#23: Curls and Concerns

Phil

I can sense the tension radiating from Dan as if it were buckets of water dumped over my head, repeatedly.

"Stop worrying so much!" I elbow him.

He sighs, "Does the ivy seem a little portal-esque to you?"

I shake my head, "No, it's more like… Mario."

He laughs and his fingers thread into mine tighter than before.

We walk on without talking for who knows how long. I try to keep a smile on my face anyway as apparently seeing someone smile can make you happier and Dan seems a little lost.

I don't notice how cold it's gotten until Dan stops, his feet seemingly rooted to the ground and his expression one of pure guilt, "Phil, you're going blue!"

"Like Avatar blue?" I ask, but I end up struggling to get the words out without chattering.

Dan looks horrified, shrugging my blazer off his shoulders and draping it over mine, doing the buttons up for me as he notices my hands are trembling. I smile at him gratefully and some of his guilt seems to wash away as he returns the gesture.

My stomach complains loudly as we get nowhere and Dan downright giggles. The soft sound is so unprecedented that I can't help but stare at him, and watch as a rosy blush takes over his cheeks. He shrugs at me with a small, shy smile and I shake my head to tell him that I don't think it's a bad thing; he seems to understand what I'm saying.

"So, what's the verdict on walking endlessly?" he asks.

I don't know, but let's not make a conjecture.

"Alright, Mr Nerd," Dan jokes, then sobers. "How long do you think we can go without running into someone again?"

We went pretty far last time…

What's with all the thought talk?

Our voices sound wrong, have you noticed?

Yeah, I thought that was just me.

Well, clearly not.

Oh, spare me your sass.

I stick my tongue out at him, fully aware of how un-teenager-like it is to do so.

"We should probably just carry on then," I say out loud, rolling my shoulders in attempt to regain the warmth I don't know how I've lost.

"So, what was your sunrise?" Dan asks, then frowns at himself.

The reason you were late?

Oh, Ken dropped some watery paint on my art piece and I had to make it into a sunrise.

How come you can paint but you can't draw worth shit?

Language!

You're the one that said it first!

I know…

The two of us walk ahead and smile at all the little herbs planted on the side of the path. At one point, I stop to touch one and, as my hand gets closer, it starts to glow.

I gasp.

Dan gasps with me, both of us staring at it, my hand frozen millimeters away from the delicate petals. To our shock, it curls towards my hand and almost strokes my thumb in what seems to be as kind of a gesture that plants can do.

Dan laughs and reaches his fingers out to touch mine as well, but a different one does the same to him, curving its tiny stem to face his hand.

"I might just like plants," he says.

I roll my eyes and make a face, "Sure, sure…"

He goes to say something else but suddenly grabs my other hand, stopping me from reaching out to touch another plant. As I glance at him with confusion, he shakes his head at me.

"I don't think you should touch that one."

"What makes you say that?" I ask him curiously.

He shrugs, "It just seems to be menacing…"

I uncurl the little plants from my hand and stand up, pulling Dan with me, "Okay."

Shall we carry on then?

Sounds good.

We walk along the same path until we get to a bright yellow door.

"Yellow is so obnoxious…" Dan huffs.

"But what if it's Dodie yellow?" I grin, knocking on the door.

"It's clearly not," he declares before just pushing the door open.

I chuckle and we both step though, our breath catching as there's a sudden flash and our stomachs turn, causing us to double over and let go of each other.

I can't seem to find Dan as I tumble through the door, my stomach twisting and my head pounding. Less than three seconds later, I fall harshly on my knees, knocking into what feels like a shelf.

Dan falls beside me.

He groans, rubbing his head, and I blink, glad I wore my contacts this morning instead of glasses because they'd probably have fallen off, or gotten lost, or both.

"Now where are we?" he asks.

I frown because I had crashed into shelves and I was right to think they seem familiar because I've been in this place a lot more than I'd ever have liked to. Well, more like locked in this place…

"Dan, I think we're back in school." My voice sounds uncertain and suddenly the twisting in my stomach isn't nausea, it's nerves.

Dan seems to see how I feel, or feel the same, because he nods, "The storage cupboard that's so old it could be sold as an antique…"

I laugh and shakily pull myself to my knees, "How freaking typical."

