Locked Away // phanfiction

Part 4

Dan wakes up by the loud buzzer ringing throughout the entire building and all the lights turning on. He blinks a few times to adjust to light before sitting up. He is used to this by now. Phil definitely is not. 

Dan watches him pull his pillow over his head. "What the hell is that noise?!" Phil shouts from underneath the fabric.

Dan counts down from 5 in his head, knowing exactly how long the buzzer goes on for. Finally the room turns quiet again and the lock on the door clicks.

"Oh. My. God."  Phil groans while slowly raising his head from underneath the pillow. "That's just cruel." 

"Don't worry." Dan says while gets out of his bed. "You'll get used to it." He doesn't even look Phil in the eye.

Last night was weird. Dan has never actually talked with someone for as long as he did with Phil. And the worse part was that he sort of had fun.

But I'm not here to have fun. I can't let him come that close again. Keep your distance.

"Nah man, you don't get it. I don't like waking up with an alarm." Phil frowns while rubbing his forehead. "It's like a totally wrong start to my day, you know?"

"It's making more and more sense that you got expelled." Dan mumbles while grabbing clean clothes. As always he sleeps in his sweats and hoodie, and in the morning he changes to a clean set. Not a lot of variation.

"I just like doing things on my own time." Phil shrugs, obviously not seeing the problem. "And waking up with that sound every morning has to make you deaf in like, three months." He waves his hands vaguely around.

Dan is walking towards the door with the clothes in his arms, but just before he opens the door he turns around and says: "Not true, I'm not deaf." 

And with that Dan leaves the room, a small smile creeping his way onto his face.

That's how you keep a good distance. I just have to show him how messed up I am and he'll leave me alone soon enough. Last night was a slip up, I was vulnerable and sad and tired and it won't happen again.

Dan quickly makes his way to the end of the hall where the stairway is that leads to the shower rooms. When he has a cellmate, the showers are Dan's favorite place. Especially just after the doors have opened because nobody else is there.

A lot is really crappy in prison, like the food, the tv and the games available. The yard is an absolute mess and half of the beds reek of fungus. But the one thing that is actually clean and organized is the bathroom. You have private stalls that lock and that are quite big as well. You have multiple shelves inside and there are always enough clean towels.

Therefore, Dan's favorite place. Actual privacy and quiet time.

---

Dan takes his tray with breakfast to his usual table. Not just his table sadly. More often than not others join him, simply because there aren't enough tables for people to sit alone.

Dan just sits at the very end, against the wall and if people join him they usually stay on the side of the aisle. 

Taking his very blunt knife he tries to spread his frozen butter on his bread. The food isn't great and he has lost some weight since being here but he tries to eat as much as he can without throwing up. 

Staring down at his tray, lost in his train of thought Dan doesn't see Phil walking up to him and putting his tray right across from him.

Dan's eyes shoot up to Phil's face, down to Phil's tray and back up to Phil's face.

"What are you doing?" He says, squinting his eyes.

"Sitting with you, obviously." Phil has that smug grin on his face again as he sits down.

"Why?" Dan tries to give Phil a look that screams "I don't want you here".  Phil doesn't seem to notice or care.

"Because I want to." he puts a grape in his mouth.

Dan let his eyes fall back to Phil's tray. Just a handful of grapes and a small yoghurt.

"Not hungry?" Dan raises one eyebrow.

Dumbass. Don't ask question, don't keep the conversation going, don't let him think you're actually interested in him.

"Well, everything else looks absolutely disgusting." he grabs the yoghurt and reads the packaging. "Not that this looks very appealing." he grins at Dan.

Dan just sighs and looks down at his own food. 

The faster you eat, the faster you get to leave.

"I guess you are hungry then?" Phil laughs as Dan shoves the rest of his bread in his mouth.

"No." He mumbles while chewing down the lasts bits. "I just don't want to sit here with you." he says with a straight face before standing up and walking away, taking his tray with him.

Too mean? No, I had to compensate for the long talk last night. He needs to realize that there is nothing fun about me and that he has to switch rooms, as fast as possible.

Dan throws what is left of his food in the trash and places his tray on top. He pulls his hoodie over his head before turning around, heading for the door.

Doing this causes him to bump into Phil, who was apparently standing behind him.

"What you said before going to the shower, does that mean you have been here longer than three months?" Phil asks dryly. 

Dan's eyes widen as he looks up at Phil's face only a foot away.

"Dude, what the fuck is your problem?" Dan spits out and shoves Phil aside with his shoulder, walking past him to the exit of the dining hall.

"Just making conversation." he hears Phil yelling after him. He can just imagine the dumb grin he has on his face.

Dickhead.