dan

Dan walks down the many aisles, scanning the packed shelves for the items he needs.

He hopes no one from school is here - what would they think if they saw Dan, the bad boy, buying fruit, things for dinner, cereal, yogurt, a birthday cake and milk? Dan walks to the checkout, paying for the items before carrying the plastic bags into the video shop with him. He finds marked down pokèmon DVD and takes it to the counter to find Phil standing behind it.

"What are you doing here?" Dan asks sharply, trying to keep up his tough, cools persona, "I didn't know idiots worked here."

"My family happens to own this shop," Phil replies, scanning the DVD and frowning slightly as Dan hands him the crumpled ten pound note.

"Did you steal this off a junior at school?" Phil asks, staring at the note on the counter.

"What's it to you if I did?" Dan snarls, glaring at Phil.

"You shouldn't steal you know," Phil whispers, "it's bullying and wrong. How do you think that kid feels now?"

"I don't think that kid cares. He's always gloating about how he's mega rich anyway," Dan scoffs, "and it's not bullying, I simply needed more than him."

"For a pokèmon DVD?" Phil asks doubtfully, raising his eyebrow at Dan as he finally takes the note, handing Dan the change and bag with a receipt, "wow, so important. Never had you down as a pokèfan Dangerous Dan."

"Just fuck off," Dan snaps, snatching the bag and shooting another glare at Phil, "the DVD isn't for me anyway."

"Who's it for?" Phil asks.

"None of your fucking business," Dan snaps, turning and walking out of the store, his anger levels building.

By the time Dan arrives home, he's more exhausted than angry. It was a particularly big shop today, the plastic handles were digging into his skin the whole way too, so he has deep, red indents on his arms. He takes the DVD upstairs and hides it in his room and them goes back downstairs to unpack the shopping.

"Hey Dan," Shawn says, emerging out of his room a few minutes later, helping Dan put the things away, "what's for dinner tonight?"

"I'm thinking pasta," Dan says, pulling the packet out of the bag and laying it on the bench.

"Dan, my friend told me that his brother is at your school, and he says that everyone thinks you're scary," Shawn says, sitting on the bench top and frowning at his brother, "why? You're not dangerous and scary!"

"Well, people think I am," Dan shrugs, laying out the bottle of pasta sauce and putting the last box of cereal in the cupboard, "that's just the way it is."

"But, why do they think you're someone that you're not?" Shawn asks.

"Well, they make assumptions, throw a label on you and make up rumors about you, and then they never check again to see if the label still fits," Dan says, leaning on the countertop next to his brother.

"I don't want to grow up," Shawn says, looking down at Dan with sad eyes, "it sounds bad."

"It is bad," Dan says, "but it's part of life."

When dinner is made, Dan takes a bowl upstairs to his mother, who's sitting up in bed now, just staring at the blank wall. She's so far gone she doesn't even notice that her son has entered the room holding her dinner.

"Mum, I have your dinner," Dan says, stepping forward and handing her the bowl as she snaps back into reality.

She looks over at Dan, their matching brown eyes making eye contact, and for a second, she looks almost normal. She takes the bowl, staring at it in her lap before looking back over at Dan, not saying a word.

"Thank you would be nice," Dan says, folding his arms over his chest.

"Oh, thank you," she replies flatly, turning back to her dinner.

"It's Shawn's birthday tomorrow, so will you come and eat with us?" Dan asks, "he misses you."

"Of course I will," she says, her voice hollow and sapped of life, "I wouldn't miss his birthday dinner."

"Really? You've missed every other one," Dan points out, his voice angry and sharp.

His mother ignores his comment, playing with the pasta by stabbing her fork into it half heartedly, she slowly chews a little before resuming poking at the food.

"You'd better not let Shawn down or I swear to god..." Dan starts to threaten, but his mother doesn't respond - she's already drifted far away from her sons, Dan can tell by the distant look in her eyes.

Dan sighs, turning and walking out, shutting the door behind him. He hates his mother, he really does.

***

The next day, Dan walks downstairs with the change from the DVD and some of his spare change in his hand.

"Happy birthday Shawn," he says, smiling at his brother and pulling him into a hug, "have a great day."

"Thanks Dan," Shawn grins, "do you think mum will remember this year?"

"Well she said she'd have dinner with us tonight," Dam replies, his smile becoming somewhat sad, "so hopefully she will."

"She says the every year," Shawn says, his smile dropping and his eyes turning to the floor.

"Don't be sad, here, buy something nice for lunch," Dan says, handing his brother the money, "it's your birthday, I want you to enjoy the day."

"Thanks Dan," Shawn says, looking at the money and then at Dan, a huge smile back on his face, "I love you!"

"I love you too Shawn," Dan says, hugging his brother - the only person Dan truly cares about in his life.

At school, however, Dan's day goes not so well. In english, they are asked to create a short, comedic film - in pairs.

