For some reason, Dan didn't show up for lunch. Phil hadn't seen him for the rest of the day either, so he assumed that he must've gone home after the first period.
It wasn't surprising for Phil at all, if people would stare at him like they did at Dan, he would've done the same.
He actually did that some time ago. After his dad passed away, he didn't go to school for a week, until a school counselor showed up at his house and tried to convince him. But he couldn't bear the stares he got and the whispers all day long, so he usually left earlier, if he didn't burst into tears and got sent home anyways.
Even though the talking about him had mostly stopped over the two years, he still had felt pitiful looks on him whenever he'd walked through the hallways of his former school.
It wasn't the reason they moved though, his mother found a new job and his older brother applied for a college near their new hometown, but Phil couldn't deny that he was somehow happy to get away from his old life.
Pj and Chris knew that his father died but they didn't know the circumstances under which Phil found out about it. It was enough for him that they knew at all and that they were a little careful when they were talking about their parents, so he spared them the details. He just told them one time they were asking where his father was, that he had cancer and died two years ago. "Oh I'm sorry" was something Phil had heard too many times.
"Do we meet up on thursday?",Phil asked Pj and Chris while they were going to Pjs car. "Yeah probably",the curly haired one said, opening the door to the black car, which Phil didn't know the brand of. "At yours again?",Chris asked, throwing himself onto the passenger seat, looking at Phil, who sat in the back. "Don't know really, my mums a little pissed because of the english exam."
"Uh right shit, my parents are throwing some kind of dinner party that day, maybe another day",Pj said, starting the car and pulling out of the schools parking lot.
They didn't even consider going to Chris', his dad didn't really like the two friends and maybe not even his son that much. As far as Phil knew, Chris dad was a little bit angry, to say the least.
One time they were at his, his father argued with Chris for an hour about literally noting. Pj had told Phil that they got into fights almost every day, but it wasn't bad. Phil had tried to stop himself from assuming things, but the time Chris missed school for some days to come back with a faded bruised eye, he doubted the intensity of their arguments.
He didn't know if Pj was telling the truth or keeping the secret of his best friend.
"I'll just ask my mum, maybe she'll allow it",the black haired one said, grabbing his backpack and opening the door.
"Yeah do that, see you tomorrow",Pj said. "Bye."
Phil stepped out of the black car, giving Chris and Pj a little wave and then walking towards the white house he still didn't really feel settled in.
It was hard for him to leave the house he had grown up in behind. Even though everything reminded him of his father, who wasn't sitting on the blue couch anymore, he missed it a lot. He missed sitting on the grass on which his dad had tried to convince him to play football almost everyday. He missed entering the home office and getting the 'I'm busy' look. Phil basically just missed his father. He always had the feeling of him coming upstairs into his room, something that was already impossible back then, but it seemed even more unlike to happen now that they lived in a house his father had never entered.
"I'm home",he yelled when he opened the front door, hanging up his jacket and putting off his shoes. His mother was probably at work, like she was everyday till 5pm, but his brother Martyn must've been home at least.
"Philip Micheal",the blond, slightly ginger boy greeted. Phil rolled his eyes, annoyed by hearing his full name.
"Still nothing from college",the black haired one spat, going through the mail. "Fuck off."
Phil chuckled to himself, watching his slightly shorter but two years older brother snatch the letters out of his hand and stamping away.
Phil walked downstairs to his room, which was a remade basement, threw his backpack in a corner and collapsed on his couch.
He wasn't really in the mood to play video games, so he just laid there for a second staring at the pictures on the yellow painted wall.
Photos of his family, former friends and him, friends that hadn't texted him since a month. It didn't wonder him though, he always was the third wheel in a group. He was the friend they called when the other had plans, the friend that walked next to the others not really being part of the conversation. Phil didn't really know if it was his fault, if he was just too unapparent or just not "bestfriend material".
He liked to play it funny, saying that it was his fate to be the left out one, the one that just never was the number one for anyone, but it hurt him.
Even though it was somehow different with Pj and Chris, he always felt like they were just hanging out with him because otherwise he'd be alone. They were good friends, texting, talking to him and trying to involve him in everything they did, but just today, after three months, he got to know their secret. A secret which was a boy called Dan and even though Phil finally knew, he still had no idea why they had kept it hidden from him.
Dan was just a pretty boy, wasn't he?
