Us?

phil

his hand goes to dan's door handle and tries to open it up. it won't budge. "dan please just let me in," the boy says. his heart sinks to his feet hearing dan's voice. 

"go away phil. let me alone will you?" 

"no dan. let me in," he says, but dan doesn't respond. he runs over to the near closet which has a bag of tools. he picks it up and runs back to the door. "look dan if you don't let me in, i will be taking down the door," phil tells the boy who has barricaded himself. 

"no you won't," dan says. phil begins rummaging through the bag to get a flathead. he puts it up to the handle begining to unscrew the screws. "fine fine phil," he says. he hears the door unlock and he steps back. the boy drops the flathead as the door opens. 

"dan!" he gasps seeing the mess on the floor. there were two towels covered in blood. he lightly grabs the boy's arm pulling up the blood soaked jumper sleeve. dan goes to pull away but phil tightens his grip lightly. 

fag is carved into the boy's skin as well as a dozen fresh cuts around the word. as if he was outlining it. "I don't feel so good," dan says. his eyes start to close and phil puts his arms under the boy's. 

"let's get you onto the bed. i'm calling the ambulance," he tells dan. he stumbles dan to the bed and pulls his phone out while rushing to the bathroom to get gauze wrap. once the operator picks up phil begins explaining the situation. "it's pretty bad. he's tried to stop the bleeding but he's went through  two bath towels. please we need help," phil says to the operator. 

"okay sir. your partner is going to be okay, there's an ambulance just around the corner," she says. phil thanks the woman and hangs up walking into dan's room. he begins wrapping up the cuts with the guaze. 

"i've got the ambulance on the way," phil tells dan trying to smile. he kisses the wrap and looks up at dan. "they're gonna get here in time." but dan doesn't respond. he only nods slightly. he kisses the wrapped up arm again. 

"phil don't," dan says to me. phil sits down on the bed but as soon as he makes contact there is a knocking at the door. thinking it had to be the ambulance he runs out to the door and opens it only to see troy standing there. phil's hand drops to his sides as troy reaches to hug him. he runs back to dan's room. 

"look troy. i don't think you should be here right now," phil says walking into the door. he sees troy's shadow waling into the room and he stands in the doorway. "don't. if you insist on staying please go to my room. dan wouldn't want you to see him like this," he says looking to the lump of a boy laying on the bed. troy nods and walks towards phil's door. as his hand touches the handle he turns back. 

"we need to talk once you get that taken care of," troy tells the boy. phil nods and walks back to dan, sitting down. 

"oh dan," phil says holding the boy's hand. he's barely in consciousness at this point. he looks down to his phone laying on the bed and sees that it's only been about three minutes since he made the call. "you're going to be okay," he says. he rubs the boy's unwrapped arm. "i love you dan please be okay," he whispers this part into the boy's ear so that troy couldn't hear it. 

soon there's another knock, "troy can you go get that please?" he yells to the boy in the other room. he hears footsteps treading to the front door. "thank you." 

dan's room is soon filled with three paramedics. two women and one man. they're asking phil questions but he doesn't know how to answer some of them. 

do you know what brought this on? 

even though phil thought he knew, he wouldn't let himself think that. this couldn't be because of him. could it? did he do this to dan? 

"i don't know i was on a date and got a text from him," phil tells the people. "please just help him." the boy is standing in a corner watching them put dan onto a stretcher and wheel him out of the room. "can I go with him?" phil asks.

"I'm sorry due to covid-19 concerns there's no visitors past 6 pm" the man says to the tall boy who now has a few tears rolling down his cheeks. he didn't realize how bad he needed to cry until just now. he must not have let himself cry to help dan. but now, watching as his best friend was being wheeled out of their home, he began sobbing. troy walks into the room after closing the front door behind dan and the paramedics.

"why are you here?" phil asks troy with tears running down his cheeks.

"because im your boyfriend you ditched on our one month anniversary date," troy says walking back out of the room and to the sofa in the living room. phil follows him.

"what do you want?" phil asks. "I told you to come by later. it's been 15 minutes.  you knew dan needed me. i told you that," he says sitting on the sofa. troy flops down beside him.

"you know what phil. I'm tired of this. the whole 'dan needs me' thing." troys hands fly to the air in an over exaggerated way to show he was fed up.  phils face scrunches up. 

"you knew when we got serious that me and dan were roommates and best friends," he says.

"but what you didn't tell me is that the two of you dated," troy says. phil's heart stops. how did he figure it out? "so phil. it's me or dan. okay? I'm not sharing you with your ex."

phil looks to dans empty room and back to troy.