There are two major things wrong with this: one - Dan is not a particularly comedic person, having grown up in a household with only a depressed mother to look up to. And two - Dan has no friends, therefore pairs is kind of difficult for him, plus his partner usually won't talk to him because they're too scared.

"So I've decided to shake things up and put you in pairs myself," Mr Green says, pacing around the front, "once I've finished pairing you, move next to your partner and brainstorm for the rest of the lesson."

The class groans in dismay at the thought of potentially working with a merge acquaintance on this project, before falling silent as Mr Green calls out the pairs.

"Caspar and Joe, Lily and Alfie, Louise and Pj, Dan and Phil..." Mr Green says, rattling off the pairs until he goes through them all.

The class then erupts into chatter, chairs scrape as they all move to their partners, and Phil slowly walks up and sits next to Dan up the back, scooting his chair as far away as possible.

"You know I've always hated it when people did that," Dan says, not looking at Phil as he talks.

"Look, I just want to get a good mark, so can you get over whatever problem you have with me and-" Phil starts.

"Listen, I'm not the one with the problem. You and your mates are the ones who assume things about me all the time," Dan snaps, glaring at Phil, "so why don't you get over whatever problem you have with me."

"Actually, I thought you were okay when you stopped those attackers," Phil says, attempting to glare back but failing as it looks more like he's squinting at the sun, "but then you bullied and took money off a kid."

"As I said, he had more than enough," Dan says simply, "little snobby bastard."

"Yeah, but you-" Phil starts.

"Look, think whatever the fuck you want about me, lets just get this stupid thing done," Dan snaps, interrupting Phil mid argument.

"Okay," Phil says, sighing, "I'll do all the work just... I'll tell you when I've finished."

"What makes you think I'd make you do all the work?" Dan asks, anger growing and curling inside his stomach like a beast - he can't help it, the horrible feelings he constantly gets in his gut - he turns and faces Phil, "why huh?"

"I just assumed that, because you-" Phil stammers, not knowing what to say next, fear growing in his eyes just as anger grows in Dan's own.

"Because why? I'm the mean asshole. Yeah," Dan snaps, standing up and glaring at Phil, "whatever, I don't care what you think."

Dan grabs his bag off the floor, slinging it over his shoulder before he simply walks out, slamming the classroom door behind him. Dan walks straight out the school gates and doesn't stop until he arrives in town. Dan walks a familiar route, out in the backstreets, navigating through the cold, grey alleys. He smells the smoke before he sees it. He keeps going and stops when he sees four familiar guys.

"Dan," Brad, the leader, says when he sees Dan, standing and gripping Dan's shoulder tightly, "long time no see."

"Look, while I'm always up for reunions and weird touching on my shoulder, I'm here for one reason," Dan says, rolling his eyes.

"Got it," Brad says as he and Dan sit beside each other, leaning against the wall, "I've missed you bro."

"Give me the damn thing," Dan says, laughing and rolling his eyes.

As Dan inhales the drugs into his lungs, his thoughts drift to Shawn - it's Shawn's birthday and he's doing the one thing that Shawn wanted him to stop - but he tugs them away and exhales deeply, watching as the smoke slips from his lips and into the air around him.

He wishes his problems could disappear as quickly as the smoke.

***

phil

Phil sighs deeply, slumping down in his chair after Dan has walked out.

Dan gives off all the signs that ticks off 'mean, arrogant, dangerous bad boy', but when Phil starts treating him how those types of people like being treated, he snaps and makes Phil feel horrible.

Phil always tries so hard to make people smile and laugh and see the best in them - that's what he does best and is what he's known for. So why does Dan make Phil feel like he's the bad guy here?

Phil sighs again, leaning back and folding his arms over his chest, lost in his thoughts and annoyed. He needs a good mark on his assignment - even if it does mean doing it himself or trying to get along with Dan. Either way, there's only one thought racing around Phil's mind: is Dan really a bad person or just misunderstood?

"Are you okay Phil?" Caspar asks, frowning at Phil as they walk out after class is finished.

"Yeah, why would I not be?" Phil asks, confused as they sit at their lunch table.

"Why is Phil not okay?" Louise asks, frowning at them both.

"He's working with Dan for our English assignment," Caspar says, "he probably will get you to do everything."

"Oh, I feel sorry for you, he'll probably just bully and scare you the whole time," Louise says, "hope he doesn't do anything bad to you."

As his whole group start discussing all the bad things Dan has done/could do. Phil doesn't listen or contribute, because he realizes that Dan is right, they do all assume things about him without actually knowing him, and it's really wrong.

Phil sighs, staring at the space through the window where Dan usually is to find it's empty, which isn't really a surprise to Phil.

But there was just something about Dan's whole apparent persona that just didn't make sense to Phil.

***********

an: hey hope you liked it! thanks so much for reading. Please vote, comment and share!

Also, quick question: I just made a redbubble account to start selling things on (probably Dan and Phil stuff). Would you guys be interested in checking it out?

Comment what you thought of the chapter! Thanks so much for over 100 reads. Update within the week (hopefully) :D