Boarding School Boyfriends

Chapter Fifteen

Dan and Kyle lie in Dan's room with the bedroom door shut. The clock hits twelve but the pair of them don't feel tired, only oddly sick. Everyone else found out about what happened and have fallen quiet since, going to bed far earlier than usual just in utter shock that one of the pranks had not only failed but gone wrong so bad.

"Woody was so upset," Kyle tells Dan quietly, his arm wrapped around the other boy, who snuggled close to his chest. "He was sobbing his heart out at the front of the hospital when I arrived- fuck me, I thought Charlie was dead. He told me that he knows it was his fault and he hates himself for it, and he also hates the fact that he took it all out on Will." 

Dan nods, "Yeah, they both stormed off in opposite directions, but I think Will needed me more than Woody did." 

"I don't actually understand what's happened, though. What did Woody say to Will to make them both so upset?" 

This isn't a question for Dan to answer. It isn't his gossip to be sharing with everyone- if Will wanted people to know what happened to his parents then he would tell them himself, Dan shouldn't make that decision for him.

Charlie has been kept in the hospital overnight so that they can monitor him and make sure nothing happens. Everyone is relieved that he is okay (and far beyond happy that he still has his hand), but nobody can believe just how lucky he is that he hasn't lost even a finger.

"It's really personal, so it's not my thing to tell you." Dan tells his boyfriend, kissing the base of his neck. He can't be bothered to do anything but lie here with Kyle tonight, but he's so happy that he just came running when Dan asked him to. He couldn't ask for a better boyfriend.

Kyle nods, he understands that Dan respects people's privacy.

"Christopher, you can't pull 'pranks' like that!" The headmaster yells at Woody as Dan, Will, Woody, and Kyle stand in his office the following day. "Not only are you destroying school property, but you are endangering people- accidents can happen, just like they have done to Charlie!" 

"With all due respect, Sir, we didn't think it was going to go off-" Woody begins, but the headmaster slams his fist down on his desk, stunning everyone into silence.

"I don't care! I don't care if you didn't think it was going to go off, but you sent Charlie up there and look what happened! Isn't this enough of a close call to tell you to grow up and stop being so childish? Harmless pranks are fine- putting hot sauce in someone's food, whatever, I don't care, but explosives? You're stupid to even think of doing that." He turns to Will, anger flowing through his body. "And you, William? I expected better from you. I expected you to at least stop them from being this stupid- you hang around with them, don't you?" 

"Yes, but I did tell them. I told them, and they considered their options and went with it anyway. It isn't my job to police them. That's the jobs of the prefects, who get paid to do it." Will says back, argument in his voice. His three friends agree with him, though.

"Isn't it common knowledge that you should stop someone?!" The teacher roars back, stepping forward towards Will. "That could have killed him. And you, more than anyone else in this school, should know what it feels like to lose someone close to you." 

"As he said, Sir, he did try and stop them." Kyle steps in, finding the head's attitude towards Will completely unacceptable. "He tried to stop them from doing this, but they didn't listen. It's completely inappropriate to make a comment like that without knowing what actually happened, and I think you should be dishing out punishments instead of trying to pin the blame on someone for something that the prefects should have stopped anyway." 

The tension in the room is thick enough that it suffocates the room. Dan is shocked that Kyle has stood up for Will when he doesn't even know what the comment was about (although he now has the vague gist of it), Will is on the verge of crying, and Woody just feels angry. 

"Fine. Fine, I'll dish out punishments. Simmons, ten-hour detention, two hours after school on a Friday for five weeks. Christopher, five-hour detention for one hour after school on a Friday for five weeks, and the same goes for Dan and Will." 

"What did Dan do?" Kyle frowns, "He had nothing to do with it." 

"You wanna make that fifteen hours?" The head threatens.

"Well, I might be free but I'll have to check," Kyle mumbles, shaking his head. Dan tells him to just leave it.

"Now get out of my office."