Dan and Phil talked last night, like every other day up till then, into the late hours of the evening on Snapchat. But this time it was different, in that they didn't have to hide their feelings for each other. Once during their conversation, Dan took an accidental selfie that made him look high, drunk, and like he was about to sneeze, all at the same time. But he sent it to Phil anyway, with a caption saying "i look really ugly but imma send this anyway", and then he moved into a response to Phil's previous snap. Phil had responded "you could never look ugly". It was a distinct, but distinctly better, change to be able to say what he was thinking. Not have to hide his feelings.
Besides Dan's accidental selfie and Phil's response (which then resulted in a slew of bad selfies he and Phil took to see who could out-do each other in a bad selfie competition), they also set up a time to hang out later in the week. It was difficult, because Phil had a few hours of football practice every day after school. Eventually they decided to have a study date the next day - casually hanging out after Phil's practice. It still made Phil nervous, what with it being the first proper time he and Dan had hung out alone. And as a couple.
However, it is only the first period of the school day now, and they have hours to go before their study date. Phil walks down the hallway where he can already see Dan at his own locker next to Phil's, getting his books needed for the day. When he approaches Dan and their lockers on the wall, he lightly touches a hand to the small of Dan's back. "Hey," he says, "it's good to see you."
Dan starts slightly at the gentle touch, but when he turns and sees it's Phil, he relaxes into Phil's arm. "Good to see you, too," he replies, smiling. Phil quickly takes a hand off Dan before someone can notice the intimate gesture, and begins to unlock his locker.
"You look really tired," Phil prompts, concerned; but he looks over at Dan in a slightly scolding way, how Dan imagined his mother would look if she knew about his late sleep schedule.
"I had to stay up to do a geometry assignment after we talked," Dan lies defensively, suddenly becoming self-conscious of the dark circles he knew would be there; hanging like shadows beneath his eyes and haunting him with the memory of sleepless nights.
"Ah, sorry. Liu, right?" Dan nods. "Well, hopefully that won't happen tonight, right? I'm looking forward to our study date," Phil says quietly with a little grin. Despite his soft comment, Dan still glances around to make sure no one heard him. After Phil had said he didn't want anyone to know they were going out, Dan realized he didn't want many people to know, either. He's still getting some homophobic crap from his peers, definitely not as much as before now that Phil had said (*yelled) something, but he still overhears snide whispers from time to time which he was clearly intended to hear. Having everyone know he's dating Phil would just make things worse for both of them. But almost no one's in the hallway, anyway; it's almost time for class. Besides, half the school doesn't use their lockers anyway, they just carry around their backpacks for the whole day.
"I'm looking forward to it, too," Dan says with a smile. The two close their lockers, now that they each had their books for their morning classes, and head into first period together.
Phil sits in what had been Dan's seat today again, but as Dan goes to sit in what would've been Phil's seat, Paige (already sitting there) throws out a hand to stop him. "Uh-uh," she says, looking straight at Phil instead, who looks up in surprise. "Phil, you get your ass over here and tell me what's going on." Dan looks at Phil questioningly as Phil looks at Paige like a scared puppy. However, he complies, and sits next to Paige as Dan gratefully sits down. Yeah, he and Paige are friends, but really only cause she and Phil are. Truth be told, Paige scares Dan a little bit.
"What?" Phil asks Paige innocently, but the nervous tremor in his voice gives him away. (If I'm being honest, Paige can scare everyone a little bit.)
"What do you mean, 'what'?!" Paige whispers harshly at him. "When I asked you what was going on with you and Dan yesterday, you just left me on 'opened'!" She yell-whispers again.
Phil winces. "Sorry. It's just easier to talk about this in person," he whispers back.
"Ya could've at least explained that to me on Snapchat," Paige snaps, but in a softer tone than before. "So what is going on?" She shoots a glance at Dan, who was doodling in his notebook, trying (and failing) to pretend like he wasn't listening.
"Well, we talked about it after you left, and we're dating now?" Phil whispers, turning to Dan just to make sure. He nods ever so slightly, and Phil turns back to Paige.
She looks back and forth between the boys. "You are?"
Phil nods.
"Oh, thank the Lord!" Paige looks towards the heavens in gratitude. "I thought it'd never happen."
"Paige, stop," Phil shushes her, a red tinge starting to decorate his cheeks. Paige looks over and notices Dan's pink tinge creeping up in his cheeks, too, and she grins.
"Sorry, sorry. I take it you're not being public about it yet?" The two boys shake their heads.
"How'd you know?" Dan says sheepishly.
"You just seem very secretive about it. Don't be embarrassed, though; it's fine to take things slow. I wouldn't want the whole school to be involved in my relationship either."
Just then, Mr. Thompson rises from his desk behind the three, walks to the front of the room, and begins to take attendance. When he gets to Dan's name, his mind returns to the conversation he just overheard from the three students who sat in front of his desk. Most teachers wouldn't care about the drama of three high school student's lives, and wouldn't think twice about overhearing that conversation. In contrast, Mr. Thompson is thinking smugly: now McLain owes me twenty bucks.
The hours pass slowly until it's time for lunch. After attendance, Dan and Phil had agreed to tell their friends they were dating at lunch. But of course, not that easily. After their friends had pestered them about it for so long, they decided it was only fair to tease them a little bit.
