A/N: THIS TOOK FOREVER TO EDIT I’M SO SORRY ABOUT THE WAIT OMG
Summary: Dan has been thrown into a completely new environment as he joins a popular boarding school, Blackwood Academy, as a new student. But what will happen when he accidentally befriends Phil, a ringleader of the meanest group of students in the school? Read on to find out more!
DISCLAIMER: Obviously (and unfortunately) everything I have written is entirely fictional. I am not claiming Phan is real.
♡ LINKS TO PREVIOUS CHAPTERS ♡
“I love you too.” I grinned through a kiss, reluctantly trying to ease myself away from Phil’s possessive grasp.
“Don’t leave.” He moaned, holding my waist and tightening his cuddle against me. “Please. Just… I don’t know. Hide in the wardrobe with me or something.”
“Phil, do I look like I want to do this?” I smirked, then indicated to my blank expression, making it pretty obvious I wanted nothing more than to lie here in Phil’s bed beside him, consumed in his arms. Even so, Phil made a screwed-up face, refusing to loosen the grip.
“I’m holding you captive.” He mumbled sleepily, his hands finding their way up to my hair as he gently began to stroke through the curled strands, sending shimmers of pleasure across every inch of my skin.
“Well, I need to start planning my escape, because His Lordship will be back in less than an hour and I’m pretty sure I’m the last thing he’ll want to find laying half-dressed in his boyfriend’s bed.” I said sarcastically, although I sensed Phil understood my point.
He replied with a defeated sigh, and relaxed his arms. Against my will, I slipped out of his grip, and left the bed as I stood up properly, my body suddenly exposed to the harsh, cold air of the outside bedroom as opposed to the close warmth under the duvet I felt literally a matter of seconds ago.
I caught Phil staring, his dazzling blue eyes travelling over my bare torso as I stretched, giving out a deep yawn of exhaustion.
“Don’t worry; in a couple of hours, it’ll be Charlie you’ll be staring at.” I said with a sigh, raising an eyebrow as I ruffled my hair in an attempt to tidy it up a little bit, searching in the mess covering Phil’s floor to find my shirt, wherever he’d thrown it last night after pulling it off me.
“Oh, don’t.” He creased his eyebrows, shutting his eyes and sinking further into the pillow. “I don’t want this anymore. I just want you.” He nibbled his lip, staring into my eyes after I’d hurriedly thrown on my shirt over my head, before perching on the end of his bed.
“Until you find someone better. Then I’d better watch out in case you try the cheating game on me.” I joked.
The light in Phil’s eyes suddenly faded, along with the smile he faked. His laugh was replaced with a vacant sigh as he dropped his gaze, keeping his eyes on the mattress instead of me.
“Phil?” I tilted my head, narrowing my eyes. “Phil, I was only joking. I didn’t mean it!” My voice raised in concern at how different his reaction was to what I expected it would be. Despite knowing Phil for as long as I had, this was the first time I’d seen him actually hurt at anything anyone joked about towards him.
“Don’t joke about that, Dan. Don’t even try to.” His voice was cold, and sharp, sending a shoot of unsuspected pain straight through my heart caused by the the shocking contrast of his voice tones. “Thinking about it like that makes me feel like a really shit person. Which I am. But I’m sick of being reminded about it.” His voice cracked up a little towards the end as he gave out a sigh and flopped back down onto the pillow, his dark hair covering the significant features of his face. I straightened out my shirt a little, and immediately approached him, going to the lengths of lying down on the bed beside him, and cuddling up close despite the little time we had left together.
“You’re not a shit person.” I mumbled, and although it sounded stupidly untrue given the situation we were in, I knew Phil wasn’t deliberately malicious. His reason for cheating like he did wasn’t because he hated his boyfriend and wanted to hurt them. He cheated because he loved the other person, and wanted to divide his love between both partners.
Probably the stupidest, most naive theory I had. But I knew Phil. I knew how his mind, and feelings worked.
“Yes I am.” Phil groaned. “Look what I’m doing?! This, this is bad. None of your theories can deny that.” He pointed to our soft embrace leaving me silent.
“What we’re doing, yes. But you’re not the bad person.” I replied carefully, stroking a strand of his fringe out of his eyes.
“But I-”
“Shh…” I silenced himm with a soft peck on the lips. “If this is bad, then I want to be bad. With you.” I whispered, knowing I was the bad person for doing this. But I was in too deep to do anything other that what I was doing right now.
