oh please, there aren't any wolves around here."
"That's just what my dad thinks."
The two girls continued whispering to each other in the back of the classroom, and Phil tried his hardest to block them out, but he was sitting right in front of them.
With a loud sigh, he closed his empty notebook and stared boredly up at the front of the class, where the teacher was going on about everything that could possibly be considered boring.
He wasn't usually one to slack off in school. But he hadn't gotten any sleep last night, and all of his classes just seemed exceptionally dull today. He wouldn't be too surprised if he ended up falling asleep on the desk right then and there.
If he was being one hundred percent honest, it was all the fault of that stupid Dan. Phil had tried to shake any thought of the brunette out of his head, but it was useless. He'd tossed and turned all night, not even being able to close his eyes without being plagued by the boy's breath taking smile and his stupidly amazing eyes. Phil had no idea why he was so consumed with the boy, especially since they'd met only two days ago, but he hesitantly accepted the fact that it wasn't a bad thing.
And sitting in the middle of his World History class, with his head propped up in one hand and his eyes starting to droop, his mind drifted off once again into the world full of brown eyes and mythical kisses.
He was just getting to the interesting part when the door slammed open, jolting him out of his daydream and nearly sending him flying from his seat. The whole class was silent, even the teacher, staring at the open door, and Phil sat up, much more alert than he'd been before, as Dan himself walked into the room. He looked around sheepishly at the rest of the class.
"Sorry about that." He said, wringing his hands together nervously. Phil could hear the girls whispering even more feverishly, giggling and sighing as they most likely stared at The New Kid. He rolled his eyes, clenching his jaw to keep him from snapping at them out of pure jealousy. He needed to keep control of himself, lest he cause any unnecessary drama amongst his peers.
Phil reluctantly drew his gaze from Dan, who was still up front talking to the teacher, and stared pointedly at some random point on his desk. His stomach was twisting anxiously, and he could almost hear the blood pumping faster through his veins. Goddamn that stupid, attractive boy, making Phil go crazy the way he did. He liked him so much, he hated him, if that made any sense.
He glanced up, for just a second, but it was a second too long. Dan looked over at him at just that moment, and then they were staring at each other. Phil was frozen in place, for some reason not being able to physically move his eyes away. And Dan didn't look away either, even as he made his way to a seat in the far corner of the room. Phil was only slightly glad there weren't any empty seats next to him.
It was when Dan smirked at him did he break the eye contact they had, cursing himself mentally for once again getting pulled in. He didn't want to get attached. No, that wasn't true, he wasn't supposed to get attached, because it would only disappoint himseld further. But even as he told himself this over and over again in his head, he could feel the heat of Dan's eyes still on him, and damn it was a good kind of heat.
"I heard he's a foreign exchange student. Like, he doesn't speak English or anything."
"Stop being an idiot, Becky, he wouldn't be in this class if he didn't speak English. But he's cute, right?"
"Oh, definitely."
God, those two were annoying. It was a wonder how Phil kept his thoughts to himself everyday. He usually just blocked them out, mentally putting them on mute, but he was too high strung for that right now. It took everything he had not to turn around and just snap at them.
It was so relief when the bell finally rang, and Phil had about 2.4 seconds of freedom from his stress before Dan strolled up beside him.
"So, how is your first day, then?" Phil asked innocently, keeping his head facing forward. The hallway was crowded, with other kids pushing and shoving to get to class on time, and Phil was having trouble paying attention because Dan's bare arm was brushing up against his.
"I've had better." Dan replied casually. It was as if he couldn't even tell what he was doing to Phil. But then, he probably didn't know. It wasn't as if Phil went around broadcasting it. "What do you have right now?"
"Lunch." Phil said, hoping to whatever god might be up there that Dan didn't--
"Oh, me too." Dan said happily. Well, fuck, Phil thought. "What do you usually do, then? You don't really seem as if you spend your time in the cafeteria." And how the hell do you known that?
"Hang out in the back of the school, mostly." Phil said. "It's not as hectic as pretty much everywhere else. Just me and The Cigarette Bunch."
"'The Cigarette Bunch'?" Dan asked, laughing slightly.
"Yeah, you know. The group of kids who always find some lame excuse to go and smoke out back? At least they don't bother me."
"Man, do you have any friends?"
Phil didn't answer, choosing instead to stare at the dirty floor as they continued walking. He didn't want to admit it, but he really didn't have any friends. He just didn't think it was all that important, making friends, when you'd probably only know them for four years before splitting up and never seeing them again. Not that Phil hadn't thought about it before. He'd wondered what it was like, having at least one person who you could do everything with, tell everything to.
And he was kind of wary about other people. Half the teens he even interacted with were arrogant, two faced assholes who'd make you think one thing before having you believe another. He just didn't want to think he could actually rely on someone, and they turned out to be stringing him along the whole time. Trust issues, some people would call it.
"You okay?" Dan asked, slightly worried, and Phil jumped back into reality flashing him the most realistic smile he could muster and nodding. He didn't want to let Dan know what his personal life was like. Cause that would just be a step closer to an emotional bond that Phil didn't want to-- couldn't make.