"Hey, guys," Phil says as he and Andrew approach the lunch table. They squeeze into their normal seats, Phil next to Dan, and Andrew between Phil and Emmett.
"Hey, Phil. You look really hot today," Dan says bluntly, earning several surprised looks around the table from their friends.
"Thanks, you do, too, babe," Phil responds, further surprising their friend group. He would've punctuated the sentence with a quick peck on Dan's lips, if not just to taste Dan's lips again. But, it was definitely not the time, and he didn't want to send his friends into cardiac arrest. So instead, he settles for a lingering look at Dan and wets his lips every so slightly with his tongue; then as Phil sets his sack lunch on the table, he lets his hand come to rest over Dan's, unintentionally sending flutters through both of their chests.
"Okay, what the fuck is going on?" Lucas exclaims, throwing up his hands as he looks back and forth between Dan and Phil.
Dan laughs as Phil giggles, sticking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth. "Sorry, sorry," Dan starts to apologize. "You know what, I'm not sorry, the look on your guys' faces is priceless." Dan dissolves into another burst of laughter.
"Alright, alright," Phil says with a roll of his eyes. "You want to tell them?"
The table looks on in anticipation as Dan starts: "Okay, sure. Well, as you all wanted, Phil and I are going out now."
Lucas looks up at them hopefully, surprise still evident on his face. "Are you guys for real?"
"Yep," Phil laughs.
"Well hey, man, good for you," Andrew inputs, smiling. The other guys at the table begin to voice their congrats, Lucas going on about how he knew it was meant to be.
"Okay, now can you guys knock it off? We're not going public yet, and y'all are being really loud," Dan says, glancing around the cafeteria; thankfully, no one was looking their way. Their conversation must not have been able to be heard over the loud chatter of the cafeteria.
"Oh, yeah, sorry," Nathan says.
"So like, are you guys like 'dating-dating'?"
"What does that even mean, Ben?" Dan looks at him in exasperation.
"You know what I mean."
"No, I honestly don't!" Dan laughs again.
"Are you guys going to homecoming together?" Nathan asks.
"I mean, kind of."
"Technically yes, but again, people don't know about it," Phil says. "Are you guys going?"
The other guys all look around the table at each other. "I guess we could, just all as friends?" Emmett suggests, and everyone starts to agree.
"Well, I'm going in a group with some football guys," Andrew starts, "we're all getting dates too, I've already asked Ashley to go with me."
"Wait, what?" Phil turns to Andrew. "You didn't tell me that."
"Sorry, I didn't think it was important. It's not like we're dating or anything, we're just going to homecoming together," Andrew responds, taking a bite of his sandwich.
"Not that. 'Football guys'? Who's all going?"
"Erik, Jason, Tony, a lot of guys," Andrew lists off.
"Like, the whole football team?" Phil asks in disbelief, as the rest of the table watches the drama unfolding.
"Well, not the entire team..." Andrew trails off.
"And why wasn't I told about this?" Phil demands.
"It's not that big a deal! We're not going to be hanging out the whole time; I'll be with Ashley a lot, and I can hang out with you guys, too."
"Great, thanks; I'm glad to hear I'm your second choice," Phil says bitterly.
"C'mon, don't be like that! You know you're my best friend."
"And yet, you didn't even tell me you were going to homecoming - without me, and with a whole bunch of our team, who also didn't bother to invite me!"
"Sorry, Phil, I didn't even know you were going. I don't know what else to say."
"Yeah, whatever." Phil stabs at a noodle, then stands abruptly without bothering to eat it. "I'm getting a drink." He stalks away from the table, and Dan jumps up to follow him, shooting a worried look towards his closest friend, Lucas. He tries not to think about the awkwardness he's leaving Andrew and the rest of the guys to simmer in.
Dan follows Phil to a vending machine by the corner. "Hey," he says softly, mimicking the gentle brush to Phil's back Phil had given him earlier. "Why are you getting so worked up?"
Phil feeds a dollar to the machine, then turns to Dan. "It's just... Andrew and Ryan and Erik... they're my closest friends on the team. Everyone else barely talks to me." He makes a selection on the machine. "It feels like I'm getting nowhere on the team, just stuck in the same group of friends. Who don't even bother to tell me they're all going to hang out at homecoming without me," he says bitterly, grabbing his drink from the machine.
"I get that, I'm sorry, Phil. Just keep talking to the other guys, maybe give them some advice? Show them you care, and they'll make more of an effort to be friends with you," Dan offers. "And if they don't invite you places, just realize they're not your true friends. But maybe ask them about it, see if there's another reason they didn't invite you. You could be blowing this out of proportion."
"You're right." Phil looks up from the can in his hand. "Thanks, Dan."
"Of course. Let's head back."
A/N: hey guys! thanks for reading this new chapter, not a lot happened, ik. i wish i could just skip to their dates and get to the dramatic stuff, but i'm in the midst of writing their study date right now, so hopefully it'll be up next weekend, so stay tuned for that! anyway, hope you enjoyed this update, i added some cutesy dnp stuff i hope you liked, i loved writing it, obviously. fav or follow if you like this fic and want to know what happens next, and please leave a review telling me what you think! ~l