that same day at lunch, phil sat down at his usual spot, the round table in the back of the large cafeteria. it was right next to a window, which he liked, and no one else ever chose to sit there, so philly got the whole table to himself. or at least, he used to.
phil was happily munching on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while watching his favorite youtuber's new video when a shadow was cast across the table. a rather tall shadow to be exact.
yanking out one earbud and pausing the video, the raven haired boy stood up, one hand holding onto his chair protectively. he brushed his dark fringe fringe out of his eyes, then studied the character in front him.
"uh, hi," dan gave a small wave and smiled awkwardly, almost as if he was being forced to introduce himself to the one overly social aunt you only see when a cousin gets married, or a great uncle dies.
phil noticed that that dan's whole book bag was soaked, and the same applied to his gray shirt, and decided to offer the poor kid a seat at his empty table. I mean, it did get sort of lonely sometimes, only having one friend. and it certainly didn't help when that one friend lived over an hour away.
it wasn't that phil was a loser or anything along those lines, he just wasn't interesting enough. of course, once you got to know him, he was a very outgoing person, but most people didn't try hard enough to make it past that initial barrier and end up dropping him, always playing the 'it's not you, it's me' card. I bet you thought that was only for romances. well, guess again.
after the brunette sat, phil decided it was a good time to ask what in the world had happened to him.
"so," he began, dragging out the 'o' as long as he could. "how'd you manage that on the first day?"
dan looked back at the blue eye boy with a confused look, unsure as to what he was talking about. his hands were fidgety in his lap, constantly tapping his thigh.
tap. tap. tap.
noticing dan's uncertainty, phil motioned towards his wet clothes and backpack, which were still dripping with what was hopefully water.
"oh, you meant that," dan replied bluntly, staring at phil with wide eyes. "there were these guys, and I don't think they liked me very much. they threw my bag into the fountain. pj and troye warned me, but did I listen? nope," he sighed, looking down at his hands.
"who's pj? and troye?" phil cocked his head, curious. he recalled dan mentioning pj's name this morning as well.
"they're, uh," dan was flustered, unsure of how to answer the question. he was not expecting the topic of his 'family' to come up. "they're my cousins," he finished his sentence with a flourish, hoping his coverup was believable. from what he'd been told, he wasn't exactly the best liar.
"anyways," he added, attempting to steer the conversation away from his personal life, "why are you sitting alone? shouldn't you be with your girlfriend or something?"
"I'm kind of-wait, what girlfriend?"
"I dunno," dan shrugged. "I thought that all p-pretty, yeah, pretty people had some significant other to spend their lives with." soon after speaking, dan realized what he said and rushed to continue babbling, hoping not to make a fool out of himself. "I mean, I don't like you-oh god, i didn't mean that I disliked you, I meant that I don't like-like you, not that you aren't handsome because you are so freaking pretty-shit, did I just say that outloud? anyways, I'm straight, it'd be a sin not to be, to some people i guess. I'm not like that though, I like everyone no matter their sexuality-I should probably shut up now."
"alright then," phil trailed off, giving dan an odd look. he wasn't exactly sure how he was supposed to respond to the brunette's confession. in the end he decided to just go along with it and act normal.
"haha, thats pretty far from the truth, to be honest with you. I dated this girl, missy, for about three weeks in seventh grade and that's the extent of my romance history. speaking of seventh grade, what class are you? freshman?"
"no!" the younger insisted, offended by phil's assumption. "I'm a junior, thank you very much." he said, accompanied by a sassy hair flip that would have been impressive if he had longer hair.
"you sure about that?" phil snorted, gazing at dan.
annoyed, dan nodded, opening his mouth to continue arguing. "I'm practically seventeen!"
"mhm. besides, what do you mean by 'practically'? you're either seventeen or you're not." phil was enjoying this dispute, it was quite entertaining watching the brown eyed boy try to defend himself. mind you, he was only teasing.
"fine. I'm sixteen. but I'll be seventeen in six months." his arms crossed, dan looked at phil daringly, as if saying 'try me', except for he wasn't as intimidating as he thought he looked. it was ridiculous, but in a good way. cute.
"dan howell, I think I'm going to keep you around."
that day as phil walked home after seventh period, he wondered about dan howell. there was something off about him, but phil just couldn't put his finger on it. he was almost too innocent. dan was amazed by what phil thought were the smallest things, and kept correcting himself whenever he slipped up in a sentence. but why was he slipping up? it didn't make sense. at the same time, phil felt himself relishing the younger boy's company. he almost felt like he...belonged. it was a nice feeling warm and fuzzy, and if phil had to choose a color to define it, he would say lavender. happiness bubbled inside the tall teenager as he walked home, the suspicions about dan currently leaving his train of thoughts.