Tattooed Emotions

20

Phil

Dan arrived late to class. He always did recently.

Gone were his days of good attendance, as his grades dropped lower and lower, and his smile grew wider and more fake.

I didn't know what I had done.
We spent every evening together, every weekend sat at my house.
It didn't matter what we were doing - gaming, watching a film, chatting we just spent time together. It was nice.
My heart opened up more and more to him, to his smile, the way his eyes twinkled when he laughed.
He'd even started opening up to me - I'd held him as he wept into my arms after his dad had beat him.
But then he closed back up, and slowly became more secluded than ever.
We rarely hung out anymore, and he rarely spoke to me at all apart from texting.
I didn't want to lose him, but I didn't know how to get him back.

"Dan, what is up with you?" I asked him, breaking the silence as we walked home from school together.

"What?" He avoided my gaze, the soles of his feet scuffing along the pavement as his footsteps suddenly became heavier.

"Something is up. You're late for class, you're quiet, you don't let me hug you anymore. It's like you're trying to completely shut yourself away and hide from everyone who cares about you."

"No one cares about me."

"They do. I do. Please, Dan, tell me what's going on because I can see you're not okay."

"I am. Leave it."

"You're not, I-"

"I said, leave it!" Our footsteps stopped and our eyes met for the first time in weeks. My mouth struggled to find the words and all I could do was watch as a silent tear rolled down his cheek, before he turned away from me and walked quickly into his house, closing the door behind him.

Shutting me out.

A/N: I feel like this part is really bad but I don't want to make this story really long and it's already on part 20 despite literally nothing happening in terms of plot. I feel bad for using time skips and not properly developing the relationship but as I said I want to move on with the story. Sorry about that, and sorry for the awful chapter - I will start moving the plot along in part 21.