Among The Stars ★ Phan

Four

Phil

We walked back into my room and I started to pull out notes and such from my backpack to continue working on the presentation. "Ugh, this is going to be so boring," I said, looking through the notes on verbs.

" yeah i know, i hate school" dan sighs.

"Some of the classes are fun. This one just isn't," I groaned. "Ooh fun, we can continue our slide on adverbs now," I said sarcastically once the website finished loading.

" yeah i guess" dan said looking deep in though again not concentrating.

"So what should we put for the definition of adverb? It has to be in our own words." I said.

" I don't care anything really"

"Dan are you ok? You seem a little out of it." I asked, concerned.

" yeah sorry just thinking"Dan said tears in his eyes.

Dan

"Dan, you're tearing up... What's wrong?" Phil asks, closing the laptop.

" oh nothing really" i say wiping my eyes. But it wasn't fine, my mind was on adrian, and only adrian.

"Are you sure? We don't have to work on the project, we can talk about it if you want," Phil offers. I think for a while, maybe it would be good to talk to someone about it.

" yeah actually could we?" i say my heart pounding. I've never really talked about stuff like this to anyone.

"Of course. We can talk about anything you want. So what were you thinking about?" Phil asks.

' well i can't stop thinking about this one person and i don't know how to handle it." i say looking into Phil's eyes.

"Why are you thinking about them so much?" Phil asks.

" bc he had such a huge impact on my life and now's he's gone." tear streaming down my face like rivers.

"I'm so sorry to hear that," Phil says, and puts his arm around my shoulders."It sounds like you guys were really close."

" of course i was close to him he was my brother! And now i'll never see him a-a-again because he's dead. And my parents blame me and i just miss adrian so much and i can't handle it on my own." now completely sobbing in front of this boy i met only days before.

"You won't have to handle it on your own. I'm here for you, and I always will be," Phil says, drawing me closer. "Don't forget that."

" you'll get tired of me.. Everyone does at some point. No one wants to be around a negative person like me.

Phil sighs. "It's nice having someone who's willing to talk about something real. I could never get tired of you."

" Phil thank you." i hug him tight not wanting to let go.

"No problem," Phil replies.

Phil

I cradled Dan in my arms and he buried his head into my shoulder. He looked so broken, so defeated. We stayed like this for a while, sitting next to each other without saying a word. The laptop and school assignments lay discarded on the floor.

I glanced down at Dan to see that he had fallen asleep. I eased him onto the bed and pulled the covers over him. It was late, he might as well stay over tonight.

I picked the things off the floor and settled into bed next to him. I opened the laptop screen and started working on the presentation again, looking over at Dan every once in awhile to make sure he was still peacefully asleep.