Dan's POV
“Dan! Get up! You’re running late!” I groan and roll over at the sound of my mother’s shouting. I reach for my phone, and squint at the screen. My eyes widen in surprise and I jump out of the bed.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” I exclaim. I scramble around my room for a clean shirt and my black skinny jeans I’d worn the day before. I found a plain black shirt in the bottom of my drawer. That’s a lot of black. Oh well, I can’t be bothered about it now. I froze for a second debating whether or not I had time for a shower.
“Fuck it,” I mumbled, “It’ll wake me up.” I run into the bathroom and take possibly the quickest shower I’ve ever taken in my life. I race back to my room, clutching the towel tightly around my waist and throw my clothes on. I go around my room throwing last night’s homework into my bag. I grab my leather jacket of my chair, and my car keys off my desk and run downstairs.
“Do you want some breakfast?” my mom calls.
“No time! Have to pick up, Phil! Bye!”
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
I pull the sun visor down and glare at my reflection. I didn’t have any time to dry my hair properly, or straighten it, and it was a curled mess. I sigh heavily and try my best to sort it out. I hate my natural hair. The passenger door opens and Phil slides into the car.
“Sorry,” he apologizes, “Running a little behind.”
“I am too,” I yawn, “I should have probably left yours when Y/N instead of playing Halo. I had a few assignments to do… I didn’t get much sleep at all.” I started the car back up, and we made the drive to the school. The drive was fairly silent. We were both too tired to try to hold a conversation.
“And we’ve reached our personal hell for the next 8 hours,” I say as I pull into a parking spot. Phil laughs, “It’s not that bad.” I shrug and get out the car. I open the back door and retrieve my bag before locking the car.
“I guess you’re right. I could be back at my old school. I’m convinced that place was literally hell.”
“You give your monologue today, right?” Phil asks me.
“Shit,” I swear, “I forgot all about it.” I groan loudly and run my hands down my face in frustration.
“Let’s stop by Y/N’s and see if she’ll help you out at lunch.” I sigh and nod. At this rate, I was going to need all the help I could get. Today was not shaping up to be my day. We turned down the hallway that would take us to Y/N. I spotted her right away, except she wasn’t alone.
“W-who’s that?” I curse myself silently for faltering in my speech. Phil looks up from his phone at me, then down the hall. He squints his eyes slightly.
“His name is Alex, I believe. He’s on the football team.” he says.
“What’s he doing talking to Y/N?” we say at the same time. We glance at each other. Phil pinches my arm.
“Ow! The fuck was that for!?” I exclaim.
“Jinx. You get a pinch, I get a wish.” I stop in my tracks and stare at him.
“What!?” He stops and turns around.
“Did you never do that as a child? Whenever you say something at the same time?”
“No one ever got pinched! It was just ‘jinx, you owe me a fizzy drink.’ But of course you weren’t actually going to by the person one, so you dropped it and moved on.”
“Well, that’s no fun.”
“At least no one gets–“ My eyes glance over Phil’s shoulder. I notice this Alex guy walking away from Y/N.
“Hey! He’s leaving. Come on!” I spin Phil around and we all but run to Y/N’s locker. She shuts the door and jumps at our sudden appearance.
“Jesus!” she gasps, “What are you doing sneaking up on me like that?”
“Why was Alex talking to you?” Phil cuts right to the chase. Y/N blushes bright red.
“He… he… uhhh… heaskedmetothedancenextweek,” she mumbled.
“He what!?” Phil’s eyes widen.
“Wait what?” I hadn’t heard her properly.
“He asked me to the dance next weekend…” She looked at the ground in embarrassment. She shuffled her feet slightly and adjusted the books in her arms.
“Did you tell him yes? Why did he ask you?” Phil asked, shaking his head in disbelief. Y/N head shot up quickly. She set Phil with a death glare.
“What’s that supposed to mean, Philip? Why shouldn’t he have asked me out? Is it that big of a surprise for me to get a date? Nice to know how pathetic you think I am.” With that, she stormed off. Phil was left with his jaw dropped, staring after her.
“Y/N, wait!” he called, he took off after her, “I didn’t mean it that way!” I watched them both leave. My class was in the opposite direction anyway. I walked down the hall with a frown on my face. It bothered me that someone asked Y/N. I didn’t understand why it held such an effect on me. I barely knew the girl. I couldn’t have possibly developed a crush on her. No, that can’t be it. There was no way.
I thought back to last night, the three of us hanging in Phil’s basement. I got to know a little more about Y/N then. At one point she had taken control of the sound system and she busted out some old school backstreet boys. Phil had laughed at her when she started dancing around the room without a care in the world. I remember smiling to myself and thinking it was the cutest thing and–
“No,” I moaned, and slammed my head down on the desk. The person next to me patted my shoulder lightly. I looked up into the grey-blue eyes of the girl next to me.
“Are you alright?” she asks quietly. I feel my cheeks heat up.
“Uh, yea…” I smile slightly, “I’m just… I have a monologue to present later and am doing a horrible job of remembering it.” The girl nods in understanding and wishes me luck before turning back to her own work.
I slouch down further into my seat. I was jealous. I shook my head at my stupidity. I’d only actually known this girl for a couple days. We’d only begun talking civilly a couple days ago. I still didn’t know much about her, and she didn’t know much about me, but I’d gone and developed a crush on her. I had two options, and neither option seemed particularly appealing at the moment. I could choose to ignore my feelings and hope they don’t grow; or I grow a pair and ask her out myself. The dance was next weekend, and this Alex character didn’t seem like the type of guy Y/N would go for. Not that I’mthe type of guy she’d go for. She just doesn’t seem like the kind of girl to go for jocks.
I ran my hand through my hair. My get tangled in my curls, and I frown again. This really wasn’t my day. I wouldn’t be able to see Y/N before lunch. I needed to talk to her anyway about my monologue. And maybe ask her out? Nope. No. Not yet.
“One step at a time, Dan,” I say to myself, “One step at a time.”
