Your Love's a F*cking Drag (But I Need it So Bad)

Chapter Six

"Hey! Lester!" The shout echoed from the other end of the hall, stopping Phil in his tracks. He wiped his expression as blank as he could, turning to face the smug smile of Avery. His fingers twitched, and he let his mind wander down a dark hole. He wondered what it would feel like to punch Avery's smile right off, to break his bones and make his nose bleed.

Violent thoughts, but justified.

"What?" Phil asked warily.

"Where's Dan?"

He resisted the urge to snark back not here. "I don't know." Lately, he didn't know where Dan was more times than he did. He assumed that he and Cheryl had broken up for good, but he'd had yet to hear any confirmation. He had however, seen the picture of Cheryl and Avery kissing. It was safe to say that neither Cheryl, Avery, nor Dan probably wanted the picture out and circulating, but that was university students drunk on independence.

"Tell him I'm sorry, would you?" It was hard to tell with Avery when he was being serious and when he was lying. The problem was that he was really good at bullshitting, and Phil was really bad at telling when people weren't being honest. His apology could be genuine, or it could be an attempt to hurt Dan even more; and that wasn't something Phil was going to let happen.

"Tell him yourself."

"I can't find him," Avery said, a patronizing tone oozing from his words. "That's why I asked you."

"You should try looking harder," Phil muttered. He began to inch backwards, heading in the direction of the French room. "I'm going to be late for class, so..."

Avery had an unreadable expression on his face. His nose was scrunched up, eyes narrowed as though Phil was a complicated puzzle he couldn't quite solve. "Yeah, sure. Bye I guess."

Phil nodded, continuing to retreat until he felt the handle of a door press against his back. He fumbled with it, yanking it down and pushing. He tumbled into the classroom, the professor pausing mid lecture and every eye turning to him. Phil flushed, biting his lip as he made his way to his seat with his head down low. Being late wasn't something he liked to make a habit of, but thanks to Avery he hadn't had a choice.

He pulled out out his notebook and started copying down the writing on the board. It seemed to mostly be review, Phil had heard rumors of a test coming up in the next few days. He reached for his phone and opened his text messages with Dan.

hey. where are you? you haven't been back to our room since monday

Technically there was a no phones policy, but after all this time Phil had learned to be sneaky. He tapped the end of his pen against the desk, chin propped up on his fist. His phone vibrated, drawing attention from the girl sitting next to him. It was a message from Dan, short and blunt: out

Phil unlocked his phone, thumbs flying. yeah i got that thanks. out where?

Another vibration. fuck off

Phil frowned. Being told to fuck off wasn't anything new, but after their encounter a few days ago he would've thought Dan would've given him an answer. is something wrong?

no

If Dan was reverting to one word answers, there was no point in trying to ask him anything else. After getting back from the party last week, Dan had admitted they were friends, refused to talk about Cheryl, and given Phil a blowjob. He was gone the next morning, and had managed to avoid Phil and their room at all costs. They'd talked once since then, and to call it a conversation would be generous.

Phil had been on his way to the library, a list of books clenched in his hand. He had a project due on the rise of modern civilization, and for once the library was proving to be more useful than the internet. He wasn't sure how the subject was relevant to a film degree, but credits were credits and there wasn't anything he could do about it.