Phil arrives to school the following Monday morning with a ball of dread lodged in his stomach, painfully aware that Jack must know about him and Dan by now, but he remembers what he told Dan that night: whatever happens, they'll deal with it together. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? Phil's pretty popular at school; it's not like he has tons of friends, but people are always friendly and everyone knows who he is. Making the winning touchdown at homecoming really boosts one's reputation. It's not like Jack can destroy that just by spreading around the fact that Phil's dating Dan.
As Phil thinks about it as he walks to his locker, he realizes it's not even that big of a deal. He never gets any homophobic crap from his peers - sure, he sees Dan get looks every now and then as they walk together, but it's been weeks since Phil yelled at Jack and nothing else has happened. No one really cares anymore.
Well, maybe one person does.
Phil feels the presence appear behind him as he stands alone at his locker, Dan not being at school yet. "Phil," the guy says, and Phil instantly places the voice as Jack's. He turns around, and the second he sees Jack's face, he knows Jack knows about him and Dan. He's not sure what Jack's going to do about it, but something is about to go down. And he's afraid to find out what.
"What's up?" Phil cringes at how awkward he sounds.
"Oh, not much." Jack crosses his arms. "I heard you and Homo Howell were uh, gettin' busy in the hallway during homecoming," he says, surprisingly nonchalant. Phil wasn't sure what he was expecting - anger or disgust, maybe, but this certainly isn't it.
"Don't call him that," Phil says quietly. Something about Jack and their confrontation makes him nervous, submissive. Everyone around them watching isn't helping.
Jack takes a step closer to Phil, further making him cower, even though he's about 3 inches taller than Jack. "I'll call him whatever the fuck I want to call him," Jack says, the venom Phil was expecting sneaking into his words. "We need a nickname for you, too," Jack taunts. "What do you think about 'Faggy Phil?'"
Phil's breath catches at the harsh word, but he moves past it and tries to get the conversation over with. "What do you want, Jack?"
"I just want to set some things straight. I don't want to see you and your faggot boyfriend making out or doing any other shit in these hallways, alright?" Jack steps even closer as he bites out the words, slamming a hand on Dan's locker next to Phil.
"Stop saying that," Phil gasps out, and his vision starts to blur. The only thing he's grateful for is that Dan isn't around for this.
"I'll say whatever the fuck I want to say," Jack repeats what he said earlier. And that's when Phil sees him. His gut wrenches as he sees Dan, standing just a few feet behind Jack with a horrified look on his face. But it quickly turns to one of anger as Jack continues: "And I don't care if I offend you," he mocks. "Why would I care about a fucking fag?"
Everything moves so quick after that, Phil's not really sure what happens. Dan's there in a flash; he forcefully whirls Jack around, and the next thing Phil is aware of is Jack, hands covering his bloody nose, staggering away from them. Phil looks with wide eyes at Dan, whose hand is balled in a fist.
But Dan's not looking at Phil.
Dan goes after Jack, punching him in the stomach before Jack can even try and defend himself. Jack doubles over, clutching his stomach, and Dan jabs hit after hit to Jack's face and torso until he collapses on the ground against the lockers.
Dan drops down next to him. "I have tolerated you hurting me for the past year," he hisses. "But you do not-! Hurt-! Phil-!" He punctuates each word with another hit, and finally Phil comes to his senses and rushes forward to pull Dan back, along with another kid. He and the kid pull Dan up and away from Jack, and together they pull Dan through the crowd gathered around them and push their way into the men's bathroom down the hall.
"Dan!" Phil cries the second the door closes. "What was that?!"
Dan looks down at his bloodied hands as if just now noticing what he had been doing, and he looks back up at Phil. "I... I... I heard what he was saying to you, Phil. I let him bully me all last year, there was no way I was gonna let him do that to you, too."
"Well, you didn't have to do that!" The kid who helped Phil exclaims as he gestures to the hallway just outside the bathroom, and Phil finally realizes the kid is Lucas. Why did it always seem to be just the three of them in bathrooms? And then Paige, of all people, bursts through the doors.
"Paige?"
"That was really stupid. But brave," she says to Dan.
"What's going on out there?" Phil asks anxiously.
