The Boy in the Garden (Phan)

Chapter 6- Eyes Like Chocolate Diamonds

"Dan, it's not working," Phil sighed, crossing his arms. He and Dan had been trying to get the paint off his car for the past half an hour, but to no avail. All they'd managed to do was smear the paint around more and make it run, resulting in watery multicolored puddles on the grass below the car. To make matters worse, the paint had begun drying, and now they couldn't even make a dent in it. 

"Great..." Dan rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "Phil, I'm sorry..."

"It's fine, honestly..." Phil shrugged. "But what are we gonna do now? I can't drive it home, the paint is all over the windshield. Plus, I'd probably get pulled over for it looking like this anyways..." 

"I don't know, I'll try to think of something..." Dan leaned against the one part of the car that wasn't covered in paint, his arms crossed as he looked down at his shoes. Phil stood next to him with his back pressed against the front bumper, squinting slightly in the bright sun. His eyes slowly traveled over the taller male's form, gazing at him with wide eyes. Wow... he's actually kinda cute... The next moment, Dan glanced over, making eye contact with him. Phil quickly turned his head the other way, pretending to be very interested in the nearby school building. Did he see me looking at him?...That's a ridiculous question, of course he did! As if in response to his thoughts, Dan asked, "Were you just staring at me?" 

"Maybe..." Phil could feel a slight blush spreading across his cheeks, and he covered the lower half of his face with his hands. "Sorry..."

"No, it's fine," Dan replied, shrugging. 

"Alright... I just thought you might be creeped out by me staring at you," Phil said.

"I don't mind. Your eyes are nice to look at, so it's fine."

Slightly flustered, Phil shyly glanced up at him. "They're not that pretty... I mean, they're just blue; a lot of people have blue eyes."

"They're not just blue." Dan tilted Phil's head up so that he had a better view of the shorter boy's eyes. "Yeah, they're mostly blue, but if you look closely, you can see they're this really pretty combination of blue and green and yellow... it's just constantly changing whenever you look at it a different way." He smiled, putting his hands in my pockets. "I wish I had your eyes... mine are just a dull brown..."

"They're not dull," Phil said, pouting. "They look really nice when you look up and the sun reflects off them..."

"Like this?" Dan tilted his head at an upward angle, his eyes brightening in the sunlight.

"Yeah!" Phil smiled. "They're like... like chocolate diamonds..."

"Chocolate diamonds?" Dan smirked and chuckled. "Are those a real thing?"

"They actually are. They're like regular diamonds, but they're kind of caramel colored." 

"That's cool..." Dan grinned.

Phil nodded. "Yeah... that's what I thought your eyes looked like..."

"Thanks..." Dan chuckled softly. There was a small period of semi-awkward silence, during which the two simply looked at each other. Phil knew he should look away, but at the same time, he didn't want to. Dan's lips slowly parted as though he was about to speak. However, the words never left his mouth, as he was promptly interrupted by Phil's phone buzzing in his back pocket, vibrating against the metal bumper. Flinching slightly, Phil quickly fumbled in his pocket and pulled out his phone. 

"Who is it?" Dan asked.

"It's my mom... she wants to know why I'm not home yet..." 

"Crap..." Dan mumbled. "We'll have to figure out a way to fix this quickly..." He rubbed his temples with the tips of his fingers, his eyes closed as he concentrated. Finally, after about a minute or so, he opened his eyes and turned to Phil. "Alright. I could call my dad and ask him to drive your car to the repair shop. They could see if they can do anything to fix it."

"Okay, but how will I get home?" Phil asked.

Dan shrugged. "I could give you a ride home."

"Oh! Thanks!" Phil grinned.

"No problem. Besides, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to stay in the school parking lot overnight," Dan smirked.

"That'd be horrible..." Phil giggled.

"Yeah..." Dan's eyes lingered on Phil for a few seconds more before he quickly said, "I'll call my dad now..." Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he held up his finger in a "one second" gesture before walking a few feet away to talk. Phil watched him go, smiling to himself.