I detected a small grin emerging on his face. “God, you really aren’t that academic Wonderboy you make yourself out to be, are you?” He chuckled, pulling me closer.
I shrugged. “Maybe not. But this is who I prefer to be. It’s much more worthwhile.” I said jokingly, causing a roll of his eyes and a gentle flick on the nose, before leaning in to kiss me.
It had to be a few long moments before I reluctantly broke away.
“Daaannn….” Phil whined. “I don’t want to retreat back to that hut.”
“Neither do I.” I replied in a breathy tone. “But I really have to be going now, Phil. You have 15 minutes to make this room look as if I haven’t been in here for anything other than homework, you hear?”
He smirked at the way I worded the sentence. “Yes, okay. I will.”
“I’ll text you, okay? And make sure you keep hiding your phone from Charlie.” I warned darkly, edging closer to the door.
“I always do.” He nodded surely. “See you later.”
“Bye.” I blew a pretend kis, before slipping out the door crack and into the hallowed hall, keeping my eyes on the ground, beginning to walk back to my own dorm without looking up.
“Hide your phone from who?” A voice suddenly muttered from behind me. I jumped, startled, before quickly swivelling around to find TJ standing inches away from me, his arms folded and his expression expectant.
“TJ! I didn’t see you there.” I clutched my chest to refrain from having a heart attack.
“I’m sure you didn’t.” He replied, before averting his eyes to stare into space as he laughed, as if he was remembering something.
“What are you doing here?!” My hands began twiddling anxiously with each-other as I read his expression, which unnerved me to no end.
“Oh, I just popped by.” He shrugged casually. “What are you doing here?”
“I-er… I just did a bit of homework with Phil.” I indicated nervously back to his closed door.
“Oh, you did, did you?” TJ’s gaze followed me to the door, proudly displaying the graphic poster, before back at me, eyeing me up and down. “Where’s your book then?”
I gulped. “What do you mean?” I blurted out, giving myself a little more thinking time.
“Your book. Surely you remembered to bring a book with you if you’re doing homework, right?” He frowned, obviously taking in my lack of pencils and a bag.
A book. That’s it.
“It wasn’t that kind of homework. We had to read chapters 4-9 of Jane Eyre. Phil already had 2 copies, so…”
TJ held up his hand, signalling me to stop talking. “Okay, okay.”
I let out a breath of relief at his seemingly convinced tone, although my absence of talking soon resulted in a descent of silence.
“Your hair’s a bit messy.” He pointed out my suspicously tousled bed hair. I felt my cheeks suddenly burn up as my hands immediately travelled up to my hair, subconsciously patting it down in a desperate attempt to tidy it up.
“Gee, thanks.” I laughed shakily, staring at his smirk with suspicious eyes. My hands continued to self-consciously rake through my curls as a makeshift brush. “What are you, a hairdresser?” I added, wondering why the fuck he suddenly cared about what my hair looked like. I didn’t realize it was such a discussed feature of my body.
“You don’t need to be a hairdresser to notice how your hair was different earlier, to how it is now.” He narrowed his eyes.
“Why do you care?” I shook my head, flicking my slightly tidier hair out. “Have you been keeping a diary of my hairstyles?”
“No, no.” TJ kept his cool, staring up at the ceiling nonchalantly. “Just a bit unusual, that’s all. As well as that.” His eyes flickered back to the shirt I was wearing, nodding over at my torso.
“What about it?” I questioned irritably. What was his problem?
He gave out a smug little laugh, his tongue poking the inside of his cheek with humour. “Your shirt. It’s on inside-out.”
I froze, my throat tightening as I immediately stared down to my crumpled t-shirt, the label sticking out very obviously along with my hurriedly done-up jeans.
I didn’t-
Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh holy shit no. I did. I knew something didn’t feel right about my shirt.
I felt myself begin to sweat as I fumbled with the label, hating the insulting itch it was giving off, as if it was laughing along with TJ despite being an inanimate little object. I’d never guess an inanimate little piece of fabric sticking out from my shirt could make the huge impact that it had just done. And if I don’t think of something quick, I’m fucked. Completely fucked.
What do I do?!
“Well, I-” I stammered shakily, trying to kick my paralyzed brain into thinking up any excuse. “I was in a bit of a hurry this morning, a-and, I… I just-”
He held up his hand between laughs. “Save it.”
My brain suddenly kicked into action as it inflamed with adrenaline, and I grit my teeth.
