The Benefits Project ; phan au

17 ; Homophobia Project

#17

I hate Mondays, all the same it was a teacher training day but it was raining sleet, not snow, sleet. And you see, you can't do anything with sleet because it's just mushy ice that nobody cares about. You can't build snowmen or igloos because sleet is sloppy and slides through your fingers carelessly. Not to mention you can't even have snowball fights with sleet unless you want to make someone very wet which I would advise against in my case. Phil and I had spent Sunday lounging around in our boxers which probably wasn't the best thing as in a weeks' time we had to present our project and we were nowhere near done due to circumstances. We also needed to work out how we were going to present our project in front of the class. I didn't know how I was going to present a comic book to the class at all.

Phil's study seemed to hold a lot of memories, mostly painful ones but then the one where everything got better. Unfortunately I couldn't say that everything was completely fixed due to Brock, I hadn't yet spoken to Phil about hanging around with him or anything at school because I was simply afraid when I knew I shouldn't be, it was hard to come up with a resolution to my problems but I knew if I remained silent things would only get worse.

"Phil..." I mumbled keeping my head low while carrying on with my sketches.

"What is it Dan?" Phil looked away from the computer which was displaying Google Ocean on the screen with pictures of Nicki Minaj floating in the water and I giggled before turning serious.

"Are you actually doing any work? I don't think searching up Nicki Minaj is doing our project," I told him and he quickly closed the tab.

"I'm doing work now, what did you want to actually ask me then?" He said putting his full attention on me by swiveling his chair around so he was looking at me.

"Well it was about school, what are we going to do?" I asked and twiddled my thumbs.

"I'm not fussed, as you know my choices only hurt you," Phil replied sadly looking down.

"What? No they don't Phil!" I protested placing one of my hands on his shoulders. "This is our choice whatever choice we make benefits us both."

Phil smiled weakly.

"I suppose, so I guess you're talking about Brock?"

I nodded.

"Do you feel comfy with the school knowing? If you know what I mean... I feel like since we've only just gotten together it may not be good to come out," Phil mumbled.

"I agree, I don't think I'd be able to see you at all in school though because Brock would be on my ass immediately," I explained. "Plus I don't know exactly how my friends will react."

"I see, I don't really like some of your friends anyway, no offence; that Emma girl is a bit dodgy," Phil then suggested,  "We could pull like an adorable 'forbidden love' act and go having secret make out sessions in the boys toilets that no-one goes in."

"I'd quite like that," I admitted bashfully, feeling my cheeks burn.

"So how about we distance each other in school unless we're doing the project so everything looks normal and Brock lays off you, because if I keep hanging with them I can also keep Jason's trap shut about us," Phil explained.

I ruffled his hair.

"That sounds good, do you mind if I tell Louise? I mean she's my closest friend," I asked anxiously.

"That's fine, I guess she has a right to know," Phil confirmed.

"And our parents? I know it's probably not the best since your parents aren't really on good terms with you. Also would we be able to keep it from the school for long? It's predictable that we would get caught later on," I pointed out. "We need to think these things through but I know we have the project to do..."