thank you guys for all the lovely birthday messages :3 x

"Um, I'm sorry, but I sit there?" I say to him, slightly awkwardly.

He smirks up at me, "Not anymore, you don't."

Phil looks at me, apologetically, before looking back down at his hands. He seems much quieter than normal.

"Fine then. I don't want to start anything, I guess," I sigh, walking over to an empty seat.

I sit down as soon as the teacher walks in, and quickly get my English books out.

I look over to the person next to me and quickly recognise them, taking a deep breath. Phil seems to trust him, so I guess I will.

"Hey, Caspar? What do you know about Dean?" I whisper, leaning toward him.

"I - um - a lot, I guess..." he coughs, a little, "W-Why are you talking to me? I thought you hated me?"

"Well, it happened a long time ago and you probably had your reasons. So, I forgive you," I smile.

"Thanks, Dan," he smiles back, "Well, it's funny you should say that, actually... I did have my reasons."

"Dean?" I ask, noticing Caspar staring at him, "Dean was the reason you bullied Phil?"

"It's... It's a bit of a long story. Now isn't the time or place."

"Okay then, can I meet you in the bathroom at break?"

"Y-Yeah... Sure," he whispers.

***

I stand, waiting, by the sink, for Caspar to arrive. Granted, I am quite early.

Suddenly, I hear the door open and some shouting, so I quickly run and lock myself in a cubicle.

"I told you to get my Biology book out of my locker, not Physics!" a familiar voice shouts, but I can't quite pinpoint it.

But, the next voice is definitely Phil's, "I-I'm sorry.. It w-won't happen again."

"It better not. I can't believe you're so stupid that you can't even get one little thing right!"

Is that Dean? It sounds like it...

"Now, listen to me. Get your act together or there will be trouble, do you understand?"

"I... I..." Phil mumbles, nervously. I see a small crack in the door and manage to look through it, to see what's going on.

"I said, do you understand?" he shouts, loudly. And then, it all happened so quickly. Dean grabbed Phil, by his tie, and pushed him up against the wall. Then he slapped him on the cheek and proceeded to punch him straight in the jaw.

"I-I understand... I'm s-sorry," Phil stammers, after picking himself up.

"Good. Now, clean yourself up and I expect to see you in the next lesson with my correct books," Dean says, walking out of the bathrooms.

Phil sighs, before pulling himself up and over to the sinks. He starts to wash his face with cold water, whilst I open the door and rush over to him.

"Oh my god... Phil. Are you alright?" I comfort, putting a hand in his shoulder.

His eyes widen at me, he pushes my hand off and he goes to turn off the tap.

"Don't s-speak a word of this to anyone," Phil says to me, tears still in his eyes, before running out of the bathrooms.

I exhale deeply and walk to the wall, leaning against it and putting head into my hands.

Soon after, I hear the door open and somebody walking in, "Hey Dan, sorry I'm la- Are you okay?"

He rushes over to me and starts to pick me up. "L-Look... I'm fine," I mutter, wiping away any tears that had started to form.

"You don't look fine..." he says, dusting me off a little.

"I just need to know what you know about Dean... That's what I'm here for."

"Okay then, I guess... He runs this sort of 'business', I guess you could call it? It's weird... He has employees to do certain things for him that make his life better. Essentially, he wants his life to be amazing, and everyone else's to be miserable, a-"

But I interrupt him, slightly confused, "How do you know all this?"

"I'm one of his employees... Well... was. I managed to get out of it, but it took a lot of effort," he sighs.

"What did you have to do?"

"Well, this is where you come in. Ever since Dean first saw Phil, he's wanted to get with him. And - please forgive me for saying this because these are his words and not mine - Phil is 'vulnerable and weak'. He recruited me, after a lot of struggle, to beat up Phil. Then, the plan was for him to 'save' Phil and for Phil to fall in love with him. Except, you got in the way. You became Phil's saviour before Dean could and that made him angry as hell. He got some random girl to seduce you and get you in bed and everything a-"

I interrupt him, again, "Cat? Cat was an employee?"

"Y-Yeah..." he mumbles, looking down, shyly.

"Are you kidding me? Everyone I love gets taken away from me by some stupid guy who thinks he has power!" I shout, angrily, "He's taken Adrian, Cat and even Phil!"

"You love Phil?" Caspar says, looking up at me, surprised.

I go bright red, suddenly realising what just came out, "W-What? I didn't say an-anything like that..."

"Well, you at least like Phil, surely?" he says, smirking a little, "Come on, even I can see it."

"I guess..." I sigh, giving in. I do like Phil. My world revolves around him.

"Well then, I'm going to help you," he says, kind of excitedly.

"Help me? With what?" I ask, slightly confused.

"Getting you and Phil together, of course."