Stick Around // phan

Chapter 1

He got there late, as usual. Being tardy was part of the reason he was there in the first place. He slid into a cold desk seat, and started to pick at his thumbs. Another kid came in late seconds later.
The teacher took roll. Phil responded with a sullen grunt to his name. Next she rattled off some lecture about how she wasn't going to let anyone slip by this summer, and how they'd all have to put in the work. She then went back behind her desk, and continued to "check her email." Phil knew better than to heed Ms. Mayberry's words, and got to work.
It was time to narrow them down. His feet hit the desk, and some people jumped. He made note of them. He leaned back in his chair, and even less looked alarmed, most of them not caring in the least bit if he'd fall back and crack his skull. Final round. He slowly brought his knuckles together and cracked each and every one, dragging the horrid sounds out. A few rolled their eyes and looked away, but one stayed. He cracked his last finger, and then Phil knew which one it would be.
Next to the window to his far left and almost at the back of the class, a timid boy with chocolate hair just couldn't ignore the distractions. He'd look up from whatever work he was trying to busy himself with every time Phil moved.
He bounced up from his seat, stretching out all 6 feet and 2 inches of his height for all it was worth, and strolled to the back left of the classroom. Phil's smirk was hard to hide as he noticed how hard the boy was trying not to look at him. He threw his backpack heavily onto the desk directly in front of the boy, and plopped into its connecting chair backwards to face him. The boy jumped at the clatter. Phil clasped his fingers and watched him directly, inches away from the hair he saw earlier. It smelled nice from up close. Phil started to notice other things about this kid too. His light pink sweater clung to him gently, and his faded black skinny jeans were worn very well.
"You're in for lit then?"
He tried to ignore him, but Phil didn't miss the single tick the boys head gave, mostly because a white flower wavered from the crown that lined his hair.
"Ooo, thesis statements. Spicy."
Phil had to admit, the boy was doing a better job that he'd expected.
He yanked the paper out from the boy's fragile arms. A stray pencil mark was made from the jolt.
"Give it back or do it for me."
Phil's head tilted to the side as he examined the work that was done. The handwriting was neat, curly, and mostly wrong.
"I'd love to do it for you, but unfortunately I didn't pay any attention in 11th year lit."
"I'm not surprised."
The retort came quick, and threw Phil off guard.
"So..." He scanned the paper. "You don't believe in putting your name on your work?"
Brown Hair grabbed the paper back and scribbled down a name.
"Dan. Very pretty. Suits your looks."
If Phil wasn't wrong, he saw the boy's cheeks blush and his eyes widen.
"It's Phil, by the way."
He still didn't respond. Time to drop the subtly.
He leaned close to Dan, so that the other boy could smell his cologne and his soft black fringe would gingerly graze his forehead.
"I've got a thesis statement for you..." He whispered
"What." Dan responded through gritted teeth.
"You're the cutest thing I've seen around here in awhile."
Dan couldn't hold in the small gasp that escaped his mouth.
"Excuse me?" He looked around hurriedly, like he was afraid Phil would draw attention to them.
Phil reached up to the other's ear and lightly pushed a piece of brown fringe in place. "And pink is my favorite color."
Dan dropped his pencil and his jaw. Unfortunately, Phil was too quick, and he snatched it up before Dan could.
"Ah ah ah.." He taunted
"Look asshole, I've gotta... Finish my lit..." He stumbled. Phil was biting his lip (on purpose) and 87% of Dan's vocabulary was so offended by the sight that it just left his brain.
"If you want it back, I have a few conditions."
"Oh.. Like what?"
This was it. Phil had him.
"You talk to me for the rest of the day... And do me the pleasure of continuing to be pretty."
"Fine." He took his pencil back and shoved his lit work back into his bag. "Just be quiet okay. People have started staring."
"Ha! Let them."
"Shhhh!"
"Fine."
"What do you want to talk about?"

