Dan ignores most of his friends the rest of the day. He sees Taylor walking down the hall, and pulls him to bring him closer. Taylor stumbles and nearly falls. He adjusts his posture.
"What is it, Dan?"
"I want to go out tonight. Take me some place fun."
"Alright. I know this bar we can go to. I'll pick you up at six. Can I ask why?"
"I rather not talk about it. I just want to go out," Dan looks down.
"Alright. If you say so. Would you like to come to my place?"
"I guess," Dan mumbles. Taylor leads him to his 2009 silver Toyota Corolla. Dan sees John in the parking lot, talking to his friends. Dan turns away. He couldn't bear to be near John. Taylor senses that Dan is acting strange. Dan doesn't say anything and gets in. Tears are forming in Dan's eyes. Taylor notices this, but says nothing. He doesn't want to upset Dan any further. Taylor gets in and drives to his place.
They arrive to Taylor's flat. Dan gets out quickly. Streaks of tears stream down his face. Taylor walks up to him and places his hand on Dan's left shoulder. He glances at Taylor with teary eyes.
"There's something up, I know it. I saw the way you looked at John. Did he hurt you?"
"Yeah," Dan is hesitant to answer him, but he finally does. Taylor opens the door for Dan. He walks in. Taylor follows. Dan makes himself at home, by sitting on his couch. He has been at Taylor's place before. They have been friends since primary school. When they were younger, they would have sleepovers.
"What did John do?" Taylor questions.
"Well, after Riley, you know I've blamed myself, but I have been sitting outside, alone. He walked up to me, we talked for a bit, and this guy walks by. John says that he has a nice ass, and then we kissed. I enjoyed it, a lot, but John doesn't have feelings for me," Dan's voice trails off. Taylor rubs Dan's back. Dan is feeling worthless. He hurt Riley, and lost his chance with a guy who thought he is hot. "Maybe going out isn't the best idea," he mutters.
"Dan, I know that you feel rejected, but going out is the best thing you can do. Meet someone new, get crazy, live your life with no regrets. You can't be trapped by yourself your whole life. You'll have to let loose. Let's get your face dried off, and let's go out tonight."
"Alright. Thank you, Taylor."
Later that night, Dan and Taylor walk to the bar. Dan is wearing a black jacket, a gray shirt, black skinny jeans and black Converses. Taylor is wearing a long sleeve red and white raglan shirt, red Converses, and denim skinny jeans. Taylor's ginger hair is slicked back into a snap back hat that he is wearing backwards. Dan walks in behind him, after the bouncer checks their IDs.
Dan sits on a bar stool, looking around at the scene. People are dancing and kissing. He is bewildered by it all but also sad because he doesn't have that type of connection in his own life. Dan notices that Taylor is dancing with this girl. Dan smiles a little at them. He is grateful to have him as a best friend. He isn't having a good time. Dan walks up to Taylor.
"Hey, I'm heading home," he speaks louder than the blaring music. Taylor, who can barely understand a word Dan says, nods.
Dan walks out. He wanders around aimlessly, until he see a group of men. He decides to follow them. The group of men don't notice Dan, and walk into another bar that is two blocks away from the first bar.
When he gets there, he realizes it is a gay bar. He gets a few looks and some of the men flirt with him. Dan is a bit embarrassed by the attention and goes up to the bar and orders a beer. Looking up to the loft area he sees the very same black haired-man from that day. The man sees him too and grins. The man comes down and after deflecting another man from talking to Dan, begins to chat with him. The other man scorns him and storms off.
"Hey," the man greets Dan. The man's smile is stretched from cheek to cheek. The flashing lights soak up in his pale, fair skin. His light blue eyes are warm and lively. His voice is modulated. Dan's ears have never heard such a beautiful sound.
"Hi."
"I'm Phil."
"Dan," Dan replies. Phil smiles.
"You're new to the scene, aren't you?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Only newbies only order that drink. Here, try this," Phil gives him a taste of his strawberry milk drink, to which Dan admits he finds gross. Phil laughs. Dan smiles. His heart is racing.
"You know, we don't get too many of your type in this bar."
"What's my type?" Dan asks.
"The younger type," he replies.
"So, Phil. What do you do for a living?" Dan changes the subject.
"I'm an English major at York. I'm in my fourth year of college. What do you do, Dan?"
"I'm, I'm still in high school," he utters. "How old are you, Phil?"
"Twenty-two. How old are you?"
"Eighteen," Phil's friends walk up and tell him they are going to another club and want him to come. Phil introduces Dan as his cousin to them. Phil then leaves, but not before getting Dan to tell him the name of his high school that he attends.
Dan walks back home alone. He is feeling jubilant, and decides to call Taylor.
"Dan, do you realise what time it is?"
"That doesn't matter. I met someone as this gay bar."
"What do you mean? I thought you went home. I went home shortly after you said you did, because I wanted you to have a good time."
"I'm sorry, but his name is Phil."
"Phil, huh. That's nice. Couldn't this have waited until morning?"
