Sorry... (I've been saying that a lot, haven't I)
"Daaaan! Get up!"
Dan rolled over and buried his head under the pillows. The previous night had mainly consisted of him not sleeping and crying... which hadn't made for the best nights sleep. His mind all full to bursting of that same image... Phil. How he had looked so lost and broken, it broke Dan's heart every second he thought about it. But what hurt him the most was the feeling, the knowledge, that there was absolutely nothing he could do to help him. Nothing at all. Because he didn't know what could be done. All Dan could do was get up every day, go to school, get through day on coffee and his acting skills alone, go back home, text Phil until his fingers were numb and then repeat the process again the next day. And of course it didn't help that his mum refused to even hear about Phil or that his dad was away (for work... again) and his brother just spent his time moping about missing dad (again). So Dan just got up, got dressed, ignored his little brothers complaints, ignored his mums reminders to not go to 'his' (Phil's) house and trudged outside in the freezing early December air towards the bus stop at the end of the road. The old, barely functioning bus soon arrived and Dan quickly went in, sat down in his usual seat and let the dull grey morning roll past outside the windows. This was the time of the day Dan disliked the most, because all was quiet and he had nothing to do but think. Think of how much he missed Phil, what Phil might be doing, how Phil was feeling... just thinking about Phil. When the bus finally rolled to a halt outside the school gates Dan squared his shoulders, gritted his teeth and walked off the bus, ready to face another day in hell... which was even more hellish without Phil.
Basically no one had 'taken leadership' of Phil's 'group', Jack and Finn were both in almost permanent detention, Carrie was in hospital... which meant the only person in the school who could have any answers to all of this... was Dan. Every second of every day from when he stepped off the bus to when he walked back out the doors at the end of the day Dan was bombarded with people and questions.
"Where's Phil?"
"Is it true you stood up against Jack for Phil?"
"Are you and Phil friends now or something?"
"Where's Jack?"
"Where's Finn?"
"Where's Carrie?"
Constant, stupid questions from all the mindless pudding-brains that were the people he went to school with. But Dan took every question, screwed it up into a ball and threw it right back at their faces. He didn't have time for this; he didn't have time for anything.
He just wanted Phil back.
Phil spent yet another day sitting around the house doing nothing. His mum occasionally came in and told him to do some chores but none of them took him very long. His dad had finally found someone who would home-school him and they would be starting in 3 days time. Phil hated the idea of home schooling... but he also hated the idea of Dan being at school with all those idiots without him but there was nothing he could do about it. Whatever way Phil viewed his situation he always came back to the same answer: He hated it but there was nothing he could do to stop it. Which sucked. In truth...
He just wanted Dan back.