Dan stretches his shoulders before grinning, "I wonder how much school we missed?"

My stomach does a weird backwards roll and my mind immediately goes into overdrive, thinking about the autumn term examinations that started in a few days. I end up siting back down as I try to think of an excuse we can make; I don't want Dan to get in trouble because of me.

"Oh no, what If we've been gone for days?"

Dan's smile switches to a frown and he knees down in front of me, "Hey, come on Lion, we can't stay in this cupboard forever."

"Mhm, try me."

"I didn't know that lions hibernated."

Oh, shut up!

But a smile flickers on my face nonetheless.

"Uh, Phil, we can't leave together." Dan's voice cuts into the silence we'd built and I look up at him in concern as he nervously fiddles with his hair.

As I get to my feet as well, I nudge him lightly so that he looks at me rather than staring into nowhere. The panic in his eyes seems to calm down a little but I have to slip my hand in his to get him fully calm.

"Dan, we're matched, we can make any excuse," I whisper softly.

"But-"

"Mr Fishy?" I ask, smiling, "It's okay, he and Barbie guy can deal with it."

Although it takes me a further five minutes to persuade him that leaving the cupboard is the best option, he eventually agrees and we walk out together, almost crashing right into Rosie.

She does a double take, "Weren't you guys just together, outside?"

Dan looks as baffled as I feel but I cough, "Nah, we found a shortcut."

"What for?" Michael asks.

"I needed a glue," Dan says, thankfully picking up on both my idea of an explanation and my hesitance to lie.

"Oh, so you're stealing?" Michael asks, raising his eyebrows.

"I wanted to but Phil said we couldn't," Dan grumbles, or rather, pretends to.

Rosie laughs, "Obviously."

"Catch you guys later!" I send them a smile as I wave and grab Dan's wrist to pull him with me, both of us deciding to run back to the swings and reclaim our bags for second time today.

"Is your phone on?" I ask as we grab our bags, without touching the swings.

"To see the time? Yeah, hold on..."

He adjusts his bag before stopping so abruptly that I crash into him.

"Ow! Dan?"

"Phil, my blazer!"

He whirls round as if trying to magically summon it, the panic resurfacing in his eyes.

I groan as I remember his blazer had disappeared when we'd fallen. I bite my lip, looking to see if it's anywhere obvious. When neither of us can spot it while standing still, we quickly start searching around the swings just in case it happened to magically re-appear or something.

It has.

I almost laugh as I pick it up, throwing it at Dan, who sighs with relief and ties it around his waist, pulling out his phone to check the time.

"Phil, it's literally been a minute or so since we left," he informs me immediately.

I blink at him, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. We still have pretty much all of lunchtime left..."

I pinch the bridge of my nose before shaking my head, "Okay, whatever, let's grab some food. I don't care how long we were gone here, it felt like forever and now I'm hungry."

Dan still looks like he's about to panic or something so I quickly wrap my arms around him and smile.

Hey, you okay?

Uh...

It's all good. Now, cheese sandwich?

You don't like cheese!

I wasn't asking for myself, duh.

Dan laughs; the tension in his shoulders eases away as his eyes brighten once again.

"Should we have Pizza?"

"Sure," I reply, letting Dan pocket his phone before the two of us head to the canteen, aiming for pizza.

Of course we run into Ian; of course we do.

Dan's stiffening is the only warning I get before we're both crashing into the wall.

My head bangs against the display board and Dan trips over my foot, barely catching his balance. I rub my head as Dan steadies himself, glancing at me with worry swirling in his eyes.

You good?

Yeah, don't worry.

"And were d'you think you're going?" Ian asks, a sly grin on his face.

Dan swallows, "T- to the canteen."

"What makes you think you can do that?" Ian folds his arms.

"What makes you think you deserve to do that?" another voice asks, and someone else slides to a stop beside Ian.

Max.

I don't know exactly what to say in response so I just mentally link the name with the boy in front of us.

"Maybe because we need to eat?" I hear my own voice retort.

"You stay out of this!" Max glares at me.

Dan bristles but doesn't say anything, and I don't blame him; I wouldn't have said anything either.

"Just… let us go and eat," Dan sighs.

"Oh and why would we do that?" Max laughs, sharing a look with Ian.

"Mr Mundiv!" I yell.