"After you left, one of Jack's friends pulled him away. To the nurse, I guess. All the teachers are at a breakfast meeting, can you believe that?"
Phil turns to Dan. "You... you could be expelled."
Dan sighs. "I know."
"Thank you for defending me, but... that was really stupid, Dan."
"This was long overdue," Dan says quietly.
"Was his bullying really that bad?"
"There were... other things."
"Now will you tell me?"
Dan sighs. "Later."
No one says anything for several more seconds.
"Well, at least wash off your hands."
Dan cleans himself up as the four try to figure out what to do. No one could prove Dan beat up Jack; there were no teachers around. He might not get in trouble. That is, if no one tells on him. But hey, no one likes a tattletale.
"Is Jack okay?" Phil asks Paige.
"From what I could see it looked like he had a black eye and a broken nose. I'm not sure what else Dan did to him."
Dan cringes as he finishes drying off his hands. "Are you mad at me for doing that?" He asks Phil quietly.
"Honestly, no. I've just.. never seen you like that before."
"That was really unlike you, Dan," Lucas says. "I've seen you mad, but... never like that. You must really like Phil," he remarks with a snort.
Dan looks up at Phil with a little quirk of his mouth. "I do."
Phil smiles back. "I really like you, too."
"Why are you guys bonding over Dan beating someone up?!" Lucas exclaims incredulously.
Phil blushes and looks back at Dan. "Well.. thanks again. He was really bothering me."
Dan's face contorts with a frown. "I could tell."
Suddenly, the warning bell rings. "Alright, we should go." The group of friends leave the bathroom and enter Mr. Thompson's room, Lucas splitting off to his own homeroom. The moment the trio enters the classroom, all heads swivel to the doorway at them. Shaking off the stares, the three walk to their desks in the back corner. Mr. Thompson doesn't arrive to the silent classroom until a few seconds before the first bell rings.
"Good morning, class!" Mr. Thompson says. The usual chorus of greetings hangs unspoken in the air as still no one says a word. Dan shifts uncomfortably. "Woah. Guys? What's up?" Mr. Thompson pauses and surveys the classroom. Finally, one student speaks up.
"Do you know anything about Jack?" A student known for their good grades, Liam, says. Dan and Phil cringe.
Mr. Thompson frowns. "Jack? Jack who?"
"Jack Glabowitz."
"What about him?"
Liam doesn't respond.
"Liam?" He turns to the rest of the class. "Guys?"
"There, uh, was a fight this morning. I think he's at the nurse," another student says.
"What? With who?"
Dan shifts again, but thankfully, no one elaborates although a few people glance his way.
Mr. Thompson grumbles something and simply strides towards the back of the room. Dan's breath catches, but Thompson is only heading for his desk right behind their table, where he sits down in front of his computer to compose an email to the nurse. Meanwhile, Paige turns to Phil. "Give me your phone," she mutters.
"What? Why?" Phil whispers back.
"Just do it." So Phil hands his phone over after unlocking it, trusting Paige but warily watching over her shoulder. He watches Paige open his Snapchat, but then she turns away from Phil, and, ignoring his protests, only returns the phone several seconds later.
"What did you do?" Phil says with wide eyes, quickly taking his phone back to see Paige sent a chat to Jack. He opens it, horrified, to see a message saying "you tell anyone it was dan and i'll make your life as miserable as you did to his". "Paige!" Phil exclaims.
Paige just gives him a smug smile.
"What did she do?" Dan peers over Phil's shoulder and reads the message, then turns to gape at Paige. "I cannot believe you sent that to him." Paige just shrugs and begins to doodle in her assignment notebook.
Phil turns to Dan with a pleading expression. "There had to have been something that caused this.." he glances back at Mr. Thompson and continues quietly, "..weird.. rivalry between you two. Will you tell me now? Tonight, when we hang out?"
"..Fine," Dan concedes. "Tonight."
A/N: hey guys! sorry for the slight cliffhanger, and sorry it took nearly two months to get another chapter up. i was just suffering some serious writers block and you know how life can get. i did publish some other fics if you'd like to check them out; i added to my soulmate au and published a new oneshot. in any case, i hope you enjoyed this chapter and, as always, fav, follow, and review. it doesn't really seem like people are reading or liking this fic, so i'd really appreciate any feedback. ~l