The Way He Looks

The Way He Looks- Chapter 17

A/N: 

Due to my extreme laziness and procrastination, I was unable to update last week. oops. No but really, sorry for that. Anyways, here's chapter seventeen of The Way He Looks. 

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Phil paced back and forth as laughter and quiet chatter periodically echoed from the room. He’d been out in the hall for the past ten minutes just pacing, trying to come up with a plan on what to do. Should he walk in there and act like he heard nothing? Or should he walk in there and ask Dan to talk to him in private?

It was already ten minutes after what Dan had said, and Phil was counting. They wouldn’t suspect anything if he just went with plan A and acted as if nothing was going on. But, what if they knew he was out there? What if they heard the constant patter of his shoes on the floor and knew he was out there for the last ten minutes?

Phil sighed and slid his hand across his face. He was too busy thinking about what to do, he didn’t even stop and think about how this affected him. How did he feel about this? Did he feel the same way about Dan? He had been feeling rather odd with him for quite a while, if it wasn’t obvious already. But, what if all of that was just lust and he just liked the boy because he was pretty?

But, he wouldn’t have stuck around him for so long if it was just lust. He’d practically spent the whole school year with the boy, and he couldn’t deny that it was probably one of the best school years he’s ever had.

It might’ve been pretty rash, but Phil considered Dan one of his best friends. And, now it could be more. Did he want something more? He thought about how things would turn out if he and Dan actually did become an item.

He suddenly realized the idiotic smile plastered on his face and shook the thoughts of him and Dan holding hands and cuddling out of his head. It did seem really nice if he had to be honest. But, what would happen if it didn’t work out. He didn’t want to lose Dan. He didn’t want to lose his best friend.

“Phil?” a voice interrupted his thoughts and he froze. Shit, he cursed to himself before turning around with a forced smile. PJ stood there with a confused look on his face, a bottle of wine in his hand. “What are you doing out here?” he asked, reassuring Phil that him and Dan hadn’t heard him in the hall.

“Oh, um, I was just coming back from the field,” he stammered, looking down at his feet, “What are you doing?” He tried to pull the subject away from him, worrying he might say something he’s not supposed to. “I was just going to throw this bottle out,” PJ smirked, “Hide the evidence, you know?’”

Phil huffed, a small smile on his lips as he rubbed the back of his neck. “We still have a bottle or two left,” PJ suggested, “You want to join us?” Phil hesitated for a second before realizing there was no way getting out of this situation and nodded reluctantly.

“Great,” PJ grinned before walking passed him, “Dan’s in there, I’ll be back in a second.” Phil nodded before forcing his feet to drag him into the room. He saw Dan sprawled on his bed and his heart dropped.

Slight waves appeared in his typical overly straightened hair as he sipped lazily on a bottle of some sort of alcohol. He didn’t seem to notice him as he hummed a little tune, moving his head side to side. A big grin grew on Phil’s face as he gazed at the adorable being in front of him.

A sudden slap on his back knocked him out of his trance, throwing him forward a bit. Dan’s head turned in his direction and a smile showed in his features. “What are you standing there for?” PJ drunkenly laughed, “Come on.”

Phil stumbled forward and sat on the opposite end of the bed, his legs crossed in front of him. “H-hey,” Phil stuttered to Dan, internally yelling at himself for being such a nervous twat. “Sup,” Dan nodded, popping the ‘p’ at the end of the word.

“Where have you been?” PJ asked, “You kind of disappeared on us after forcing us to talk to each other.” Phil shrugged and looked down at his hands. Did he really want to tell them that he was with Carrie? He didn’t want Dan getting the wrong idea which he most likely already had.

“Um, I was with Carrie,” Phil rolled his eyes at himself, “J-just talking.” He quickly glanced at Dan to see a slight frown on his face and sighed quietly. Why couldn’t he keep his mouth shut when he was nervous? Phil knew how much Dan didn’t like Carrie, yet he had to say he ditched him to hang out with her.

“Figures,” Dan mumbled to himself and Phil frowned, “We tried looking for you, but we couldn’t find you so we came back here to have our own fun.” PJ snorted and Phil raised a brow at him before Dan elbowed his arm.

“Woah,” Phil teased, hoping to get out some sort of information, “Did somebody suck face?” Dan scoffed and PJ looked away. “Well--”

“No, no,” Dan elbowed him once again, “We just got a bit shitfaced and got really emotional and deep.” Phil squinted his eyes as he watched Dan and PJ carefully. Did they really make out? Were they a thing now?

“I came to the conclusion that Dan is the emotional drunk,” PJ giggled and Phil nodded along, before grabbing a bottle from the side of the bed and chugging down a quarter of it. “Woah Phil,” PJ warned, “Don’t choke.”

“Not choking is his greatest talent,” Dan laughed and Phil gasped, stretching out his leg to kick him. “Shut up,” he muttered before taking another sip. “Only stating facts,” Dan raised his hands, spilling some of the alcohol out of his bottle.

It got really quiet between the three of them as they all sat there, taking a sip occasionally from their own bottles. Phil suddenly crawled up between the two of them and shimmied into the small space provided.

“Hey,” PJ whispered, wiggling his eyebrows before all three of them broke out into uncontrollable laughter. They continued to laugh at everything and have slurred conversation throughout the rest of the night as the alcohol took its toll on all three of them. But, no matter how drunk Phil got, there was still that nagging thought at the back of his mind asking him if he really had made the right decision.

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Sort of a short chapter after leaving you guys hanging for like two weeks, but it’s the best I can do. This story is going to end really soon, fyi. I think there’s going to be like one or two more chapters and that’s it. I’m not even sure if I’m going to include an epilogue or not. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Let me know what you all thought and thanks for reading!