The Game of Life {Completed}

Seven

It started raining on my way to school, and of course I hadn't brought an umbrella, so I was nearly soaked by the time I made it to school. Sandy had choir stuff in the morning, so she couldn't drive me. I was walking up the pavement to the front doors of the school when I heard my name.

"Dan, hey!" Phil said as he jogged to reach me. "Wow, you're soaked. Let's get inside." I kept my head down as I followed him in. Why was he talking to me? Surely he'd be done with me by now.

"So, how's it going?" Phil asked once we were inside, walking the halls.

"Um, it's good, I guess," I mumble, still keeping my head down.

"You okay? You seem down," He said. He sounded so caring.

"Um, yeah, just, thinking a lot."

"Okay. Well, I hope you're okay. I can't go too long without seeing your smile." I could hear the smile in his voice, and I could almost smile myself- almost. We finally made it to my locker, and I turned around to tell him goodbye.

"Well, this is my locker, so..." I stopped when I noticed him staring at me weirdly. I followed his gaze to my shoulder, where the low neck of my sweater had fallen and revealed the dark bruise on my shoulder.

"Dan, what's that?" His voice was firm, but worried too. I didn't want to tell him, nor did I need to. I shook my head and he sighed, mumbling a 'goodbye' before turning away. I felt a single tear roll down my cheek before I whipped it away, sniffled, and started my day.

"Hey, Danny," Sandy said at lunch.

"Hey," I said with my best fake smile. I nodded at Phil as a greeting, seeing the look he gave me. He knew I was faking it, but he didn't say anything.

"You know what," Sandy said. "I think we should have a party."

"Excuse me?" I said.

"Calm down. I just mean us three- you, me, and Phil." I gave her a look that said what do you mean, I thought you hated him? But she just shrugged and smiled. Phil agreed, saying this weekend was perfect. I sighed, agreeing hesitantly. Sandy smiled, hugging me tightly. Boy am I in for it.

"Okay, I need you to bring pillows and blankets, lots of them," Sandy said through the phone.

"Why, are we having a kid sleepover?" I mocked through the phone, grabbing all the pillows and blankets I could.

"Because I told you to. Phil's bringing pizza, you're bringing bedding, and I'm bring the party," she said.

"About Phil," I started as I stuffed more blankets into a bag. "Why did you invite him? I thought you hated him."

"I don't hate him. Listen, he's a cool person, I just don't think you should get too close to him in any romantic or sexual way; he's cheated on afr too many people, or just fucked them and left them." I sighed, saying 'okay' before hanging up to finish packing. I put on some on my more comfortable skinny jeans, knowing I would probably fall asleep in them, and a loose and comfortable light blue jumper with converse. Grabbing my phone and bag, I headed over to Sandy's, knowing I would be late.

"Where have you been?" Sandy said as I opened the door.

"I'm literally only seven minutes late," I said, checking my phone. She had wanted me over at seven, but now it was seven-oh-seven.

"Well Phil was here on time," she said as she lead me into the house. Phil was sat on the sofa, looking up from his phone to smile at me. I gave him a small smile back before throwing the bag of bedding at Sandy.

"Here, I brought loads of bedding stuff." She knew I had loads of pillows and blankets, so I suspected that was why she told me to bring them.

"Yes! Okay, you guys start digging into the pizza, I'm going to go take care of this real quick," she said before running upstairs. I stood there awkwardly for a moment before removing my shoes and sitting near Phil on the couch.