Boarding School Boyfriends

Chapter Twenty One

Will, Woody, and Charlie, for some reason, though it'd be a good idea to go into the main city of Plymouth and go on an adventure. Dan, knowing how bad he is at not getting distracted by things and Kyle's terrible sense of direction, they thought it was a terrible idea. Granted, they were right, as they are now standing in the middle of fucking nowhere, with no idea where their three other friends are.

"We're so fucked," Dan sighs, looking around the street. The only shops around them are small businesses that look shady, so they decide not to go in them. "We don't even know anyone's phone number." 

Kyle looks up and down the street again, "I don't know what to do, Babe," he huffs, completely clueless. There is literally nothing around them that could be of any use- they can't even remember how to get back to the street where all the main shops are. "Should we walk up there?" 

"We've already been up there, though," the low rumble of car engines and the occasional clicking of heels against concrete fills the air, but nothing that could show them any way to get back to the familiar. "We've been everywhere. We're lost." 

"We're not lost. Look, I don't know about you, but I'm starving. If you want, we'll sit in that cafe, have something to eat, then hope to God we can find each other, okay?" Kyle offers, raising his eyebrows at Dan, who, really, would prefer just to get on with looking so they can go back home. As much as he hates to admit it, he misses being at school, where all they did was sit on a football field and talk. There was none of this getting lost or having to go to a thousand different places.

"Okay," he mumbles, slightly defeated. He trails behind Kyle, feeling a bit like a child throwing a tantrum, up the path and into the cafe, where they both get a bacon cob (much to Kyle's delight). Dan was happier to get a cup of tea.

"This can be our accidental date, huh?" Kyle winks at Dan, leaning over the table and grabbing the other boys hand, gently stroking his thumb across his knuckles. "I love you, you know that, don't you?" 

Recently, Kyle has felt as though Dan has been really quiet. Since they went to the beach a few days ago, he hadn't been his usual self, instead falling quiet. Quiet is not how to describe the boy...

He nods, smiling. "Yeah, course I do." 

"You've been quiet recently," the other boy comments, biting his lip with concern in his brown eyes. Dan has never been able to get over how beautiful Kyle's eyes are- then again, he finds it difficult to get over how beautiful Kyle is. "It's worrying me. You're never quiet." 

Dan looks down to his plate, where the remaining crumbs of his bacon cob now sit. "I guess I've been thinking too much then, huh?" 

"About what?" 

"Well... You, you do know about Will and his parents, right?" He asks, keeping his voice low. He hates the thought of having to tell Kyle about Will's parents because it's really not his point to say, but Will has been on his mind a lot recently. Kyle just nods. "Well, just imagine if that were you. I know you and your parents don't get along necessarily well, but imagine just not having them there. One minute you're there having a good time, celebrating Christmas' and birthdays, the next? They're gone. It makes me feel sick. It makes me feel bad for him, because, as bad as it is, I pity him. I pity him because when I think of it, all I can think of is it being his birthday, and nobody knows, and he just sits there knowing that nobody cares. Or it's Christmas, and everyone is at home, having a good time with their parents, and he's trapped at that shitty school all by himself with absolutely fuck all there. How on earth does he cope with it? It's not even the presents- nobody should spend Christmas alone. It's horrible." 

Dan's voice cracks at the end of his sentence as tears flood his eyes. Will is such a nice, innocent person and it kills him to know what he has to go through.

"He doesn't even want this anymore. He told me. He sometimes just wants everything to end. Can you imagine that being you? Where you feel so fucking isolated that you think you'd be better off as nothing?" He asks Kyle through a straining voice, but Kyle can only watch his boyfriend as tears stream down his face. The picture that Dan has presented to him makes him feel sick because it's true. Nobody should have to spend any event being forgotten about.

"He has us now, Danny. That can't bring his parents back, but perhaps, if you're not bothered, we could stay at school over Christmas so he's not alone? I can't imagine it, either, Danny, but these things happen to good people. We just have to make sure he's okay, alright?" 

Dan sniffles and nods, but he can hardly find the words to speak without completely sobbing his heart out. He doesn't know how nobody in the small cafe has noticed him. 

"You're too good for the world, Dan. The world doesn't deserve you."