3 Years

Chapter 19

Surprisingly, nothing happened at school. All day I would be walking down the halls, trying to make myself as tiny as possible, and every single time I would see Jack coming down the hall, I would get terrified. I'd look down and try to blend into the crowds of people. When I'd look back up, all I'd see is Dan dragging Jack in the opposite direction. It almost made me think that he was looking out for me.

Almost. 

When the final bell rang, I had no idea where I was supposed to be going. Do I wait for Dan? Do I just go to his house? I had found a key in one of the pockets of my bag...

Not knowing what to do, I just stood outside under a tree and tried to make myself look busy. If I was lucky, Dan would come outside, see me, and tell me what I was meant to be doing. 

For once, I actually had luck. I had only been standing by the tree for about five minutes when I saw Dan walking out of the school with his arm around some girl. Her shorts were much, much too short and her shirt showed a bit too much of her chest. It kind of hurt me to see Dan moving on so quickly. I knew it would happen but I still had a tiny bit of hope...hope that he wouldn't do what I thought he would.

I looked away from Dan and the girl when I saw him leaning in to kiss her. No matter what, I would never be able to watch him getting along with new people and dating them. 

"Hey Phil." Dan said happily, coming over to stand with me. "I thought you had gone home already."

"I don't have a home." I muttered quietly, hoping that Dan hadn't heard me. 

Clearly he hadn't heard me so he just grabbed my hand and pulled me along with him. "Come on silly."

"What are you doing?" I snapped, pulling my hand away from him. I was getting tired of him being so weird around me.

"Walking home with you?" Dan said, making it sound more like a question than a statement. 

"No. You come walking out with your arms around some girl then you tried to hold my hand and walk to your house. What the hell even is this?"

"It's nothing. Emma just happens to be a good friend of mine. You know that I like you, possibly even love you." Dan said in a hushed yell. Seeing him like this honestly terrified me. Brought me back to the days when Dan would join in Jack's fun. 

"I..." I didn't have anything to say. I shouldn't have said anything, nothing ever goes well when I actually say something. 

"Don't say things like that Phil." Dan sighed, his voice getting softer. He took my hand again and pulled me along gently. "Come on now, we should go home."

I let myself get pulled away, not even worrying about what would happen if someone saw us walking like this. My brain was too busy being blank. It wasn't fair that my mind had to fail me whenever someone raised their voice even slightly. I should probably work on not completely turning myself off at really bad times.

"Oh Phil?" Dan said, pulling me out of the thoughts that had taken over my mind. "I'll be going out later tonight so you'll probably be alone for a while. If Emma comes over just hang out with her, she hates Jack probably more than you do."

"Oh...okay. Do I have to let her in? Couldn't I just pretend that nobody's home?" I basically begged, not wanting to get beat up by a girl. With my luck, Emma and Jack were actually best friends and this was just a set up.

"No I actually told her to come over around 8:30 to hang out with you. I wanted to make sure that you were with someone." he smiled.

I knew that his smile was supposed to reassure me but it didn't. The last time Dan smiled to reassure me...I got beat up in the middle of the woods. I just don't forget things like that.