•Your Happy Place• || Phan

3

"Come on, man! You're cheating!" Troye whines childishly, reshuffling his hand of cards for our next round of war.

I chuckle, "Hate to break it to ya, but you kind of can't cheat at this game. It's sheer luck, which clearly, is not on your side at the moment." I smirk as he huffs out a breath.

"Aw, Troye boy, what's wrong, hon?" A bright voice joins our conversation, and none other than Zoe sits down Indian-style beside Troye. He makes a mock pouty face at her and bats his delicate eyelashes.

"Dan's cheating at war!" Zoe lets out a giggle at this and puts a look of sympathy on her face, looking between the two of us.

"I'm sorry to say, babe, but you can't really cheat at war..." my eyes light up as Troye rolls his.

"Ha! I told you!" I settle back, a smug look illuminating my features.

"You two are too cute," Zoe laughs. "Can I hang with you guys? Louise is busy. Besides I hate only having one friend here who knows literally everybody." She says, somewhat sheepishly.

I exchange a look with Troye, "What do you think? Is she worthy of being our not alone buddy?" I ask him, fake skepticism in my voice.

"Eh, why not?" Troye shrugs, and the two of us are immediately pulled into a bone crushing hug by the tiny girl.

"Thank you guys so much! Ugh you're so awesome!!" She shrieks.

I laugh lightly, "No problem, Zo. It'd be a pleasure for you to hang with us. It beats hanging out with my dork dorm mate, anyway."

Suddenly, Zoe slaps my arm. "Ow! What the hell?"

"Don't talk about Phil like that! He's super sweet! and he's supportive, and helpful, and you need to put aside whatever you don't like about him and find the good, because there is so much good in him, Dan. He's the single nicest human being I have ever met."

I roll my eyes to Troye, who nods, "He's super nice, Dan. He helped me a lot when I first got here. Still does."

I groan and stand, chucking my hand of cards at the two of them before turning on my heel and matching up the stairs. I stop just outside the door as I hear someone talking on the other side.

"I think you should be wary of him," Says one voice, I've definitely heard it before...someone here, obviously. Who, though? "I don't trust Dan, he seems unstable..." It's Louise! I'm unstable?!? No, she's unstable!

Phil speaks up now, "Who wasn't unstable when they got here? I was far worse than him when I first arrived and look at me now! He could be as successful and as happy as I am."

Time to put an end to this bullshit. I shove the door open roughly and charge in. "You have no right to talk about me like that! No right to talk about me like I'm some little kid, lost and insecure, cause I'm not! I'm not unstable, either!" I switch my glare to Louise, who turns and hurriedly leaves our room.

"Dan, I-"

"Save it. I'm going to sleep." I flick off the light switch and scurry to my bed, not wanting my back exposed for various demons to feed off my fear. With a huff, I face the wall and shut my eyes tightly. I hear Phil sigh, and his mattress shifting. There's about 19 seconds of silence before he whispers;

"Goodnight, Dan. I'm sorry."

+++

"Hey, look! It's the fag!" Alfie shouts, pointing across the courtyard as the students clear out to their classes. I follow his finger with my eyes, praying a tiny, silent prayer to any god that there may be that it's not him. Sure enough my eyes land on the slim boy sat on the bench. A frown etches into my face as Caspar grips Troye by the front of his shirt, hoisting him into the air.

Troye catches my eye for a split second, a silent plea for help, interrupted but Alfie's fist connecting with his jaw. I flinch at the impact, watching Troye's head fall back. Caspar then throws him onto the hard pavement, allowing Joe to kick his foot into the poor boy's gut.

Guilt and pain seeps into my stomach. Suddenly, all their harsh insults toward Troye are lost in my brain as I speak up. "Lay off him," All three boys turn to look at me, absolute shock clear on their faces. I clear my throat, "You guys should go, to class. I'll handle the fag," I nearly choked whilst saying the horrible word, "I've got a free period right now. Plus, I want him all to myself this time." I plaster on a fake malicious grin, hoping to convince my shit friends to fuck off.

"Why? Did he try to come onto you or something?" Alfie sniggers along with his sidekicks.

"Or something," I mutter.

Alfie sighs and begins to walk into the school. "Come on, boys. Let Howell have this one." The two knuckle heads shrug and follow Alfie in the building.

As soon as the door shuts, and Troye and me are alone in the courtyard, I rush over to him. "Woah, hey, you okay?" I ask as I help him to his feet and we sit on the bench.

"Yeah, thanks. My jaw hurts." He laughs lightly.

"No dip, nasty bruise forming as well."

"Lovely." Troye sighs.

"I'm sorry. I didn't stop them immediately." I say quietly, kicking at the dust with my feet. I feel so immensely guilty. "I don't know why, I couldn't move at first."

"It's fine, Dan." Troye gives me a small smile. "Really, I-"

"Da-an!" Troye is cut off by voice from behind me. He begins to stand and I touch his forearm, "later" I mouth to him. He nods and jogs to the school, one hand nursing his bruised jaw. "What the actual fuck, Daniel?" Cat's voice rang shrilly through my ears and I brace myself before turning to face her. "I haven't seen you in four days, and you won't answer calls or texts!"

"I can explain, babe," Can I, though?

"I'd love to hear it, Danny!"

"I-uh....shit." I stutter, realizing I don't have an explanation at the moment.

Her hand comes hard across my cheek, my face burns from the loud slap. "I knew it! I fucking knew it! You pig, you douche! You're cheating on me!! We are so over and I'm telling every girl in the school that you're a two-timing asshole!"

Before I can respond, she runs to the school in tears, leaving my stunned and holding a hand to my face.