As the two of them turn in alarm, I grab Dan's wrist and pull him towards the canteen, somehow avoiding a collision with anyone on the way. I hear Ian curse behind us but don't slow down even when Dan tries to, only letting us stop when we're in the canteen queue.

Dan breaths deeply to try and get rid of the colour on his cheeks and half glares at me, despite his breathlessness. Not that I'm much better; we must look really weird to everybody else.

Seriously?

It worked, you monkey sock!

Chuckling, he rolls his eyes in the kindest way possible. We end up grabbing the little pizzas they have and finding a table near the back of the room, against the wall and pretty much out of sight.

You okay?

Phil, time went wrong.

Well-

Phil…

It's fine! We'll figure it out.

Dan still looks doubtful but he doesn't seem to be as anxious as before, both of us staying silent, deep in thought.

"So, you never told me, how did you get into the school system?" Dan asks eventually.

I smile, "I didn't exactly get into it; I just used it."

"Still, you gotta have a method, right?"

"Sure, but it's not some kind of genius, it's just finding the right links."

"Either way, you're the one that did it." Dan finally finishes his pizza, then notices I'd already finished mine, "How did you finish so fast?"

"I was hungry!" I argue as we get up, only to promptly slide back into our seats.

"Shit," Dan eloquently explains.

I can't help bursting out laughing, thankfully not making a sound. When I do catch my breath again, there's a strange, surprised sort of fond look in Dan's eyes that I can't correctly assign to an emotion, so I file it in the back of my mind for future reference.

"The back way?" Dan asks and I frown, unsure of what he means.

His eyes widen as he realises I don't know what he's saying, "You've never been the back way?"

"What's the back way?"

What the- Phil!

He doesn't wait before getting up and grabbing the side of my bag so I have no choice but to go with him. We leave through I door I didn't know was meant for walking through and run up the stairs I wasn't aware of.

You've been missing out!

How do you know about these?

"Somehow, I don't think you'll approve." Dan glances around before pushing open the door he was keeping ajar and beckoning me to follow through.

"Wait, there's stairs from here to the canteen?" I ask rhetorically, mentally groaning at the thought of so many wasted long journeys.

"You didn't know?" Dan asks, simultaneously sounding regretful and exasperated.

"Well, I know now." I grin.

We end up sitting on the stairs, Dan sat sideways on the step above me, leaning on the left wall. I lean on the right wall so I can look at him without craning my neck, both of us having to bend our knees and rest our feet on the wall because we're too tall to fit horizontally.

"Want to carry on vicariously exploring the universe from where we left off before?" Dan asks, offering me the screenplay that we started the other day.

I nod but Dan seems to ponder something as he glances between us, "We'll have to pass it back and forth."

"Nah, I've got it covered." I root around in my bag until I find my copy of the same one, winking at Dan's shocked expression.

"When did you get that?" he asks.

"This morning, it's why I was crawling through roses…" my voice quietens as I look away from him.

He gently punches my knee, "Phil, that's so sweet."

Having thought he was going to say 'sad' or 'stupid', I look up in shock as he grins.

But you didn't have your bag this morning?

I had pockets, Dan!

"You're crazy!" Dan shakes his head.

"Well, if you've watched me on YouTube, you already know that and you probably don't care, right?" I smirk.

Dan rolls his eyes and sighs, "I can't argue with that."

I clear my throat, starting to read the character I'd chosen last time. Dan laughs before joining in, both of us keeping our voices low so that we don't get heard.

We finish even less of the screenplay than last time, both of us laughing at our accents and the stupidity of the characters. Some of them are too weird to even think about and some of them seem so flippant that we can't help but rolling our eyes at them the whole way through.

By the time the bell goes, our legs have fallen asleep and we end up groaning as we pull ourselves up, slinging our bags over opposite shoulders. Thankfully, not many people know about these stairs so nobody runs into us.

"Uh, are you getting the bus?" Dan asks in a way that can only be described as shy.

"Yeah," I reply, smiling.

"Right. See you then." Dan grins.

"Bye, Bear." I wave as we split off for our lessons.

I smile at the cupboard as I pass it, feeling the magic of a new secret tingling in my blood.

A secret Dan and I share.

I also got my tumblr working again (wordsablaze) in case you ever want to talk to me :)

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