incarceration //phan

six

Dan
"You have no idea how much I've missed you."

Hearing Phil's voice after going on without it was the first time he'd felt genuine happiness since he'd left. It had only been a matter of weeks, but time had crawled on so slowly it felt like longer. For those few precious moments, Dan could allow himself to forget about all the chaos encircling him and talk to Phil like he was able to before.

"Is everything alright where you are?" Dan decided to ask him.

"Not really." Phil responded. "I'm sorta sick of telling myself that life's great right now - it's the total opposite of 'great'."

Dan wasn't surprised that Phil was unhappy at that moment. He couldn't blame him for his sudden lack of optimism.

"Why so? Vent all you want, I've missed speaking to you."

"Let's start with the fact you have a girlfriend and no recollection of who I am."

"Double yikes to that. How's Connor doing?"

"Labelled as 'Academy Basket Case', no friends as a result of it and doesn't leave my side. I reckon Alfie and the place in general has messed him up a little - the guy has a fear of chairs, I can't imagine that was a thing before. That aside, he's sorta kooky - weird in a good way, he has a cool insight on things. He says hello by the way."

"Tell him hello back - and that I miss him." Dan added to the end.

"Bell's ringing for class, we'll talk to you during lunch hour. Love you."

"Love you too, but it's half past four, aren't your classes over?"

"Alfie likes to fiddle about with time, Connor and I had nine hours of classes with no break the other day. We were both starving."

"And you're still living to tell the tale? Impressive."

"We thought so too. Anyways, I really need to be going."

"Talk soon?"

"Hopefully, as long as Alfie doesn't pull any stunts like he did a few days back."

Dan left the conversation at that, not wanting to hold Phil up; that and somebody else had caught his eye walking down the corridor.

As expected, Dan wasn't a big fan of PJ Liguori at that moment in time. He'd been keeping a low profile for the past few weeks, it was the first he'd really seen of him outside of classes.

Dan would like to have thought it was the guilt that had driven him into his sudden recluse, or it could be down to the fact he'd come to the realisation that he'd been used and that awful feeling had finally sunk in.

The hallway was deserted, Dan could say what he wanted to PJ and not have to worry about people hearing. Not that it'd bother him even if someone did - the entire world could know for all he cared about saving PJ's 'good boy' image.

"I'm sorry, okay?" he said, presumably acknowledging the look of disapproval courtesy of Dan.

He stared him out, feeling satisfaction at how uncomfortable PJ was feeling and savouring each moment because Dan knew PJ deserved a hell of a lot more than a bit of awkward eye contact.

"Apologies don't raise men from the grave, PJ." Dan responded bluntly after many moments had passed.

"Yeah, I know. I wish I hadn't gotten involved with -"

"Accessories to murder don't get wishes. They get jail time and an unforgiving conscience. You're getting away with this, I've been made a suspect - and you have the audacity to tell me you're feeling sorry for yourself? I can tell you there's a family out there who feels a hell of a lot worse than you'll ever feel."

"I never said I feel worse than Shane's family -" PJ

Dan proceeded to cut him off a second time.

"You participated in taking away someone's life; if you feel so terrible, do the right thing and turn yourself in."

With that he left PJ, Dan had made up his mind that he really didn't have time for him. He felt the smallest pang of guilt, and cursed Phil as soon as it hit the pit of his stomach- it was probably his fault that Dan had started feeling remorse when he got angry at people.

A day or two had passed and Dan had almost forgotten about his and PJ's conversation, it had slipped to the back of his mind - after all, there was more important matters for him to worry over.

Dan pushed open the door in his room and saw a small piece of paper on top of his pillow, presumably some form of note. His eyes scanned over the two sentences written in an unfamiliar scrawl.

'There's blood on my hands, but it hasn't stained me like it has others.
I've done the right thing, please do the same;  for Him if not for myself.'

What the hell is that supposed to mean? A little too cryptic for Dan's liking. There was no name or any sign of the writer; he was more pissed that someone had got into his room than anything else. He put the paper into the pocket of his trousers and left, for once not wishing to be on his own.

He made up his mind that he'd go to sit with people for the rest of his lunch time. Louise had suggested that Dan stayed with them for as long as he needed. She'd told him that his moods had been 'mixtures of cold colours' as of late and the isolation would only make matters worse. Dan couldn't help but agree, being alone with his thoughts considering recent events wouldn't be the best thing; he'd probably talk himself into something daft with no one to help him rationalise.

Dan sat down with Tyler and his friends, the reason as to why they welcomed him with such open arms was one unbeknownst to Dan; he treated them like shit ninety percent of the time. He figured half the reason behind it was down to pity, the other half being the fact it was Louise telling them he'd be there and that was that.

There two empty chairs at their table, the one to his left probably would've been Phil's, the other closer to Chris likely PJ's.

"Where's PJ?" Dan asked, feeling a little worried all of a sudden.

"Haven't you heard?"

"Obviously not." Dan mumbled under his breath.

"Horrible, don't you think?" Louise said, confusing Dan a little more.

"I still can't believe it myself." Joe chimed in.

Tyler remained silent, rather out of character of him.

Zoe turned slightly to face Dan. "Shane didn't kill himself. He was murdered."

"And?" Dan asked a little too nonchalantly considering he wasn't supposed to have known. The people around the table simply took it as him being overly rude and objectionable like he was before he met Phil.

"PJ confessed, he was the one who killed him."

***

Predictable?

We're 6 chapters in and we already got 3 different plot lines going on, why do I subject myself to this?

And thanks for 500+ reads, that's pretty cool.