////

They spent the next 3 hours flirting. Dan found that his usually strong resolve to not give in to hot guys with questionable motives completely crumbled when it came to this Phil character, and to be honest he didn't mind watching his lips move for a few hours, as they were very inviting.
He got more comfortable with the playful talking after a bit and was fueled just as much by Phil's confidence as he was.
Phil, however, was just confident due to excitement. After 3 consecutive years of picking up short term lovers in summer school, Dan was far above the rest. He bet that no one ever expected him to pick up one that was so pretty. And wearing a pink sweater even! Flowers in his hair! People would get a kick out of this year's selection. He didn't know why he'd never seen him around before, because if he had he'd have noticed those eyes. They were endless pools of caramel coffee. His laugh and words were just as warm and supple as the coffee in his eyes. This would definitely be a fun one.
In the time they spent conversing, Phil had learned some valuable information about Dan. He was shy, the cute kind of shy. He didn't want to go to college, just like Phil. He wore something pastel every single day. It was very easy to make him blush. The most important of these things, Phil thought, was that Dan was definitely into boys.
The bell rang at 12:00 for lunch break. Dan gave a sudden and frightened jolt, looking genuinely scared for a second. Phil had to hold back laughter. Neither of them was sure how that much time had already passed.
Dan picked up his bag and began to sling it over his shoulder.
"No." Phil grabbed it and slung it over his own bag. "Let me."
He blushed again, and as they left the classroom and made their way down the hall, Phil let his hand brush Dan's exactly 3 times before he gently took hold of the others fingers and laced his own into them. Phil knew guys go crazy for such sweet gestures happening all the sudden. It was his finest craft work. Dan's hands were cold, but not in an off-putting way. His fingers were slim and soft, and for some reason worked much better with Phil's own than the others had before. The 'sudden hand holding' step was usually one of his least favorites, but he didn't mind this one a bit.
They turned the corner and merged with a large crowd of kids, and Phil felt the hand wrapped around his tighten instinctively. He decided to even out his awkward confusion.
"So. You moved here from Newcastle last month? What's the appeal of Manchester?"
Dan shrugged, his shoulders tense and his eyes darting everywhere. "Parents got relocated for work. The usual. It's really not that exciting."
Phil leaned just a bit closer to him. "I have a feeling everything about you is more exciting than you'll lead me to believe."
Dan smiled, eyes still fixed to the tight crowd around him. "What about you then? Why are you here?"
"I'm bad at English and geography, remember?"
"You said you'd been coming to summer school the last 3 years, and I don't see any reason why you'd want to stay here. Why don't you get your grades up?"
Phil laughed inside himself. A snarky one apparently.
"There's some fun to be had here you know. It's not all just make up work and dropouts."
They turned the corner into the lunch hall. Even though there were less people here than there were during the regular year, there were still too many in Phil's opinion. He didn't like any of them much either.
Dan's hand dropped from Phil's.
He looked over to see his eyes widen and his fair skin just go sickly pale.
"Dan? You okay?"
He didn't respond, but now they were standing directly in the doorway. People were pushing them left and right, and they started to get separated. Phil flat out shoved a few people. Didn't they see them standing there? What the hell?
He got to Dan to find him standing up against the wall looking like he was going to pass out. He took his hand again and drug him to the side of the room where there weren't any people.
Dan's breathing was quick and audible.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?"
Dan looked in his eyes and suddenly buried himself inside Phil's dark flannel. Phil felt overly awkward and confused. A few people stared. This wasn't turning out like he'd planned.
Dan's head moved up a bit towards his ear. "There's so many people."
"I thought you came from Newcastle, their school districts are so much bigger than this one?"
"I went to a private high school with 600 people. They're all looking at me."
"They're not looking. I promise."
Well, they hadn't been when they walked in.
"They're looking at my sweater and my flowers and they're thinking I'm a girl or some disturbed retard."
A light clicked on in Phil's head. A girl in his class once moved schools because she couldn't take being around large crowds of people. He always felt bad for her. She'd have panicked reactions to it, he even remembered her being diagnosed with something. Was Dan like her?
Phil tried to think quick on how to comfort him. "No, if they're looking at you at all, they're thinking about how nice your sweater hangs on your shoulders or how precious your dimple is or wondering how nice you smell, which I'll tell them is very nice actually..." Phil was rambling and he knew it, but he didn't know any other way to make a guy feel nice other than mindlessly complimenting him.
"Do you know if there's a table that's out of the way somewhere?"
"Yeah.. Yeah there's one down the way to the right."
Phil wrapped his arm around Dan's and connected their hands at the bottom, and Dan shrunk into Phil and hid behind him like a shield. Phil felt a heavy responsibility to protect him from the wandering eyes, even if they weren't there, just to help him out. They made it to the table in record time, and Dan sat facing away from the crowd and Phil took a seat so close to them that their whole legs were touching. He began to stroke Dan's hand to calm him down, but when he looked at his hand actually touching the other boys for the first time, his chest felt funny.
'Focus Phil' he thought, 'he's having an anxiety attack, Jesus get it together.' That's what it was she had, crowd anxiety.
"Do you want any food?"
Dan side eyed the counters on the other side of the hoard of people. "I can stand to go without."
Phil couldn't just let him starve. He had to get some food in him. It was lunch after all.
He reached into his own bag and pulled out his emergency snack- a thin fruit filled pastry crisp package. He handed it to Dan.
"What's this?"
"They're really good. It's strawberry in the inside and it's got graham cracker crust and icing on the top. Please try it at least."
Dan opened the package with shaky hands, and nibbled on the side of the crisp. His eyes lit up, and he took another small bite. Slowly, the color began to return to his cheeks as he ate faster.
"You like it?" Phil ask, genuinely hoping he did.
"These are amazing. Where did you get them?"
"Just the store..."
He had them finished already. He looked away from Phil's eyes.
"Thank you. You didn't have to do that but thank you."
"Don't worry a bit."
Phil suddenly realized his heart was slowing down. Why had it been fast? His face felt warm all the sudden. Was he... Blushing? No. Phil Lester didn't blush. He made others do that.
"I'm sorry I freaked out earlier, I really tried to hold it together. You shouldn't have had to do all that."
"It's okay, really. I didn't know you went to a small school."
He sighed. Phil could see a past memory surfacing in his eyes.
"Yeah my.. Parents. They put me at a private catholic school for the beginning of my life because I couldn't take being around so many kids at public. It's just the crowds... I'm fine one on one with people but when there's lots, everything goes blurry."
Why was he sharing all this with Phil? It's like his filter had been ripped out for the last 3 hours.
"Well whenever we're in the halls and stuff, if you want to walk with me, just ask. If it helps at all. Or not. Whatever."
Dan smiled. "Thanks."
They sat mostly in silence and watched others around them. Phil had long since dropped his hand, now quite unsure about just taking it so rudely like he had earlier.
The bell came a bit later, and they waited an extra minute to let the lunch room empty about half way before they stood and made their way back to their classroom.
Dan curled his pinky finger around Phil's in the hall, and held tight to it. Phil found himself subconsciously leading so that people would part in front of them.
He couldn't believe he'd just barged over to Dan like that. He could have really scared him. He made a mental note to be more docile in the future.