cliché (phan)

five

✿✿✿✿

"At least let me explain-"

"Why should I?" My mother scoffed. I frowned.

"Just- there's this b- girl. Girl. And she's really cute and cocky, and she's sweet but also insensitive. . . But deep down I can tell there's something more to her than meets the eye, y'know? So when she offered up the date I knew I had to take it, because I was determined to see that hidden side of her. I know it was rebellious and stupid of me to go out, and I'm sorry. But I'm just trying to get out there."

My mother exhaled. "Fine, Dan. But if you pull anything like this again, I won't hesitate to show you my dark side."

I gulped as she stood and left, shutting the door after her and sighing.

✿✿✿✿

At practice on Monday, I spotted Phil right away, already dressed and scrolling through his phone to kill time.

I quickly got dressed and slid next to him, peeking over his shoulder. "Whatcha doing?"

"Sending nudes," Phil replied. My eyes widened and I blinked at him. "Jesus Christ, you're so gullible."

I punched him in the arm. "Shut up."

"Alright, team!" Coach Will bellowed. We all stood, shutting our lockers. "We have a game tonight, as all of you may know. Considering how bad we lost last week, I expect you to do your very best today. Do not disappoint me. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir!" The team shouted in unison. The coach nodded once.

"Head out to the field!" He demanded. We all scrambled to leave the locker room, following after one another out the hall and outside.

I ran to the field, slipping on my helmet and looking over at Phil. "I need a practice buddy."

"And?" He played.

I rolled my eyes. "Do you want to be my buddy or not?"

Phil laughed. "Alright, I-"

"Offense, shirts off! Defense, shirts on!"

My eyes widened as Phil immediately began to tug at the hem of his jersey. I went red, thankful my fringe was blocking my blush. Phil began to slip it up before he smirked at me.

"Again with the staring, Howell?"

"Oh, fuck off!" I groaned, embarrassment filling me head to toe. I cowered away and Phil cleared his throat behind me, I turned back around, immediately wishing I hadn't as my eyes shamelessly ran over his bare chest and happy trail.

"Shall we play?"

I locked eyes with him. "Y-yeah."

We tossed the ball around, Phil throwing it and I went to kick it. After a few we'd switch it up. Currently it was back to the original, Phil tossing the soccer ball.

He then dropped it, purposely bending over dramatically and jutting out his butt towards me. My eyes widened and lips parted ever so slightly, dirty thoughts seeping into my head.

However that ended all too soon when Phil snatched the ball screaming, "catch!" I gasped as the ball came flying towards me, arms stretching out to shield myself.

My hands didn't catch it, but my face definitely did it.

I flew backwards, smacking my head on the grass and reaching up to hold my stinging nose. I groaned in pain. Phil hurried over, kneeling over me.

"Fuck! I didn't mean to hit you in the face!" My eyes were watering. "Oh my god, please don't cry- shit I feel so bad. . . do you need me to take you to the nurse?"

"I think you broke my nose," I responded nasally, pulling my hand away to see blood on it.

"Howell! What the hell happened to you?" Coach Will yelled. I sat up, feeling dizzy.

"Ball to the face," Phil told him for me. Coach ran his hand over his face.

"Take him to the nurse. I expect you two to be well prepared for tonight's game."

Phil nodded. "Of course, coach," he said. He reached down, clutching under my arms to lift me up. I clung to him as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder, reaching over to wrap mine around his for support. We stumbled to the nurse, my head pounding and nose bleeding all over my hand the whole way there.

"What happened?" The nurse asked.

"He got hit in the nose with a soccer ball. It might be broken."

Phil let go of me and I reached down, clinging to the hem of his pants to keep myself upright. The nurse removed my hand, examining my nose. Her lips formed in a tight line.

"It's definitely broken. I'll get you an icepack- your nose will be swollen and probably bruised though."

I nodded and hopped up onto the bed, holding my nose.

"You should probably get back to practice," I murmured to Phil. He nodded, ruffling my hair and beginning to walk out when the nurse stopped him, shoving the icepack into his hands.

"You're gonna have to stay and hold the icepack up from him, I don't trust him with it by himself."

"It's literally a bag of ice," I protested.

"Exactly. If your body is so fragile that you'd break your nose from a ball to the face, I'm pretty sure you'll manage to do something stupid with the ice as well."

I exhaled. "Fair enough."

She then left and shut the door, leaving Phil and I alone. He walked forward and wrapped the ice in a paper towel, holding it up to my nose. I hissed in pain. "Sorry," Phil chuckled. I rolled my eyes.

"I'm gonna look like Rudolph after this."

Phil laughed. "Rudolph the red-nosed reinqueer," he joked. I burst out giggling, only to groan in pain when my nose brushed against the icepack too hard. "Are you gonna be able to play tonight?"

"Yeah. Thanks for staying, by the way."

"No problem, Howell."

"Lester," I shot back. He chuckled.

It was quiet again, my body still, cautious to not hurt myself any more. Phil had his mouth shut, looking away from me. Then we locked eyes, and he leaned forward, and this time I leaned forward too.

He was slowly removing the ice from my face, and when I felt his hot breath on my lips my eyes fluttered shut, only for them to fly open and water when his nose knocked against mine.

"Ow!" I cried out, snatching the icepack from him and holding it against my face again.

"Right, sorry about that."

Nice going, Dan, I scoffed.

This was just a whole relationship of cliché events.

But maybe that wasn't so bad.