Dan Western Stole My Girlfriend

Avery's POV

I spent my entire weekend constantly on the verge of another panic attack, barely relaxing even when I was playing my guitar, which was always my go-to method of calming myself down. I hardly slept, but when I did manage to get some shut-eye, my dreams were troubled. They weren't my regular falling dream, but something different. I couldn’t remember what exactly it was that happened in them, but Dan was definitely present. He didn’t seem to be doing anything, though. We never spoke, never interacted in any way, but he was always there in some capacity. I tried to figure out what that meant but in the end, I just put it down to the stress of not knowing what he was going to do with the information he uncovered in detention.

My eating habits suffered even more over the weekend, too. The last decent meal I ate had been Friday at lunch time, and since then all I had eaten was a bowl of cereal on Saturday afternoon and two slices of toast on Sunday night. My parents tried to get me to eat more but I just wasn’t hungry so I lied and told them I felt sick in the stomach so they would leave me alone.

Getting up on Monday morning (I had been awake since 3am having gone to sleep at midnight), I dawdled around my room pulling my uniform on and packing my bag with the books I would need for the day, dreading going to school and finding out what damage Dan had done over the weekend.

I'd spoken to my friends a little bit on Saturday and Sunday and none of them had mentioned hearing any rumours about me, but that wasn’t surprising. Our little group tended to stick to ourselves, so any gossip going around usually took a little longer to reach us. Still, you'd think a rumour about me would have reached at least one of us by Monday, so maybe Dan had actually kept his word.

As my bus approached the school, my pulse started racing again as it had been periodically throughout the weekend. I could hear my blood pumping in my ears and started to feel clammy and weak. I immediately went through my breathing routine a couple of times until I felt calm enough to step foot off the bus when it arrived at the school.

I self-consciously looked around me as I made my way into the school, checking to see if anyone was staring at me or covering up laughter with their hands, but nobody seemed to pay me any more attention than usual. A couple of people I was acquaintances with smiled or waved, but that was pretty normal. I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Maybe my secret was safe.

I waited in our regular spot for my friends to join me, keeping my mind busy by playing a game on my phone. Hansel was the first to arrive and the first thing he said to me nearly gave me a heart attack.

"Dude! Dude did you hear?" he asked me in a hushed tone. My heart immediately skipped a beat or three but I tried to keep my composure.

"Hear what?" I asked nervously. I braced myself for Hansel's coming words.

"Dan Western got his fucking ass kicked on the weekend. Like, worse than the other week. Face is all busted up, and I think his shoulder is fucked too. The guy really did a number on him," Hansel told me.

I'd be lying if I said that I didn’t breathe a sigh of relief, but the serenity didn’t last long and instead I found myself concerned for Dan.

"Shit, is he alright though? Did he say who did it?" I asked, frowning.

"Nah, man. He's keeping it all pretty quiet but it looks like it hurts. Whoever did it, I wouldn’t want to cross them."

Taylor arrived then and, having surmised what we were talking about, added, "I just saw Dan's face. Poor thing. I know you hate him, Avery, but nobody deserves to be beaten up the way he has been."

Taylor's comment about me hating Dan threw me for a second and I wasn’t quite sure how to reply so I simply nodded. Hansel and Taylor kept talking about God knows what while I got lost in my own thoughts.

Why was Dan continually getting beaten up? What had he done to deserve it? Why was he so ‘hush hush’ about it all? I couldn’t figure out what was going on, but I was determined to get to the bottom of it. Why? I honestly had no idea. I just felt like I needed to. It was like this compulsion I had, because to my utmost surprise, I had just figured out that I actually wanted to help Dan. Boy, how quickly that had changed from a couple of weeks ago when I would have gladly held him down for his assailant. Hell, I even got a few punches in myself a couple of weeks ago. Now? Things were different. I couldn’t recall when or how things had changed, but they had. It was disconcerting to say the least.

“Hey! Earth to Avery,” Hansel yelled, waving his hand in front of my face. I jumped and looked up to see my friends looking at me with concerned expressions.

“Sorry. Daydreaming,” I muttered.

“The bell rang,” Hansel told me, “And you didn’t even react. Must’ve been some pretty intense daydreams.”

I just nodded, not really knowing how to reply to that. There was no way I was going to tell them what I was actually thinking about.

“You look like hell,” Taylor said as we started walking to class.

“Yeah, I didn’t sleep much,” I told her quietly.

“Something on your mind?” That girl knows me way too well.

Everything, I thought. “Nothing in particular,” I said out loud. Taylor frowned, but nodded.

“Okay. You know you can talk to me, right? If you need to.”

“Thanks,” I said simply, smiling to show that I appreciated her words.

“See you at break,” she said in parting as she entered her Geography classroom. Hansel and I continued on to the Physics room where we found that most of the class had already arrived.

“Shit,” I said under my breath as my eyes fell on Dan’s face. The left side of his face was a nasty shade of purple and his eye was swollen shut. I could see small cuts where the skin had broken, clearly from being hit hard. I also noticed that, while Dan had his arm around Holly (which made my heart stutter uncomfortably), it was the opposite arm to the one he usually held her with. That one was held in a sling tied loosely around his neck. Dan was a mess. That’s the word I would use to describe him physically. Just a mess.

“Yeah, it’s pretty bad, huh?” Hansel said from beside me, noticing that I was staring at Dan.

