***

Dan is beginning to enjoy school, quite a bit.

It is Friday, and Connor arrives on Sunday, so he can start school on Monday. Although Dan is excited about his friend coming, he also has that little voice in the back of his mind, asking things like, 'what if they like him better and ignore you?' and 'Connor has a voice, you don't, he'll fit in way better than you.'

Deep in Dan's heart, he knows his friends won't abandon him like that, but it's happened to him before, so he's permanently paranoid it will happen again. Sometimes, he wonders is he'll ever feel completely comfortable in a friendship ever again, after Troye...

It wasn't Troye's fault, someone better just came along. Troye was Dan's friend, his best and only friend, but then a bloke named Tyler came along, and suddenly, Dan was cast aside, kind of like what happens in Toy Story.

It's not their fault, Dan doesn't blame them for simply wanting a more interesting friend, he's just more distant now. Speaking of Tyler's, wasn't that Connor's friend's name?

"Penny for your thoughts?" Phil asks, nudging Dan with his knee, his blue eyes lit up under his black fringe.

Dan smiles lightly and scribbles on his open notebook: 'sorry, they're much too valuable and too complex for your inferior mind to comprehend.'

"Hey, you can't boggle me with your long, fancy words! I know what you meant and it's not nice to call me your intellectual inferior." Phil giggles, nudging Dan playfully, "I am actually quite intelligent, you can't show me up with your posh words!"

'*ARTICULATE!! THE WORD IS ARTICULATE!!' Dan writes, making Phil laugh harder, and Dan to roll his eyes.

"I love stirring you up because you can't get mad at me! I'm such a nice friend. I like your piercings Dan, so you think I'd suit them?" Phil asks, raising an eyebrow

Dan decides if they're going to start a conversation, they should text it instead, so he pulls out his phone, gesturing for Phil to do the same.

Phil: so... earrings yay or nay?

Dan: no.

Phil: aw why?? :(

Dan: with your personality, you don't suit them. You're too adorable for piercings.

Phil: I can't help my personality! I'm so tough!

Dan: you have an obsession with stuffed and/or cartoon lions.

Phil: lions are manly!

Dan: yeah, real lions. I have a documentary on them, want to watch then tear apart a baby antelope?

Phil: fine, point proven. Shut up now. :/

Dan: technically I was never talking...

Phil: -_-

Dan: :P

Dan was happy, and he was glad Phil was determined to be friends, and didn't give up when Dan pushed him away. Dan was glad he had such good friends at school, but when the bell rang, and it was time to leave, he was basically sucked into hell.

"Where've you been all day?!" His dad snaps at him as soon as he walks through the door.

Dan jumps, startled, his eyes widen but he bites his lip, determined to keep his face blank of emotions. The more upset or angry he becomes, he more satisfaction it gives his father.

He's in a particularly bad mood today.

"He's been at school." Dan's mum says softly, stepping between them, allowing Dan to sneak past, up the stairs and into his room.

"Oh, right." His dad slurs, focusing his glazed eyes on Dan, "hoow was your daay son?"

Dan just stands there with a 'seriously?' look on his face, biting his lip and leaning against a wall, just wanting to get out of there.

"Well are you gonna answer me or just stare at me?" his dad snaps sternly, anger building in him.

A few sips of alcohol and his dad has forgotten he's mute - that's all it takes. Dan can't stand being here, in this atmosphere, not right now.

He tears his gaze away from his Dan and stomps up the stairs, hearing his mother murmur quietly to his father. He slams and locks his bedroom door behind him, before sliding open his window.

He swings his leg out, slipping out and onto the roof of the lower level, before eventually making it onto the ground. He sneaks around the front, wincing as he hears yelling and a smash, but he keeps going, all the way to the park.

He sits in silence, staring out at the pond, wondering how on earth it can be so peaceful here, when a few blocks away, his life is falling apart.

Dan doesn't want to go back home, he just wants to stay here forever, with the peace and tranquility of the calm waters.

***

Saturdays majorly sucked for Dan.

Mostly this one though.

See, Dan was at school five days a week, and on Sundays, he could count down to when he'd see hi friends again, but Saturdays? Well, they were just torturous. Especially this one because Dan is practically counting down the minute until Connor arrives.

Dan knows Phil and his friends are all out seeing a movie today, but I course, Dan didn't go. Not because he wasn't invited, but because his father had a particularly bad hangover this morning and Dan did not want to risk asking.

Dan sighs, switching his gaze to out the window, where the day is a typical, cloudy one. England rarely gets any other weather apart from 'cloudy and mild', which is quite boring, but at least there isn't a tornado tearing through his house every week.

Dan has finished all his homework, and is 524 words into his legal assignment, he's also tidied his room and had a long think about life, and its still only 11:42 a.m., god time passes slowly.

All of a sudden, Dan's phone lights up with a text, so he leans over and picks it up off his desk.

Phil: this is boring help.

Dan: that's boring? do you want to come and sit in my room doing absolutely nothing and then tell me what's boring?

Phil: true dat.

Phil: shame you couldn't make it.

Dan: I know

Phil: is everything ok with you?

Dan: yeah why wouldn't it be?

Phil: just checking.

Dan: aren't you at the cinemas?

Phil: yeah, the movies starting now, talk after? :P

Dan: sure, tell me how it is. :D

Dan sighs, locking his phone and throwing onto his black, grey and whole duvet which is spread over his mattress. Could this day pass any slower?

Dan has no one to text, Connor is busy or on a plane, and all his new friends are out at the cinemas together.

"Dan! Come down here!" his father's rough voice yells from downstairs, causing Dan to shudder.

Dan bites his lip as he walks out his bedroom door, racking his brain for anything he may have done wrong, but he comes up blank. He's met with his hungover and/or drunk father, who has bloodshot eyes and smells of beer and faintly of puke.

"I made a mess in the kitchen and I want you to clean it up." His dad instructs him, dragging him over to the kitchen, where a glass and bottle of alcohol have been smashed.

Dan just stares at his dad, unable to believe what he's asking Dan to do. He isn't his father's slave or anything!

"Don't give me that look! You will clean that up." his father snarls, pinning him against the way by his shoulders, causing him to wince,"or else."

He releases Dan and walks away, disappearing around the hallway. Dan rubs his ore shoulders and gulps nervously. Why does his father insist on treating him like crap?

He sighs and runs a hand through his hair as he looks at the mess, images and the smell of alcohol on his father flashing through him.

He had told Phil it was getting better.

But he had lied.

_______

AN: hello hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please vote comment and share if you did! I'll try to update again as soon as I can. Thanks for 200+ reads and for reading this far!

:D