tired blue boy//phan

-25-

Phil sat in the seats him and Dan usually did. For once Dan was the one late, however only by 5 long minutes. Dan strolled in, looking extremely flustered and stressed.

"Hey Phil" He greeted, out of  breath.

"Uh hey Dan," Phil chuckled. "You okay?"

"Me? Oh yeah I'm fine.." He told Phil.

"You sure about that?"

"No, definitely not." Dan sat down, finally.

"What happened?"

"Today was just a long day, you know how it goes." Dan half smiled.

"Tell me about it." Phil insisted.

Dan smiled even more. He loved that Phil actually cared about what happened.

"Well, my mom tried to visit today, and classes were just really hard and I've got exams tomorrow and I tried studying and I just can't..." Dan shrugged. 

"I understand," Phil said, trying to comfort the flustered boy in front of him. "Um, what's wrong with your mom visiting... If you don't mind me asking."

"Oh um.." Dan was a bit nervous. "Er, can we talk about it later?"

"Yeah of course." Phil smiled. "As long as you're comfortable."

Dan beamed back at Phil, wondering how he could be so nice to someone like Dan. After a while, the two boys went back to Phil's car, because Phil offered to have him over, to which Dan agreed.

They sat in there a second, as Phil looked his phone so he could text Peyton to tell her Dan would be coming over.

"I've um, been meaning to ask you something." Phil started nervously.

"Go ahead." Dan told him softly.

"Why didn't you tell me you were thinking about dropping out?"

"I um.." Dan stuttered a bit. "I don't know, I guess nit never came up in the conversation." Dan shrugged, as if it didn't matter. Phil nodded.

"You shouldn't do it you know." Phil told him.

"Why not?" Dan furrowed his eyebrows.

"Well your future kind of depends on it, Dan. How are you gonna get a good job if you don't finish school?"

"I don't need an amazing job or anything. Just enough to pay the bills and feed myself."

"Don't you plan on having a family?" Dan began to get annoyed. 

"No. Nobody would ever want to live with me, Phil." Dan told him, clearly agitated.

"Why not?"

"It doesn't matter."

"No, tell me why.. You can trust me, you know that." Phil's voice got a bit more intense.

"Phil I said it doesn't. Matter."

"Dan-"

"Fine!" Dan snapped. "I'm depressed as hell, and all I'd do to my family is spread the sadness I feel constantly. Not to mention, I don't want them to have to deal with my abusive, self-centered, drunk mother!" Dan yelled, leaving a silence in the car for a few seconds.

"Okay? So stop fucking asking me. I don't. Want. To. Talk. About. It."

"Dan, I'm sorry.. I didn't know-" Phil's voiced had softened completely.

"Save it." Dan stopped him.

"Alright.." Phil sat there, completely shocked, now knowing what Dan went through. "But Dan, that doesn't mean you can't have a future. You can find someone you love, and they'll make you happy, because that's what love is. It's when someone or something can make you forget about everything, and just make you happy."