important author's note at the end pls read!!!! and tw!!! derogatory words are used throughout this chapter, so feel free to skip through (i'll put little warnings[**]) and i'll have a small summary at the end of the chapter :)))
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dan had tried speech therapy once, a long time ago. he had asked for it as a child, ashamed of the way he spoke, and tired of being picked on because of it. his stutter had worsened soon after his parents' divorce, and it had become so bad it was nearly impossible to understand dan at times.
with this speech therapy came an abundance of anxiety. his therapist degraded him during every meeting, making dan dread going each week. he cried before each session, begging his mother to let him stay home, but she had been forced to pay in advance, and with how tight they were on money, she didn't want her investment to go to waste.
as dan burst through the front door, he thought of the man that was supposed to help him become better. he thought of the times dan had broken down in from of him when he would stand over him and seethe awful words into his ear.
**"you wonder why those kids push you around? a prissy boy like you running around - they can probably tell you'll take it up the ass when you're older. my daughter could take you in a fucking fight, and she's a retard."**
his words hurt and terrified dan, but he knew deep down, that no one could be as awful to him as his own father.
"this was you?" dan screamed as soon as his father was in sight. "you terrorized me for months, scaring the absolute shit out of me. you stalked me, by the looks of it, and now you have the fucking nerve to show up at our house and try to ask for forgiveness, despite calling me a fucking fag to my mother, to my face, and over the fucking phone?"
dan's mother tensed at dan's words, and her eyes darted between dan, his father, and phil who stood behind dan in silence. dan's vision continued to white-out as he stared ahead at his father, who wore a smile on his sick face.
"i have to say, daniel," he began. "i'm kind of disappointed that you didn't figure this out sooner. although, it was quite an entertaining thing, watching you as you snuck around philip lester while still dating the other one. god, i nearly cried when you kicked corey out of your house after he nearly raped you. it was quite dramatic."
"wait a fucking moment, he almost raped you?" phil spoke for the first time.
"you saw that?" dan was hysterical. "and you didn't do a fucking thing?! you were just going to watch your own fucking son get raped?"
"you didn't," dan's mother breathed. she turned to dan, her eyes brimming with tears. "daniel, please tell me this didn't happen. tell me this is a joke."
**dan opened his mouth to speak, but his father beat him to it. "oh, darling, this is anything but a joke. you should have seen all the naughty things dan has done these past, what, ten years? god, fags truly can not keep it in their pants."**
it was deadly silent. dan was shaking uncontrollably, gripping his phone tightly in his hand as tears ran down his cheeks and dripped onto the hardwood below him. he couldn't hear anyone breathing, but phil's chest bumped against dan's back every other second, and dan could tell he was seething. his mother stood still, but her hands were clenched into fists, trembling violently. and his father was leaned against the kitchen counter, his arms crossed, and a lazy smile on his face.
"get out of my house," his mother broke the silence with her low voice. she wasn't looking up, but tears dripped from the tip of her nose. "get out of my fucking house, and don't you dare come back. don't come anywhere near me or my son ever again, or so help me god, you will leave here in an ambulance next time."
