Dan Western Stole My Girlfriend

I was absolutely sick of detentions. Two weeks of them had gone by, and they had gone by at snail’s pace. The only up-side was that after the detention I was walking to on the second Friday, there were only five left and I would finally be free. School holidays started at the end of next week too, so I’d be free from school completely for a couple of weeks.

Friday detentions consisted of cleaning whiteboards for the following school week. It wasn’t a difficult task, and Mr Ferguson, mine and Dan’s physics teacher, wasn’t the most attentive. In fact, the only time I saw him during the hour last Friday was right at the beginning when he told us what we had to do, and then again when it was time for us to leave. Unfortunately, that meant that there was a lot of time for not-so friendly banter between Dan and myself while we were working.

Honestly, I feel like the teachers designed the way we had to do detentions so that we would be forced to spend time together, because it would have been a lot easier for each of us to take a separate classroom, clean the board there, and then move on to two other classrooms. Instead, Mr Ferguson, when I pointed this out to him last week, insisted that we had to work together to get the job done. So there was obviously some conspiracy to make my life worse than it already was. And Dan appeared to be in on it, because right after Mr Ferguson left us to clean the boards while he went to mark the exams he tortured us with today, Dan opened his big fat mouth and made my day much worse than it already was.

“Guess what?” he said, and I could hear a grin in his voice. That grin told me that he was about to say some shit I didn’t want to hear, so I didn’t acknowledge him.

“Guess what?” he said again. A pause; then, “I’m just going to keep asking.”

“Ugh, fine. What?” I grumbled, just to get him to stop talking.

“I fucked Holly for the first time last night."

That really hurt, hearing that. Holly and I had been together for nearly two years before we got any further than just making out. We waited until we had trust in each other. We waited until we were in love with each other. And then here she was sleeping with Dan, not even two months after they got together. I clenched my fist but tried not to give any other indication that I was upset.

"Shut up, Dan," was the only response I could come up with.

"She was so good. Gives great blowjobs too. You'd know about that hey? Or didn’t you get that far?"

"Shut up, Dan."

He just kept going. "No, you must've. She definitely knew what she was doing. Did she ever do that thing to you with her tongue? Y’know, where she kinda wraps it around your..."

I’m going to fucking kill him. "Daniel, I swear to god..."

Dan chuckled, finally stopping. “Chill, man. God you're easy to rile up. Like I'd tell you all the actual details anyway. I like my nose the shape it's in.”

“Well, shut the fuck up and maybe I'll let you keep it that way,” I threatened.

“Maybe?”

“Don’t push your luck.”

He laughed quietly to himself for a moment while I turned back to the whiteboard, starting to clean again to try and distract myself from our conversation, but it didn’t work too well.

I knew that they would have sex. I’m not stupid. I’ve heard the rumours. Dan’s well known for screwing every girl he gets with soon after they get together; why would I think that Holly would be any different? Probably because up until I few weeks ago, I thought she loved me. Did she even love me at all? Ever? Or was I just a filler until Dan finally noticed her and whisked her away?
I didn’t want to think like that. I really didn’t. I desperately wanted to believe that her love for me was real, but after the way she broke my heart… I just didn’t know anymore.

“Hey,” Dan’s voice said quietly from beside me. I turned and noticed he was watching me intently.

“What?” I snapped.

“Are you okay?”

“Fucking peachy.”

“No need to be a dick, I was only asking.”

I ignored him, but he didn’t stop looking at me while I cleaned.

“What?” I asked exasperated, turning to look at him again. His facial expression suddenly changed and he looked sort of nervous.

“Um… Holly told me that you’re bi, I was just wo –”

“She what?!” I almost shouted.

No, no, no, no, this couldn’t be happening. This was another one of my ridiculous dreams and I was going to wake up soon and everything would be fine and dandy. It would be fine. It’s all fine, it’s all…

I pinched myself. It hurt. Okay, not a dream. Not a dream, but still a nightmare. Fuck, why would she do that? Why would she tell him? How could she? I trusted her. I loved her. I gave her everything I could. Why would she do this to me after everything we went through together?

“Avery, I –”

“Shut up,” I said and he did for once in his life, though he continued to watch me with a concerned look on his face.

My mind was a mess. How could she do this to me? She knew how much I struggled with this and she knew I wanted to keep it quiet. The tips of my fingers were tingling. I felt dizzy. My heart rate increased and I could feel my throat closing up. I was having an anxiety attack. I knew it. I knew it, and I couldn’t stop it. I tried to take in big gulps of air but they didn’t seem to reach my lungs.

“Shit,” I heard Dan say from near me. He grabbed my shoulders and forced me to take a seat at the teacher’s desk. “Breathe. Avery, breathe.”

“I c-can’t,” I stuttered.

“Yes, you can. Come on. In for five seconds. Now,” he demanded. I nodded briefly, starting the process. “One, two, three, four five. Now hold it. One, two, three, four, five. Now out. Slowly… that’s it… three, four five. Good. Again.”

I repeated the process a few more times until I felt my heart rate slow down and my breathing go back to normal. I was sweaty and still dizzy, but I was over it for the most part. I rested my forehead on my knees for a few minutes to try and stop my head spinning, and it seemed to do the trick. When I looked up again, I saw Dan was still kneeling on the ground in front of me, the concern still etched on his face.

