"O-Oh. Hi, I'm Phil." I whispered. I was screaming inside. God dammit! I thought I actually had a chance.
"Ryder." He introduced himself, not knowing that I was crying and throwing a fit inside. Dan looked at both of us with a huge smile on his face. I was very hurt, I didn't know why. It's not like he was ever going to date me. Well, he could have! I thought.
After that lunch period, the bell rang and everybody got up to go to the next class. I was really glad we were leaving, the whole time I was sitting there, all I could see Ryder and Dan being all lovey dovey.. and I couldn't stand it. I had developed such a crush on this guy in such a little time. It made me confused. It still confuses me... How did that even happen?
"Hey Phil?" Dan asked, touching my shoulder as I picked up my bag. I looked over at him, butterflies erupting in my stomach.
"We're hanging out in the woods later... you want to come? I could hook you up with a girl..?" He suggested.
"Oh- No, I-I'm gay." I told him. His eyes widened.
"Oh! Well, I could hook you up with a guy. But do you want to come?" He shrugged it off, pulling his bag over his shoulder.
"You don't have to hook me up, Dan. And yeah, what time?" I was instilled with a little confidence from him inviting me- the new kid, the loser- to hang out with him and his friends.
"8:00. You know the forest over by the huge lake." I nodded. Our new house was a fifteen minute walk from the lake. Now, there are lots of good memories there. At that lake. But I'll get to that later.
"Cool." I said and walked away to my next class.
(--)(--)(--)(--)(--)(--)(--)(--)(--)
"You made it!" Dan exclaimed as I walked into the forest area where a fire was burning. There were nine people there, including Dan and I. All of the people there were with someone else. Dan looked so hot, he had traded his varsity jacket for a leather one.
"Okay, so... This is Cece, Shane, Karina, Lovely, Sadie, Damian. And you know Ryder." Dan pointed to each person around the fire. They all smiled at me as Dan pointed to each of them. I smiled at them, waving a little.
I sat down on a log next to one of the girls, Cece. She grinned at me. I smiled awkwardly at her. I didn't really know anybody here, I hoped I would make friends that night. I can tell you now that I did.
"So Phil! Tell us about yourself. Where are you from? You have an accent." Damian asked me from across the fire. He had an accent too, it was Irish. It felt good though, someone actually cared. Or at least pretended to care.
"Manchester." I told the group. They all nodded nonchalantly. They didn't make fun of me, a new feeling in London.
"I have a cousin that lives in Manchester." Cece told me. I looked at her with a smile that was actually real. It was so cool that I could finally fit in. After a week or so of being ignored and harshly bullied, it was a nice change.
"What's their name?" I asked her, shuffling my feet around. It was so dark, and they couldn't see me smiling.
"Rachel." She said. I looked up quickly.
"Rachel Oakley?" I asked eagerly. She was my best friend back in Manchester. I chatted with her every day on MSN. We're still good friends today.
"Yeah! Do you know her?" Cece grinned at me. I nodded rapidly.
"She's my best friend." I told them. We started to chat, me and Cece, by ourselves. She was the first real friend I made in London. And I will never forget how much she did for me.