“No, you save it. I’m sorry I put on my shirt inside out, as it seems to be such a breach of your personal fucking dress code! I’m already in a rush to get back to the dorm as it is, so I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention to how I wore a t-shirt just in case I bumped into you on the way to give me an earful on how I’m meant to wear it. My hair-” I pointed to my brown curls. “Seeing as you noticed, and it’s apparently such a huge deal, my shower broke, so I asked if I could use Phil’s. Why? Because I could. Because it’s easier than any other option I had. So I did. I hope that’s covered everything and satisfied your curiosity, not that it’s any of your business anyway, because I really must be off now.” I finished all in one long breath, before turning on my heel and using the last burst of adrenaline to run away from him before he could fire any more difficult questions at me. If I wasn’t in such a dangerous situation, I’d like to thank Phil for making me courageous enough to go off on such a rant like that. In all honesty, I was pretty proud of my smoothness myself. Although it was obvious his aggression was beginning to rub off onto me, it was in times like these where I could really use it to my advantage.
I just hoped I’d managed to convince TJ.
However, my mind still continued to throw the unanswered questions around.
Why was he even there?
Why does he seem to care so much about what I do?
Why is he so suspicious?
What does he know?
What suddenly turned him into such a detective?
I swerved round a corner, catching my breath as the adrenaline rush came to a sudden end, leaving me sweaty and breathless with the lack of exercise I suffered. Part of me feared that he’d come running after me, chasing me into questions even adrenaline-powered rants couldn’t answer. Or he’d crop up again unexpectedly, demanding an excuse convincing enough to get rid of him again in a matter of seconds. I shuddered the possibilities away, scrambling around for my own key and letting myself in to my own dorm.
My own dorm was pretty weird to go back in after spending a fortnight almost solidly in Phil’s. The cream walls were bare with an absence of lopsided band posters and hoarded concert tickets, the floor was a lot tidier, the mess of forgotten homework and unwashed laundry being replaced with nothing more than a tidy, plain carpet. And both mine, and Alex’s beds were made up as opposed to having the unmade sheets and duvet crumpled in a linen heap on the mattress, a dent in the pillows and bed where Phil and I would snuggle every night. My heart ached hollowly with the thought of sleeping in my own, empty bed tonight, Charlie replacing me in that very soft dent I wanted nothing more than to be in right now.
-
“Let me carry some of these! God, I feel sorry for your back.” I smirked as I took a couple of Alex’s bags once he had finally made it off the coach and back on the school campus.
“Oh my god, you have no idea.” He sighed, his voice filled with exhaustion as he wriggled his shoulders around with the relief of a few less bags to lug around.
“Tell me about it when we get you in, okay? I don’t think either of us really want to talk while struggling with all this shit.” I held up the bags in my grasp, hauling them around with me as we edged nearer and nearer our block. It had been so long I’d almost forgotten exactly how I was meant to act around my group of friends as opposed to how I was acting around Phil for these past two weeks. Okay, no mentioning anything offensive. No making fun of anyone who it might get back to. Talk about the Ski trip to him. The Ski trip and math classes. I trained my head into the right mindset as we struggled along the corridors until reaching our dorm.
“So then, that little fucker had the nerve to call me a…” I heard a voice darkly emerge from a few doors down. I averted my eyes from the dorm keys up to the sight of Charlie giving Phil a detailed recount of his Ski trip. Phil’s eyes flickered from his own keys up straight into mine, as I quickly gave him a subtle grin of sympathy, which he returned.
“Did you just smile at Phil?” Alex frowned once we were in, dumping his bags straight onto the floor and flopping down on the bed, sprawling out and closing his eyes.
“What are you on about? Of course I didn’t.” I laughed it off in a light denial, although I was inwardly panicking. The last thing I wanted right now was a repeat of my encounter with TJ.
“Nevermind. I knew you didn’t really, anyway.” He chuckled contentedly. “If there’s two people who wouldn’t get on, it’s you and Phil, isn’t it?”
I had to refrain myself from bursting into laughter at how extremely ironic this was becoming.
I also kept from admitting anything. Yeah, I really don’t get on with him. I hate him. I also can’t get him off my mind, and I care about him more than anything else in my life.
“Oh my god.” I rolled my eyes in agreement. I totally wouldn’t take a bullet for him.
Alex chuckled again. “I still find it funny how literally not even a week into you coming to the school and you manage to shut him up. Really put that little cunt in his place.”
I gulped, my grin fading at the hateful tone his voice possessed. He might as well have been hating on me directly. It would’ve had the same effect, in all honesty.