"Fine." Phil said. "I'm fine, just...people aren't really my thing. I prefer being on my own, you know. Much less drama."
"Oh, come off it." Dan said, nudging his shoulder against Phil's and nearly giving him an aneurysm. "You sound like you hate the world."
"Well, I don't necessarily like it."
Dan chuckled, shaking his head in amusement and running his fingers through his hair. Was it weird that Phil wished he could be that hair?
By then, they had reached the thick, black doors that would take them to the back of the school. Phil had been spending his lunch periods out here for the last two years, finding it much more preferable over the over crowded cafeteria and stuffy library that usually housed one or two couples making out in between the shelves. It was kind of a sacred place to him, despite the fact that he shared it with the nicotine addicts, and it was kind of weird bringing Dan along with him there now.
The sky was a rolling mass of solid gray, with no sign of the sun showing itself anytime soon. As usual, The Cigarette Bunch was holed up in the far corner of the lot, next the rail that separated the school grounds from the rest of the world, their orange embers like glowing beacons in the dim lighting. Phil led Dan down the cracked pavement to the set of worn stairs about three feet from the door, both of them sitting down rather awkwardly on the low placing.
"Well I can definitely see why you choose to spend your time here." Dan said, and Phil could hear the sarcastic undertone in his voice.
"Shut it." He complained. "I like it here."
"Oh no, obviously." Dan continued. "It's got that whole 'emo' vibe going on."
Phil couldn't help but smile, smacking Dan's arm playfully as he fake scowled at him. His whole body was electrified as he sat there, just barely touching Dan with his own vivid imagination kicking in to make things much more intense.
"So, uh." Phil said slowly. "Why'd you move, then? Or at least, why'd you move here of all places?"
He looked over at Dan expectantly, chewing on his bottom lip nervously. He wasn't sure if he was prying too deep or not, but Dan didn't answer right away which couldn't have been a very good sign.
"I mean." He said after a while. "I didn't really have a choice in the matter. My, er, family, they thought that we were in some sort of 'danger' back in London. I didn't exactly understand what they meant by that, but I wasn't one to argue. So it's a whole new start for us, it's like, I'm a whole new person." He laughed then, as if he had some inside joke only he would find funny. "Not that I don't miss it back home or anything, but I could grow to like it here."
Phil smiled at him slightly. "So you moved from big city London, to here? I would have thrown a fit."
"Oh, I'd love to see that." Dan said, looking up at the gray sky thoughtfully. His mouth was tilted up at the sides in a small grin, and his eyes were half closed. Phil realized he was staring not so innocently, and quickly turned his gaze to the group of smokers by the rail. The group had started to dwindle as it drew closer to the end of the period, and there were only about five of them left.
"Was that your girlfriend yesterday?" Phil asked out of the blue. He wasn't aware that the detail was still in his head, and he was too late to take it back for seeming like some nosy prick.
"Who, you mean Zoe?" Dan asked, looking over at Phil's curiously. Phil nodded. "Oh, god no." He said, looking genuinely horrified at the thought. "She's a, uh, cousin of sorts."
Phil didn't even guilt himself for feeling relief at that. Maybe now he wouldn't be so wound up all the time.
"Why, do you like her?" Dan asked, looking down at his lap intently. Phil stared at him for a minute before bursting out laughing.
"Sorry, just, I'm not into her, no. She isn't my, er, type."
"She isn't your type?" Dan said disbelievingly. "What exactly is your type, then, if not her?"
Phil thought for a second, debating whether or not to actually tell this near stranger about his personal life. He didn't usually divulge in the finer details of his sexual preference, but Dan seemed honestly curious as to why he wasn't attracted to his stunning cousin. What have I gotten myself into with him?
"Well pretty much all of the female species isn't my type." He started, staring at the doors beside them. A couple more of the smokers had left, and Phil knew there was maybe only a few minutes left of lunch. "They never have, really."
Dan looked so confused, and Phil was trying not to laugh at his expression. And then his brown eyes widened in realization, his face turning red.
"Oh." He said awkwardly. "Um, alright then."
"Don't worry, I won't jump you or anything." Phil said, laughing at his obvious surprise.
"Oh, no, it's not that." Dan said hastily. "I just....I didn't think you went that way."
"Yeah, most people don't." Phil said tightly.
The bell rang, thankfully, disrupting the ever growing tenseness of the situation. Phil grabbed his things, standing up and heading to the doors without even looking back at Dan. He didn't have the nerve to look at him right now.
As if by some unspoken prayer, Phil didn't share anymore classes with Dan. He didn't want to deal with him at the moment. If he did, he didn't know what else he might tell him. It was as if some unknown force had drawn the words from his throat and he was powerless to stop it. Phil shouldn't have been so emotionally invested in him, it would do nothing but make things worse.
But he was just so interesting, Phil couldn't help but want to get to known him. He didn't know what it was, but something about Dan just made him shiver.
And he didn't know if that was good or bad.
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a/n: Yo Yo Yo, what's up guys?
So here is chapter three of this story, hope it was to your liking, and I'll see you guys next time.
Peace :3