One Way || Phan

Part 9.

*Dan's POV*

I was running. Running as fast as I could, as fast as my legs could carry me.

I didn't pay attention to where I was going at that moment at all. I just ran. Far, far away from what I had just seen. I didn't want it to be real.

I hoped Phil hadn't seen me. I had felt so damn shocked by seeing Phil in such bad condition, that I stumbled backwards and almost fell off the roof, causing me to quickly grab onto something to prevent myself from actually falling. It had made a snapping noise, loud of course, and there was no way Phil hadn't heard that, he wasn't deaf. So I quickly climbed off the roof and ran. I was so scared.  

I bumped into several people – I had no control over my body anymore –, who shouted angrily at me. It didn't bother me. Nothing bothered me at that moment. The only thing that did bother me was Phil and what I just had seen.

Then I stopped running because my body forced me to. I couldn't continue, my feet hurt and I was out of breath. I sat down on a bench near a park, panting heavily. I had no idea where I was, I hadn't been paying attention to where I was going.

I buried my face in my hands and sighed.

I finally understood why Phil hadn't been at school for so long. It wasn't about me. It was about him.

Had he done that to himself? It almost seemed impossible, to do such damage to yourself. I couldn't believe it was self-harm, I just didn't want to believe that. It had to be the work of someone else. Was he bullied? Had he been fighting? But with who? Phil had no enemies as far as I knew, and he wasn't bullied, everybody seemed to like him. But who did it then? I couldn't think clearly.

It had hurt so much, seeing Phil in so much pain, completely broken. There was nothing left of the Phil I thought I knew, happy and smiling and encouraging. This was a broken person, desperate for help, but not getting any. And the worst part of all was that I hadn't known. I had never known why he was gone for the past weeks, why he had left me. I thought he was just overreacting. How could I be so selfish? I had pitied myself, while he was the one that needed help.

I slapped myself in the face because I was so stupid. That must have looked weird if you just walked by and didn't know what was going on.

I had to help Phil. I still had to figure out how I was going to do that, but I simply had to. Because I didn't know if I could stand knowing about his pain, his secret, and doing nothing.

I stood up from the bench, looking around. Some people gave me weird looks but I didn't care. I knew I looked tired and broken because that was exactly how I felt.

Then I went home, hands in my pockets, staring down whilst trying to figure out what to do.

-

After a few days, Phil finally showed up at school again. I couldn't believe how he did it. The way he faked a smile and acted like everything was fine impressed me. But he couldn't fool me that easily anymore. His friends and the teachers seemed to buy his smile, though. Not a surprise if you didn't know the truth.

I kept my distance from Phil the first day, just observing him before making a move. I had to come up with a plan to talk to Phil again. It was impossible to help him if he kept ignoring me., but every time I moved a bit closer to Phil, trying to make a move, he noticed I did so and moved away from me. Sending him a text message wasn't working either, my number was still blocked.

After a few days of casually trying to getting in contact with Phil again, I realized this wasn't going to work. Not in this way, at least. I wasn't giving up that easily, I only needed a better plan.

Chris. 

He could convince Phil to talk to me again.

The only problem was: I barely knew Chris. I couldn't remember ever talking to him. And I wasn't going to ask PJ to solve this problem by introducing Chris to me, that would just be embarrassing. So that meant I had to talk to Chris myself and I already knew it was going to be awkward as fuck.

But it was necessary to help Phil, so I looked around for Chris the next day at school. It was hard to find a moment when he wasn't sticking to PJ like superglue, but as soon as he was finally alone I waited outside the classroom for him, so I could speak to him as soon as his lesson had ended.

The bell rang and the door of his classroom opened. The corridors started filling themselves with students, talking loudly to each other and not paying attention to where they were going, resulting in two girls almost bumping into me. As soon as I saw Chris, I walked over to him and grabbed his wrist. 

"Chris!" I said, a little loud to overcast the sound of the students laughing and chatting. Too loud as I noticed that not only him, but also some other people reacted to see who was shouting.

He spun around, looking quite confused when he saw it was me.

"Yeah?" He asked and I let go of his arm.

"Can I talk to you for a sec?" I asked, feeling a bit nervous all of the sudden. "It's about Phil."

Chris looked at his friends, who were at the end of the corridor already before noticing Chris wasn't keeping up with them. They started shouting his name to make Chris hurry up and come with them. 

"Please, it's important," I insisted when I saw he hesitated.

Chris looked at me for a second, but then nodded and told his friends he would meet them later. They stared at me with confused eyes, probably wondering what was so important and had to disturb their break, before shrugging and walking away. 

We waited until everyone had disappeared from the corridors to enjoy their free time with friends in the canteen. Then Chris turned to me.

"So, what's wrong with Phil?" He sounded genuinely concerned.

"Nothing," I lied, wondering how I was going to say this. "It's just – I have to do this project with him for art and he's basically ignoring me. And I was wondering... If you could – Yeah, basically talk to him. Because he doesn't talk to me and..."

Wow, this was awkward. Chris looked at me like I was insane. It was a strange question, I was aware of that.

"So... You want me to talk to him so he starts talking to you again?" Chris asked, with surprise and confusion in his voice.

"Eh, y-yeah. Basically," I answered, looking at my shoes. "I know it's stupid, but it's really important. Tell him it's for the sake of the project and that I will leave him alone after that. That it's just for the project."

I looked at him again, with pleading eyes. I could see he wasn't sure what to do or say.

"But what if he doesn't want to? I don't know, man..." Chris said.

"Just try to convince him. I-I don't care what you tell him, as long as it works," I realized how desperate I sounded, but I really was. "Please..." I added softly.

"E-eh, why not, okay. I'll try," He then smiled. "I'm not promising it will work though, you'll have to work things out with Phil yourself after that."

"I know, thanks, Chris," I said gratefully, smiling widely.

We then both walked away, parting ways. He went to the canteen and I went outside to sit under the oak tree, on my own again. But I was happy, the first part of my plan had worked. I really hoped Phil wasn't going to be very stubborn now because I didn't know what else to do if it failed.

I sat down under the big tree, put my backpack next to me and started listening to music, tapping my foot to the beat.

[A/N: Almost 500 reads whut

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Edited: 19/2/2018