blurry face - phan

chapter eleven

// sorry it's kind of short, but I wanted to update for you :) //

dan

Dan sits in art beside Pj, twirling his pencil between his fingers.

He stares at his blank page, trying to find some inspiration to start a drawing but coming up blank. He looks beside at Pj's sketch, which is a person, so the face is just a blur.

"You haven started anything Dan," Pj says, frowning as he looks across to Dan's paper, "you'd better get going or you'll get a detention for not doing anything."

"I know, I'm just not sure what to draw," Dan replies with a sigh.

"Draw something that you find beautiful," Pj suggests, shrugging, "that's what I do when my brain refuses to think creatively."

"Thanks, good idea Pj," Dan says, looking at the paper again and starting to sketch.

And by the end of the lesson, he has a pair of eyes staring back at him from the paper - Phil's eyes, to be exact.

After art, Pj and Dan walk to the table where they eat lunch. Dan slides in between Louise, Dan can tell from the hair, and Pj, opening a bag of chips and crunching on them.

"Hey Dan, why is Phil Lester staring at you?" Caspar asks, "did you do something to annoy him?"

"No," Dan says, his cheeks tinting link as he turns around and meets Phil's eyes.

Phil looks away quickly, acting as if he wasn't staring at Dan's back. Dan sighs and turns back again, but he can now feel Phil's eyes burning into his back.

"That's kind of scary, he keeps looking at you Dan," Pj says, glancing over in Phil's direction again, "you should be careful around him. He's probably just sussing out the new kid."

"I'm not that new," Dan argues.

"Yeah you are," Pj laughs, patting Dan on the back, "you're the new kid until another new kid comes, which is usually in the next year."

Dan rolls his eyes. "Well, still... Shut up."

"Anyway, just stay away from Phil okay?" Pj asks, his voice laced with worry, "he's just... Got a bad temper and I don't want to see you getting hurt."

"I can take are of myself," Dan argues.

"Not with Phil Lester you can't," Pj says, "he is nothing but bad news and trouble - nothing will change that."

"Oh, okay..."

"Just promise me you'll try to steer clear of him," Pj pleads.

"Fine," Dan sighs, hating to lie to Pj, "I'll stay away."

"Thanks Dan," Pj says, "I'm just looking out for you."

Dan nods in return, giving Pj a small smile, but guilt is curling inside of his chest from lying to his friend. He sighs, trying to reassure himself that what he did was okay.

Promises are made to be broken, right? But then that makes Dan wonder, if promises are made to be broken;

Why make them in the first place?

***

That afternoon, Dan walks home with Phil, already breaking his promise to Pj.

"Uh, clearly Charmander is the better starter pokémon out of the three," Dan says, rolling his eyes at Phil's denial to this fact.

"No way! Piplup! It's like, way more powerful," Phil argues, "water is stronger."

"Uh, not against grass pokémon, which are really common," Dan says, rolling his eyes again, "god Phil, do you even pokémon?"