“Yeah, I know. He deserved it.” I managed to choke out, my nails digging into my palm. Oh god, no. No he didn’t. He didn’t deserve it at all. Oh, fuck, I love him.
“Hah.” He responded, before rolling over to the bags. “I don’t want to unpack it.”
I sighed, perching on the end of his bed. “Forget about it. I want to hear about the trip!” I prompted encouragingly.
“Well, the skiing was alright.” He shrugged, before his expression lit up with memory. “But oh my god, the shit that went down between Charlie and Derek!”
“I heard all about that.” I widened my eyes.
“Really?” Alex frowned in confusion. “From who?”
“Zoe texted me all about it.” I blurted out, the lying thing becoming a lot easier much to my simultaneous relief and dismay.
“Ah, right.” He nodded. “God, I hate Charlie. How could he?! You know, that iPod was a Christmas present from his mum before she had to go off to Australia for her two year course. It was the last thing she left behind for him.” He gritted his teeth, and it actually caused me to, as well.
“Oh my god. That little shit. He has no respect for anyone else’s life! If it doesn’t fit around his or Phil’s own pretty little schedule, then he doesn’t care. It’s disgusting.” I growled, the word formation becoming a lot easier now I was on a subject I really could rant about.
“I’m surprised he didn’t get sent home. No-one apart from Emma and Cherry actually wanted him there. We were all hoping the teachers would’ve turned around and just popped the cunt on a flight back here.”
“We don’t want him here, either!” I added, smirking as I felt a rush of evil power shoot through me.
-
After two whole weeks of sitting in a near-empty dining hall, being suddenly immersed in all the students who weren’t here yesterday was a strange contrast, and also meant O had to engage myself in all these conversations as opposed to eating alone in a near-blissful silence, grinning whenever my phone vibrated with Phil’s name.
Phil was looking fairly annoyed himself over the other table, staring at his plate vacantly as Charlie droned on and on about how ‘Derek’s a cunt anyway’ and 'No wonder his mum abandoned him for 2 weeks.’ and various other subjects I had to refrain from throwing my fork at him for.
“What was that?” Derek’s voice suddenly echoed, silencing the hall as all eyes suddenly turned on him, his eyes narrowed as he stared Charlie down with a burning hate I couldn’t even describe.
Charlie stood up fearlessly, obviously up for a good old confrontation.
“I said, it’s no wonder your mu-”
“Charlie.” Phil stood up beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder as he glanced at Derek. “Don’t. It’s not worth it.”
“I don’t care. I want him to know what I-”
“Are you asking for a fight?” TJ butted in, standing up defensively as by this point pretty much the entire hall was focused on this conflict.
“Why are you getting involved in this?! Charlie, please sit down.” Phil said sharply, trying to guide Charlie back down to his seat.
“Well, why are you?!” TJ retaliated, staring him dead in the eyes. “Derek’s my best mate. I have a right to defend him.”
“And Charlie’s my boyfriend, so I have just as much, if not more right to defend him than you.” Phil spat aggressively through gritted teeth.
“Oh, he is, is he?” TJ folded his arms, and to my agony, I felt his dark brown eyes flicker to me.
“Yes. Do you have a problem with that?” Phil folded his arms, and by this point it was Charlie who was practically begging him to sit down.
TJ gave out a cruel laugh. “I don’t think it’s me who has the real problem.” He flicked his short hair.
“TJ man, just leave it.” Derek muttered.
“No way.” TJ muttered back, giving Phil a gleeful smile. By this point, Charlie was smirking to himself, obviously loving the conflict.
“Oh, you think this funny, do you?” TJ suddenly snapped at Charlie, as his attention draw away from the ceiling and at the tough-looking boy about a metre or two away from him.
“Yeah, I do actually. This is pretty good entertainment.” Charlie chuckled back at him, his grin bearing little white teeth.
“Oh, I’ll wipe that smug little grin straight off your fucking face if you don’t watch out.” TJ bit on his lip powerfully, shaking his head as his eyes averted to Phil, then back at Charlie.
“Try me.” Charlie opened his arms slightly, obviously ready for a fight.
“I don’t think I need to try you, thanks.” TJ rejected him, but suddenly turned to Phil. “But Phil….” He began, and flickered his eyes to me, causing my face to burn up and drop my gaze to the floor.
“Maybe you’d like to explain to Charlie what the hell you were getting up to with Dan Howell while he was away?”