He acted like it didn't hurt him, like he didn't care, but the truth was every time they opened their mouths he felt like a knife was twisting around in his gut.
Every time they took the piss out of his hair, his spots, his accent, his sense of humour, even the songs he wrote, he felt more and more like he was going to crack, lose his temper on them all.
And one day he did.
No one was more surprised than Danny was when he stood up and punched Harry in the face; when he screamed at him to 'go fuck your stupid posh mum, you tosser'. No one was more shocked than him when he turned as Tom put a hand on his shoulder, and Danny kicked him right in the gut. He turned on James, the closest, and started venting out his feelings of insecurity, pain and betrayal via his fists on to James' skin. Span around and clawed Charlie's face as the taller man tried to drag him off, and then threw him down and picked up Matt by the shirt, his adrenaline allowing him to shove Matt in to Charlie, and they all went down.
All of them- Charlie, Tom, Matt, James and Harry- watched in shock from the floor as Danny stood there, breathing hard, tears running down his face, gasping for air at his breakdown.
"I'm not..." He whispered brokenly. "I'm not... not pathetic..." He stumbled back and shook his head wildly. "Not, I'm not... I aint ugly, you don't- you don't know."
And it could've ended there, if it wasn't for Dougie. Small, defenceless Dougie, who couldn't even fight off a tickle attack from Tom, who's strength equalled a ten year old girl's, who panicked and in fear, lashed out, throwing his small frame at Danny. Of course, Danny acted before he thought; grabbing Dougie with one hand, he struck out with the other, backhanding him across the face and sending him crashing in to the table.
For a second, time stood still. Danny didn't move, just stared, wide eyed and crying, at Dougie, who was sitting on the floor, watching Danny with huge eyes- which slowly teared up.
"Ow," He mumbled, and clutched his cheek, whimpering softly. Danny stepped back, and looked at Tom accusingly.
"It's your fault!" He said loudly. "Your, your fault, you lied to me, said you liked me, said you were my mate, it's your fault, you lied! You LIED! I HATE YOU!"
And then he was gone, running out of the front door, down the drive way, across the road and in to the forest; but they weren't angry. None of them were, because they had all known that even though he was strong, even though he acted like it didn't hurt him, everyone had a breaking point and they had accidentally pushed Danny to his.