“Are you okay?” he asked quietly.

“Y-yeah,” I said weakly. “Yeah, I… thanks. For, like, helping me.”

“You’re welcome. Does that happen often?”

I nodded vaguely. “Sometimes.”

“You should get that checked out.”

“I already have. I’m on medication but it doesn’t stop the bad ones.” Why was I telling him this?

“Okay,” he said solemnly. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Causing it. I didn’t mean to, I just wondered whether what Holly said was true, but I’m guessing it is since that just happened.”

“How come you haven’t told everyone in school?”

“I didn’t know if it was true,” he said, which surprised me, since there had been some completely false rumours spread around the school by him before.

“So?” I replied. “That’s never stopped you before.”

Dan looked into my eyes for the first time since this conversation started. “A rumour about sexuality isn’t something that should be spread around without someone’s permission, regardless of if it’s true or not,” he said seriously.

His response stumped me a bit because I expected him to make some sort of joke or completely brush off my question, but no. This was something he had really thought about. It made me wonder if he was keeping the same sort of secret for other people as well.

“Can I ask you something?” he questioned after a few long moments of silence.

“Yeah,” I said cautiously. If he was going to ask me if I’d ever crushed on him, I would actually lose my shit. One reason I didn’t want to come out was because I was afraid that my friends, or any other male I know, for that matter, would think that just because I like guys, I automatically want to bang them. Of course, the difference between Dan and my friends is that, (as much as I hated to admit it, I knew it was true) I actually was sexually attracted to him.

“You ever kissed a guy before?”

Okay, I was not expecting that.

“No,” I replied. He nodded, and a sudden thought came to my head. “Have you?”

He laughed in shock, but I suppose my question did come out as more of a demand rather than just a simple question so I let it go.

“Once,” he replied, which, again, surprised me. He was just full of them today.

“Really?”

“It was a dare,” he clarified. “At one of the twins’ parties we were playing Spin the Bottle in the hot tub. The bottle landed on me and Robbie and we were too drunk to care, so… yeah.”

“What was it like? Kissing a guy?”

Dan hesitated for a second, but shrugged like it was no big deal. “I dunno, man. Like kissing a girl but with more stubble and less lip gloss. I don’t really remember it anyway.”

I was about to ask him another question, specifically whether he liked it, but I noticed that he had a look of unease on his face, like talking about kissing boys was uncomfortable for him, and I guess that made sense. Instead I just nodded and kept my mouth shut, continuing to clean the whiteboard.

I let my mind wander for the rest of the hour. Mostly I was amazed at how at ease I felt having just had the conversation I did with Dan. This was someone I generally thought was a total dick-bag, and yet he knew one of the most intimate things about me and, aside from my earlier anxiety attack, I actually felt okay with him knowing. Of course, that would change in an instant the moment he started being an asshole again. Or, more likely, the second we step foot out of the classroom to go home for the weekend.

Who knew what Dan could do with that information on me? He could have just been acting nice to get me to trust him and then by the time Monday rolled around, our entire year would know. But he definitely looked sincere when he was talking about how rumours of sexuality shouldn’t be spread around. I didn’t know what to think, but I truly hoped that he was sincere.

Right on four o’clock, Mr Ferguson found Dan and I in Mr Gable’s Art room; the two of us having just finished cleaning off the whiteboard. We hadn’t spoken again since the exchange about kissing guys but I found it wasn’t too awkward. It felt comfortable. Strange, considering who I had achieved the comfortable silence with.

“Alright, boys, you two can take off. Have a good weekend,” Mr Ferguson said.

I nodded and bent down to pick up my backpack (I had taken it with me as I moved between classrooms so I wouldn’t have to find it again after detention was over) but Dan didn’t move. I glanced up at him and noticed him eyeing the stack of papers Mr Ferguson was holding. They appeared to be the tests we had just taken in our Physics class, meaning that Mr Ferguson had been marking them while we were working. I was nervous because that test was pretty difficult and I didn’t want to fail it, but I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about my mark at least until Monday, so I put it out of my mind for the minute and slung my backpack over my shoulder.

“Bye, sir,” I said to my teacher and headed towards the open classroom door. I hovered at the entrance as I noticed that Dan still hadn’t made any moves to leave. “You coming, or what?”

I wasn’t exactly sure why I waited for Dan, it’s not like one conversation made us friends. And I definitely didn’t want to make chit-chat on the way out of school, but something made me stop and wait. I just wish I knew what and why.

Thankfully I didn’t have to worry about following through with my invitation to walk out together because Dan gave me a small smile and said, “You go. I need to ask Mr Ferguson something.”

“Alright. See ya,” I said, sending him a small, awkward wave, and then leaving.

Jamie, as usual, met me in the car park and we drove home, making small talk on the way. I briefly considered telling him about my anxiety flare-up and the reason behind it but I decided not to in the end. I had overcome the attack and now I just wanted to forget about it. I hoped that Dan would also forget about it, including the conversation that brought it on in the first place, but I probably wouldn’t be that lucky.

More than anything, though, I needed Dan to keep his word that he wouldn’t blab to everyone about what we had talked about. I guess I would just have to wait until Monday to know for sure.