"I don't think so," Dan replies. Taylor sighs. Dan arrives home. He quietly unlocks the door and tiptoes to his bedroom. He takes off his jacket and shoes. Dan plops on his bed.
"What does he look like? Is he cute?"
"He has black hair, pale skin and light blue eyes. His voice is pleasant to listen to. I could hear him talk for hours. His eyes were shimmering. His skin looked soft and creamy. You should have seen the way the lights shined on his hair. He's in his fourth year of college as an English major. We talked about poetry and favorite authors. He is such an amazing person," Dan couldn't help smiling to himself.
"Sounds like you really hit it off with Phil. Now, let me sleep. We have school in the morning," before Dan could object, Taylor hung up. He is right. Dan needs to sleep. He turns off his lamp on his nightstand, and slowly falls asleep. He thinks about Phil.
The next day, Dan practically runs downstairs to join his parents for breakfast. He kisses his mother on her cheek.
"You're in a good mood. Did anything exciting happen?"
"Yes. I met a guy. His name is Phil," Dan replies with a grin.
"What a lovely name. Now, hurry up and eat. We don't want you to be late," Dan does as he is commanded, and sits down to eat.
When he finishes breakfast, he catches the bus for school. He sits alone. None of his friends are on the bus, which is fine to him. He has the thought of Phil to fill the loneliness.
When he arrives to school, Louise, Taylor, Samantha and Charlotte are waiting by the front door. Dan quickly gets off the bus and rushes to them.
"You're in a good mood, Dan. What's up?" Samantha examines.
"Taylor took me to a bar last night, and I talked to this girl," he lies. He didn't want to tell them that he went to a gay bar alone. He knows that they are accepting to Taylor, but he wasn't sure if his friends would be accepting of him.
"That's wonderful! What's her name? Are you going to see her again? Do you have her number?" Charlotte chimes in.
"Her name is Fiona, maybe, and no, I didn't," he responds. Louise, Samantha and Charlotte groan.
"You're not very helpful, Dan," Louise remarks.
As school lets out, Dan is with his group of friends when he sees Phil waiting for him. Dan goes to him, ignoring all the calls of his friends. Phil invites Dan to come and get a drink with him. Only Taylor realises what is really going on and watches silently as the two guys walk away. They walk to the park near his school. Dan and Phil sit on a park bench.
"I was big on Sartre in high school," Phil says, starting a conversation with Dan.
"Really?"
"It did me good. Especially in affirming my freedom and my own values, and the rigorousness of his commitments. I agree with it."
"Sort of like Bob Marley. Almost."
"I'm not so sure of it," Phil laughs.
"I'm almost sure of it. Their ideas are similar. You know "Get Up, Stand Up"?"
"Yeah I know it."
"He's committed."
"It's true," Phil nods in agreement.
"Same as Sartre. A philosopher, a prophet, same thing," Phil checks his watch.
"I have to go. Will I see you again?"
"Yes. Here," Dan gives Phil his number. As they stand up to leave, Phil stares at Dan for a long time and moves closer as if to kiss him. Phil kisses Dan's cheek and leaves, leaving Dan feeling marvelous.
When Dan gets home later, his mother tells him a friend, Phil, is on the phone. Dan rushes up and takes the call like a nervous schoolboy talking to his crush. They talk about future careers they wish to have, and classes.
"My English class is reading 'The Life of Marianne'," Dan tells Phil.
"I love that book. Are you enjoying it?"
"Well, I haven't been paying attention. I'm not much of a reader. When I'm older, I would love to be an actor. I was a few plays with I was younger."
"That kind of contradicts what you said, but I wish I could see you perform."
"Well, we have auditions for a play next week, maybe you can come?"
"Of course. I got to go. I got a load of homework to do. Talk to you later?"
"Yes."
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
The next day, Dan is walking with Taylor. He is talking about what Phil and him talked about, when he is quickly and decisively confronted by a group of girls. The leader of this group of girls is Rebecca.
"Hey, why are you hanging out with an obvious faggot?" Rebecca asks loudly. People are staring at them. Dan dislikes attention like this. He tries to push through them, but they block his way.
"He's not a faggot, and he's just a friend." Dan tries to deflect their questioning. However, the third degree continues and turns very ugly.
"Did you go to a bar with Taylor?" she asks.
"No," he tries to deny.
"Why are you lying? Of course we went to a bar." Taylor confirms.
"Fine, we went to a bar." Dan finally admits. Things go from bad to worse.
"Are you gay?" Rebecca pretend to say that she don't care if he is but she want him to admit it. One of her friends gets very mean.
"They totally slept together in the same bed naked. Do you ever wanted him?" One of the girls laughs. Another girl finally takes it too far.
"Did you get a taste of his dick?" she asks. This sets Dan off and he attacks the girl. Taylor pulls Dan away from the girls.
"You know nothing!" Dan yells. The girls scream at him. One of girls of the group tells the others they took it way too far; they meant to ask politely and they ended up verbally abusing Dan.
Dan is in class having trouble concentrating on his studies. He is visibly upset and depressed about what happened between him and those girls. He couldn't bear to tell Louise, Charlotte, Samantha, or Phil; especially Phil.