The Hawthorne Effect (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 15: Peach Schnapps.

6 rings.

It's 6 agonising rings before he picks up his phone.

"Dan?" His voice comes through the ear piece. "Why are you phoning me? You never phone me. What's happened?"

"Nothing." I lie.

I clench my jaw to try and stop the tears spilling out from under my eyes. Truth be told, I don't really know why I phoned Mason. I don't really want to tell him what's going on, but he's the only person I can since Jess and Sian have no idea about the media trip.

"If you're fine then why are you phoning me?" I hear chatter in the background so I assume he's walking through one of his school's corridors. "In the couple months that I've known you, you haven't phoned me once."

"Well maybe I wanted to start,"

"Bullshit." Suddenly the background noise stops. "Right, I've walked out of my free period for this, you better tell me what's happened."

I feel my throat start to close, but I refuse to get emotional over this.

"Dan,"

My throat gets even more tighter and my vision starts to blur as tears fill my eyes.

No.

I'm not going to fucking cry.

"Is it Charlie?"

A tear breaks loose but I smack it off cheek.

"It is, isn't it?" His voice is soothing but concerned.

"No." I whimper, sounding like a 6 year old child.

"Tell me what happened."

"I didn't text him all weekend because I thought he would want a break but really I was just waiting for him to text me because I'm annoying like that and wanted to feel wanted but he didn't text and I was confused and I came in today expecting things to pick up where they left off but he went missing for form and sociology but then at break Jess went in the common room to speak to her boyfriend and then she came back and said that Charlie was in there with some girl so I was idiot and ran to the common room and flung open the door and saw him and he was kissing this girl who was sitting on his lap and everyone was looking at me and then he stopped kissing her and looked at me but then just went back to kissing her so then I just walked out of the common room and started to cry and then grabbed my stuff from the uni room while Jess and Sian were trying to calm me down so now I look like an idiot because they just think I'm sobbing over some boy because they don't know that that boy and I were kissing all of last week and then I ran out of school and didn't stop and then I phoned you and now I'm sitting at this fucking bus stop sobbing on the phone to you." I inhale the deepest breath I think I ever have after saying all of that in one go. Tears are streaming out of my eyes and my heart feels like it's been snatched of my body and thrown onto the floor.

"...Oh." Is what the boy eventually replies with. "I don't, really, um... know what to say."

"It's fine," I say through a sniff. "I just wanted to," Another sniff. "Fuck, I don't even know. I just wanted to tell someone."

"No, no. It's fine. I'm glad you phoned, I'd hate for you to be upset on your own. Where are your friends?"

"Fuck if I know, I think they've got," Sniff. "A lesson now."

"Did they not come after you?"

"No." Sniff. "I told them I wanted to be alone."

"And do you?"

"...No." I admit with a whimper.

"Alright, stay there, I'm coming,"

"No!" I nearly scream. "Stay."