Behind The Mask ~

The Odd One Out ~

A/N: TY FOR 28 READS ^^ Ily <3 

It felt like the whole World was staring at him as he walked languidly down the street, trying to avoid any sort of eye contact or being noticed by anyone. Trying to distract himself from the horribly awkward Walk Of Shame that he had to face every day, Dan plunged his hand inside his pocket and drew out his midnight-black earphones, plugging them into his ears in an attempt to block out the human world. Muse blasted into his ears, the heavy rock music pulling him away from the flurry of thoughts that were forever indented into his mind. As the track carried on playing, it felt like he was invisible to all of society; no one could see him at all or were able to judge him. Dan loved the sound, it represented his emotions and what he had felt for most of his sorry excuse for a life. It actually made him feel a tinge of tiny happiness and content that he was always deprived of as a kid. Ring ring! Dan's phone vibrated, stopping the music suddenly. He sighed, and got it out of his pocket, checking who could be ringing him at this time. Dan saw it was Jake, one of his minuscule group of friends. Dan put the phone to his ear, and waited for Jake to speak. 

"Hey Danny-boy!"

"Literally, don't call me that." Dan said in a flat monotone of a voice. 

"Fine, whatever, but please don't tell me you're going to uni today...?" 

Dan considered for a second, thinking about him boring the brunt of his dad's fury once he returned, and Blair's anxiousness when she finds out he didn't go, but finally decided on something.

"Yeah, sure."

"Great! So meet me by the alley, you know the one I'm talking about." 

"Sure, it's not like I have anything to lose.." 

And Dan hung up. He knew his grades were slipping, and he was the lonely, bullied emo who nobody actually cared about, so he didn't really have to make an effort anymore. It was just a matter of time. Dan plugged his earphones back in, and continued to listen to Muse, thinking about how his life was slipping away with every passing moment. 

As he arrived at the edge of the alleyway, Dan caught a glimpse of Jake and a few other people beckoning for him to come in. Dan knew what was about to happen, but he needed it. Taking a deep breath, he walked in.

Dan's POV

As I walk in there, I smell the familiar scent of smoke drifting around, and then I go to sit down next to the little clique me and my tiny group of friends have made. I get greeted by a flurry of voices, and I start to recognise who was there. The old group. There's obviously Jake, the leader of it. The guy who saved me from my crippling depression. There's also Nova and Luna, the goth twins, with identical long black hair and emerald irises, Hazel the band-obsessed punk with blue hair, and Blaze, a boy with whom I have never known his real name, so we just call him Blaze because of his fiery temper. "Dan, it's great to see you back here man, we thought you bailed on us." Nova explained, a mischievous glint in her weirdly-hypnotising eyes. "No.. no I would never.. I need a place to come back to..." I muttered. "I got some of the good stuff guys." Hazel said, holding out a grubby black bag to all of us, showing it round as if she was advertising it in a advert. Without a second thought, I started to reach into the bag, when I felt someone grab my hand. I turned around, as quick as a flash, and saw Jake there, smiling as if he did something good. "What the fuck Jake!" I nearly shouted. Everyone watching suddenly started sniggering, as if my anger was funny. Jake waved the bag in front of me teasingly, as the anger started to grow inside of me. "Wait." Obviously this annoyed me even more, because even though I knew it was wrong, I needed the contents of that bag. "Hey Dan, did you ever notice that when you're gonna lose your shit, your eyes start flashing." Luna said out of the blue. I glared at her, and tried to get Jake's attention. "Before-" Jake was cut off by me again. "Just give that flipping bag to me!" I screeched. Now I look back on the time, they must of thought I was some kind of insane drug addict with some kind of mental disorder, but whatever, it happened. That's just why I hate life. Anyway, Jake said "Dan, calm yourself, what I was trying to say was there is someone here with us today who you won't know. He's a nice guy." I stopped. A shiver went down my spine, like a ghost was running it's transparent finger gently along my back. "Jake, use your common sense, this so-called 'nice guy' could be some spy! You know what we're doing here is illegal." I hissed into his ear, completely ignoring Hazel and the rest of the group's stares. "Yes, but it's my brother dumbass. We can trust him." Jake said back, not bothering to conceal his voice. Blaze looked furious. "Dude, your brother's like a goody-two-shoes. We can't have him prying in our personal business!" Jake opened his mouth, but somebody interrupted him. It didn't sound like anyone in the group, so it must've been... him. I'm rubbish at suspense okay carrying on. "I'm not really that much of a goody-two-shoes to be honest." a northern accent said from somewhere. We all looked round, with a variety of expressions on our faces. Hazel looked somewhat confused, Blaze looked angry, Nova looked surprised, Luna looked a little scared, Jake looked calm, and I can't imagine what I looked like. Probably a mixture between everything, if that makes sense. I could feel my eyes widening as I took in his appearance. He would never fit in here. He was wearing a simple dark-blue checked shirt, and light-blue jeans with normal white trainers covering his feet, whereas all of us were wearing dark colours, like black and dark purple or brown. The only thing black about him was his hair. He had an emo fringe, but his eyes were a totally different matter. I can't really explain what I felt when I saw them, mostly envy I guess. They were a rich blue with flecks of yellow and green inside them. They didn't look common. That's what made me cautious. "You are...?" Hazel asked, interrupting my train of thoughts. "Umm... I'm Phil, Phil Lester." he said, looking scared. "What the fuck, that's such a posh name!" Luna shouted, laughing too hard to breathe. Hazel, Nova and Blaze were laughing too. "Well what about Daniel Howell? So I guess I'm posh too." I said, kind of angrily. All their heads turned towards me. To be honest, I had no idea why I was defending somebody I didn't even know, but he just had that trusting look about him. What am I even saying? I should of laughed along with them, not defend this Phil guy and doubt myself about being articulate. But the way he looked at me when I said that. It was complete admiration. Who would admire me? Everyone else's expression was a total different story. I honestly thought that I would grow to trust him, and we would actually make some kind of bond like me and my little clique did. How wrong I was.

A/N: Ty for reading this I'm so happy for finishing the third chapter :D Nice little cliffhanger I did there huh? All I can say is that this story isn't your typical Phan story where they end up kissing and that, there might be a few little twists ;) Dedicated to phandominflames on Instagram, she's a really good friend ^W^ My Insta is awkwardphangirltrash ¬.¬ Next chapter coming out sometime this week!