Before I could reply, Mr Ferguson came into the classroom behind us and encouraged us to quickly find our seats so he could start the lesson. He handed back our exams from Friday and he was clearly not happy with the results, stating that the majority of us failed (including me, I might add, but I was very close to passing) and that he expected better. That started a debate with some of the other students who argued that most people failing meant that the test was too hard, but Mr Ferguson wasn’t having any of it, and quickly changed the subject to the day’s lesson. I tried to pay attention, but in all honesty, I was exhausted and my mind was focussed more on sleep than anything else.

---

By the time lunch came around, it was pretty clear to me that Dan had kept his word and had not spilled the beans on my sexuality, which I was so grateful for. I made a mental note to thank him for that in detention. I also made a mental note to ask him what the hell happened to his face, not that I thought he would actually tell me. He was being so secretive about it all and I couldn’t understand why. Why wouldn’t he want the person who did this to him be punished for their actions?

My mind continued to wander through my afternoon class of double Modern History, and it was only when my phone buzzed in my pocket that I snapped out of it. I pulled it out and read the message I’d received from my brother and groaned.

Jamie: Hey, car’s fucked again. You’re gonna have to walk home after detention. It’s stuck at Ben’s shop till tomorrow afternoon (he wasn’t in today) so I have to get the train home. Mum and dad are both working till 6. See you at home.

Me: Yeah okay. Thanks for letting me know. See you then.

There was no point in complaining about it, even though I would have liked to. That car had so many issues I was surprised it was even still running. I guess Jamie’s mate Ben was a pretty decent mechanic to be able to keep the car running as long as he had been. He was also very decently priced which was why Jamie didn’t just call another random mechanic to fix it then and there.

I let out a loud sigh that alerted Ash, who was sitting next to me, that something was wrong.

“You okay?” he whispered.

“I have to walk home after detention. The stupid car broke down again. I’m too tired for this,” I complained.

“Ah that sucks, man. I’d stick around and give you a lift home but I promised Ana I’d take her surfing this arvo.”

“It’s cool, no worries. Thanks though.”

“Mr Redmond, something you’d like to add to our discussion?” Mr Quillis, our teacher, interrupted. I quickly shook my head no. “Stop talking then please. Now…”

I tuned out the teacher and spent the rest of the class watching the clock, waiting for the final bell of the day to ring. When it finally did, I wished Ash a good time surfing with his sister, and slowly made my way to the bathroom that Dan and I would be painting that day.

Mr Shaw-Cox was waiting for me when I arrived and we spent a few awkward minutes waiting for Dan in silence. I generally had nothing to do with Mr Shaw-Cox so we didn’t have anything to talk about.

Once Dan arrived, we all went to the storage area and Dan and I grabbed our paint cans, Mr S-C reminded us of what we were doing and then he left, letting us get on with our painting without supervision. I guess the teachers figured they could trust us not to kill each other if they left us alone while we were working.

I really wanted Dan to be the first one to say something, but after about twenty minutes of silence, I just had to ask. I suppose I could have been more tactful but I was just bursting with curiosity.
“Who hit you?” I asked through the stall wall.

“Wow, no warm-up questions or anything,” Dan replied sarcastically. I opened my mouth to apologise but he continued, “It’s nothing, Avery. Drop it. Please.”

“It’s not nothing,” I protested. “Dan, your face is a mess. And your arm… Why won’t you tell anyone who’s doing it?”

“Because it’s nobody’s fucking business, okay? I’m… I’m handling it. Besides, I… I can’t tell anyone. It’ll make things worse,” he said, his voice fading out towards the end.

The vulnerability in his voice made me put down my paint brush and join him in his stall.
“Dan, I…”

“Please, just drop it. I can’t talk about it,” he whispered and I could hear the shakiness in his voice, like he was about to cry. Instinctively, I started to move to hug him, but thought better of it and instead just stood there watching him for a few quiet moments.

“You, um… you can talk to me. If, you know, you want to or need to… or whatever,” I eventually got out.

Dan’s eyes met mine, and he nodded once. “Thanks.”

I nodded too, and awkwardly made my way back to my own stall. We both continued the detention in silence.

Once Mr Shaw-Cox dismissed us, Dan and I walked out of the school together, still not talking, but it was fairly peaceful. He headed towards his car, while I kept going through the carpark towards the school gate. I was just about to pass through it when I heard Dan shout from behind me.

“Hey! Where’s your lift?” I turned around to see him leaning out his car window.

“I’ve got to walk home. The car’s in the shop,” I replied.

Dan pulled his head back into the Commodore and leaned across the passenger seat to unlock the door. “Hop in. I’ll give you a lift.”

I looked at him sceptically. This was a first. Since when was Dan suddenly so charitable towards me? “Really?”

“Yes, unless you’d rather walk home?”

“Not really,” I muttered under my breath as I walked towards his car. I half expected him to suddenly start driving away, but was glad that he allowed me to get in the car before he did so.

Dan had some quiet music playing in the background as he drove me to my house. I vaguely recognised the song but it wasn’t the sort of music I enjoyed. Still, it was better than total silence.
It wasn’t long before Dan pulled into my driveway and turned off the engine.

“Um, thanks for the lift,” I said, showing him a small smile as I moved to open the door.

“Wait!”

I looked back over in surprise. Dan rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “D’you think I could come in? For a bit? I just don’t wanna go home yet,” he asked, falling over his words a little. I don’t think I’d ever seen him so nervous.

The immediate question on my lips was “why don’t you want to go home?” but I bit it back because it clearly took a lot for him to even ask to spend time with me in the first place.

“Um… sure?” I replied, as I desperately tried to think of ways I would be able to keep him entertained and coming up blank.

Dan smiled a small, sad smile, and took his keys out of the ignition. We both stepped out of the car and headed into my house.