If only I could love you

Chapter 7

—

-2 weeks later-

“Do you wanna come round to my place sometime?” The words simply slipped out of Dan’s mouth before he could stop them. Oops. Phil took a drag from his cigarette, a thoughtful look on his face. He blew out the smoke and looked over at Dan, “Yeah, man. Sure.” Dan smiled and took a drag from his own cigarette.

It was lunchtime. They were both sitting behind the bike shed. It had become a regular spot for them to meet, during lessons, lunch, or after school.

“This weekend?”

“Nah, sorry,” Phil replied, “I have a boxing match, which you are welcome to come to.”

“Sure, okay,” Dan chuckled, “it’s a date.” At the look on Phil’s face, he added, “I’m kidding.”

They were silent for a while. Once Dan had finished his cigarette, he flicked the end away and turned to Phil, who looked up.

“How about now?”

“What?”

“Coming over to mine. We have no important lessons this afternoon.”

Phil stubbed out his cigarette on the bit of wall between them and stoop up. “Why not?” he shrugged. Dan shivered with excitement. Phil began to walk and then turned back to look at Dan, who had not moved from his place on the wall. “Well, Howell? You coming or what?” Dan loved it when Phil called him Howell, it was hot. He grinned before getting up to join him.

—

Dan’s parents were both out at work, and wouldn’t be home until 9. It was 2 when the boys arrived at Dan’s house. As Dan unlocked the door, Phil looked up at the house.

“Nice place.” He remarked. Dan smiled and nodded, then opened the door and they both walked in. They stood in a wide hallway with some stairs at the end. Dan pointed to the door on their right, “That’s the kitchen,” and the door on their left, “That’s the living room, upstairs is the bathroom and the bedrooms.” Dan dumped his bag on the floor by a coat hanger, and walked into the kitchen. Phil followed. “You want something to drink?” he asked.

Phil shook his head, “Nah.” He was looking through the window of the glass door at the other end of the kitchen.

“That leads to the garden.” Dan said, pouring himself some orange juice, “there’s also a door in the living room, the gardens pretty big if you wanna go there?

Again, Phil shook his head, “Show me your room.”

As they walked up the stairs, Dan began to feel butterflies in his stomach. Shut up, Dan. Don’t be stupid, nothing’s going to happen. Phil’s straight and you’re… not. In the last two weeks Dan had come to the conclusion that he was bisexual. And he was okay with that. In all honesty, it was just nice to have cleared that up. They walked along the hallway and stopped at a door, which was Dans bedroom. Opposite his door were some stairs which lead up to the attic, which Dan’s parents had converted into a spare bedroom, with an ensuite bathroom. That rood was a lot bigger than Dan’s but his parents wouldn’t let him move up there. Arseholes. They both walked into Dan’s room and, as they did, Phil gasped.

Dan laughed, “What?”

“I didn’t expect it to be like this,” there was a double bed in the middle of the opposite wall, and a desk against the window on the wall to the left, “I expected there to be posters everywhere.” Dan chuckled and walked in front of Phil, turning to face him.

“Look behind you.”

Phil turned and, sure enough, the entire wall with the door was covered in posters, photos, and concert tickets. “Jesus Christ, Dan,” He laughed, walking up to examine the wall. He pointed at a collection of Muse concert tickets, “You said you liked Muse but I didn’t realise you liked them this much!” Then he pointed at one specific ticket from a year ago and turned to look at Dan excitedly, “Hey, I went to this concert!”