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476 Steps Home

Description: 13 year old Dan and Phil have been best friends their whole lives. When Dan stops laughing, talking, and even showing up to school, Phil goes to find out what’s happened.

Warnings: Brief mentions of alcohol about halfway through, cursing (lots of it), mention of bruises, and while no actual abuse is described in the story, it is implied extremely heavily and discussed at one point. Read with care, please.

“What do you mean you don’t like him? He’s your dad, you have to like him!” Dan shook his head and scooted away. “I don’t know, Phil! I just… I don’t have to like him, okay? I have my reasons.” Phil followed Dan’s movement, pulling himself along through the dust. Dan made a sound near a whimper, and Phil glanced over to see the orange sun lighting up little tears on Dan’s cheeks. He sighed, his eyes once more scanning over the purple bruised patch under Dan’s eye. The air felt heavy and dusty in his lungs, and Phil really didn’t know what to do. He watched Dan try to flick the sadness from his face for a few moments. What was he supposed to do? After watching Dan fail a few more times, his hand just went down without thinking. It came to rest atop Dan’s, and Dan froze in place. Phil saw Dan’s confused expression out of the corner of his eye, but didn’t turn. He just brought a small, reassuring smile to his face. “Okay.”

                                                                           ~

It had been a long time since Dan had smiled.

Phil wasn’t sure quite why, but since around Christmas, Dan had just gotten quiet. He’d stopped wanting to come out to the woods with him, stopped inviting him over for video games. Phil wasn’t sure quite why, but Dan had stopped caring about everything, and it was scaring him. He had no way of finding out what was wrong with him, because Dan wasn’t going anywhere with him. He’d even stopped coming to school. It was really awful. He just wanted his best friend back. He’d been sitting alone every day at lunch, he felt lonely, and it was getting really tiring. He was sure whatever had happened with Dan wasn’t important enough to take him away completely. It couldn’t be. So Phil decided he’d had enough, and he got on his bike and rode to his house, though it was really only 476 steps away (they’d counted together back in 4th grade).

When Phil stopped in front of the house, he threw his bike off into the rosebush and started on his way up to Dan’s window. They’d drawn a map around the same times they counted the steps between the houses. He was to go around the fence so he wouldn’t wake the neighbors dog, then up the tree with an ‘x’ carved in it, to the fifth branch on the left side, then tap three times. That was so Dan would know it was him. Phil was a little sad thinking that Dan might not remember that as well as he did, but he did it all anyway. And on the third tap to the window, Dan was sliding it open and looking out.

“Phil? What are you doing here?” He was only half peeking out at him from behind the curtain, so the right half of his face was completely shielded. Phil frowned and leaned forward on the branch. That hurt a little. Was he not allowed to show up to see his friend? “I came to see you. You haven’t been at school.” Dan rolled his eyes. “Well yes but- I just can’t go right now Phil. Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow.” He reached to shut the window again, but Phil stopped it. “Well, can I come in then? It’s been so boring without you.” Dan pressed his lips together and frowned. “I um.. Well, I can’t really..”

“You know, Dan, if you don’t want to be my friend anymore, you can just say it.” Phil turned around and the branch and started to climb back down, not waiting for Dan to reply. It all made sense. Of course Dan didn’t want to be friends. He was about to start back down the trunk when a creaking on the end of the branch made him stop. “God, Phil, you’re such a drama queen.” Dan was inching out on his hands and knees, glancing back at his open window every few seconds.  Phil smiled and stopped, waiting for Dan to catch up. When he did, he shoved him. “Well go on then, Phil. Climb the rest of the way down. If I’m sneaking out, we’re going to do this right.” Phil shrugged and jumped off the branch, landing on the dirt below with a heavy thump. He sat and dusted his pants off while Dan slowly scooted down the tree trunk and to the ground. Phil brushed dust from his pants for another second before rising to his feet. Dan crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, alright, I’m here. Now what?”