Camp // phan

2- 11.What To Do When Your Friend Stabs You In The Back

Dan hadn't spoken to Chris since his birthday, and if he was being honest, it was because he was slightly scared to. They hadn't exactly parted in a good way, and he didn't know if Chris was still mad at him or not.

There was a phone in the big building at the front of the camp that people could use to call their friends or family, but since it was usually crowded with other campers who wanted to laugh and gossip and cry about their time here, Dan had never really put in an effort to use it. He had to try though, because as much as he was reluctant to face his friends anger or dismissal, he had some important stuff that he could only tell Chris.

So he was awake early in the morning, and luckily enough, the line wasn't completely wrapped around the building yet. It was his turn for the phone in less than an hour.

He entered the phone number from memory, and while it was ringing, it occurred to him that Chris might not even pick up. He didn't usually answer calls from numbers he didn't know, and Dan had no way of telling him. But it was 7 in the morning, and Chris probably didn't care enough to look at the caller I.D. because a few moments later, he answered with a groggy, "Hello?"

"Hey," Dan said, trying to sound calmer than he actually was. "It's Dan. Sorry it's so early, but it's pretty much the only time I could get to the phone."

"What the fuck, Dan?" He said, and then paused to most likely check the time on his phone screen. "I hate you. You'd better have a good reason for this treachery."

Dan was entirely aware of the people waiting behind him, who could probably hear everything he said, but he tried to block it out as best as he could. "I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry. For like, being kind of a douche bag to you when you came to visit. I didn't want you to hate me forever."

There was a long silence after that, and Dan almost had the sneaking suspicion that Chris had fallen asleep again, but then he sighed heavily on the other end of the line. "No, I was the douche bag. I saw you with all your new friends, and how you actually liked it there, and I..... I was jealous."

"Jealous?" Dan asked doubtfully. That was never a word he would use to describe his friend. "Of what?"

Chris laughed at that for some reason. "Dan, you have no idea how hard is it to even become your friend. I had to punch a guy in the face for you to talk to me. But you go to this camp that you said you'd hate, and now you have all these new people to hang out with it, and I thought it was a joke or something. You let them in so easily."

"Not like I had a choice," Dan said, and it was true. His bunk mates had pretty much forced him into being their friend, and he couldn't just ignore them the whole summer when they lived together.

"Okay, so we're not mad at each other anymore," Chris said, trying to change the topic. "Let's get to the good stuff. What've you been up to?"

And, well, Dan told him. He summed it up as much as possible, knowing he had to give up the phone soon so he wouldn't get in trouble. He just wanted to talk to his friend for a little while.

"And how's that going?" Chris said after a Godzilla-like yawn. "You and Phil. Are you guys dating?"

"No." Dan sighed. "Yes. Maybe. It's complicated."

"I can tell," Chris laughed. "Hey, it can't be any worse than me and PJ."

"You and PJ?" Dan questioned, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "What the fuck is going with you and PJ?"

It was Chris's turn to sigh. "I don't even know what's going on with me and PJ. I'm, like..... courting him, I guess."

If Dan had thought that Chris being jealous was out of character, the idea of him 'courting' a guy was even further down the list. In the last year, Dan had seen him with his arm slung around a variety of love interests that never lasted very long. He wasn't a commitment kind of guy.