Dan Western Stole My Girlfriend

I moped around my house on the weekend after Holly broke up with me. I didn't want to see anyone. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I just wanted to play my guitar and wallow in self-pity in peace. Was that too much to ask for? Apparently so.

On Sunday evening, I was getting frustrated because I couldn’t seem to play this one part of a song I was working on learning. It wasn’t even that difficult, but I just couldn’t seem to get my fingers to do what I wanted them to. I was swearing and carrying on when my brother Jamie, a.k.a the reason why I've had to put up with Dan Western for so long (he's friends with Dan’s brother Martin), stepped into my room with a smirk on his face.

“What's got up your ass?” he asked. “It's clearly not a dick or you'd be a bit happier about it.”

“Fuck off,” I snapped back. I didn't want to deal with his shit and his joking dig at my sexuality didn't help. Sometimes I really wished I hadn’t come out to my family - I had been lucky that they accepted me for how I was, but that didn’t mean that I avoided them playfully teasing me about it. I restarted the song again while Jamie watched on, but screwed up again when I got to that one annoying part. I wanted to throw the guitar across the room but instead placed it gently beside me on the bed with a sigh. I looked down at my hands which I had folded in my lap.

“Seriously, what's the matter, Avery?” Jamie asked me gently. We may argue and fight a lot but when it comes to serious stuff, Jamie is the best big brother in the world.

“Holly broke up with me,” I told him quietly. “For Dan.”

“Dan Western?” he questioned.

“How many other Dans do we know?”

“Good point.” He breathed in a deep breath then let it out with a huff. “Shit, man, that sucks. Wait, I thought Dan was dating that Bianca girl?

“Yeah he was…like three girls ago. He's a fucking man-whore and now he's taken the only girl I've ever loved away from me,” I complained. Jamie looked sympathetic.

“I thought Holly didn’t like Dan, though,” he said in a questioning tone.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too, until he suddenly started paying her attention. Now that she’s had that makeover, he suddenly wants her and of course he gets her, because that’s what he does and it fucking sucks. He’s not even that good-looking. I don’t know what girls see in him,” I ranted. Jamie raised his eyebrows and I knew why. Dan is that good-looking and I know exactly what girls see in him. He was the reason I started questioning my sexuality in the first place, even though I knew I hated him. And with his stupid, perfectly styled brown hair and his stupid, shining blue eyes and that damn-near perfect smile and those fucking cheekbones, it was no wonder Holly wanted him more than me. “Shut up. I really wish I hadn't told you that,” I mumbled, referring to when I poured my heart out to my brother about Dan making me feel things I didn’t want to feel.

Jamie chuckled. “Look, I don’t know what to tell you, Ave. It sucks what Dan did. Just try not to wallow in self-pity for too long. You’ve gotta get back on the horse, or whatever the saying is. You’ll work it out and find someone better than Holly. You've got girls and guys to choose from, remember.” I rolled my eyes at his last sentence, but nodded. Jamie clapped a hand on my shoulder before he left my room, closing the door behind himself. I sighed and picked up my guitar again. I ran my fingers up and down over the fret board a couple of times before I started to play the song I was working on, determined to play the solo part perfectly.

“Fate is an elegant, cold-hearted whore, she loves salting my wounds, yes she enjoys nothing more…” I began singing. I continued singing and playing ‘Polygraph, Right Now’ all the way through, smiling when I realised that I didn’t fuck up the solo.

Not wanting to jinx myself after playing the song perfectly by playing it again, I got up from my bed and put my guitar away. It was fairly late so I decided I’d just go to bed. I got undressed and slid into bed, turned my bedside light out and fell into an uneasy sleep. I’m not the best sleeper at the best of times, but the past few nights were some of the worst of my life.

~

I awoke suddenly. You know those dreams where you feel like you’re falling and then the second before you hit the ground, you wake up? Welcome to my life. I have them almost every night. It’s a side effect of my anxiety that my medication doesn’t help with. I wish it did though, because waking up in the middle of the night every fucking night gets really annoying.

I checked the clock on my bedside table, squinting at the red glowing numbers. 3:46 am. I groaned. Fantastic. Usually I made it to at least 5 am, but I suppose my anxiety always flares up when emotional things are going on. One of the worst attacks I ever had was relating to when I was trying to come to terms with my sexuality, during which I was an emotional wreck, I barely slept 2 hours a night, I stopped eating and I hated myself. I know it's not the same thing, but God knows I'm emotional about everything that happened with Holly, so I guess not being able to sleep again made sense. I sat up in bed and looked around my room. It was pitch black aside from the tiny glow from the clock, so I couldn’t actually see anything, but it’s the thought that counts. I stayed like this for a few minutes, weighing up whether it was worth trying to get back to sleep or if I should just give up and watch YouTube videos until the rest of the world woke up. I’d like to say I chose option one but I didn’t. I got up to retrieve my laptop and some headphones and then started where I left off the previous night from a playlist I had created precisely for times like this.

By the time my family woke up, I’d worked my way through way more videos than anyone should watch in a night. At around 7 o'clock, I closed my laptop and dragged myself out of bed, took a quick shower and then, after dressing in my school uniform (minus the tie and shoes, and without tucking my shirt in), headed downstairs to breakfast. There was a pile of toast sitting on a plate in the middle of the table with empty plates in front of each chair. My dad was standing by the toaster with a butter knife in hand and drinking a cup of coffee while he waited for another two slices of toast to pop out.

“Morning, Dad,” I mumbled. He grunted in reply. He's not much of a morning person either. I sat down in my regular chair and reached over the table for the coffee pot to pour myself a cup. I then put in three teaspoons of sugar and idly stirred it as I grabbed a piece of toast from the pile. Once I was sure the sugar in my coffee had dissolved, I put in some milk and stirred some more until my black coffee turned a light brown colour. I took a sip, scalding my mouth because it was so hot, but I didn't care. I just needed caffeine. I spread some jam on my slice of toast and began eating it while the rest of my family - Mum, Jamie and my sister Willow - came into the kitchen and went about their morning breakfast routine.

Like always, I finished breakfast before everyone else, and stood up to put my dishes in the sink. I then went over to the medicine cabinet and pulled out the box of anti-anxiety medication I have to take every day. I popped one pill out and placed it on my tongue before turning to the tap over the kitchen sink and turning it on, twisting my head so that I could get a bit of running water from it to swallow the pill down. As usual, I ended up with water all over my face but it didn't matter. I wiped it away with the back of my hand, then headed back upstairs so that I could continue to get ready for school.

~

Before I knew it, I was standing in the school hallway with Ash and Hansel, waiting for the first bell to go off to signal that it was time to get to class. Hansel was talking loudly about something he did on the weekend. I had tuned out a long time ago and was happily off in my own little world until that came crashing down around me.

The bell rang and my friends and I started walking to our classes. I had physics first, which sucked but at least I would get it over with for the day. Physics was with Hansel but Ash had Information Processes and Technology (basically just a fancy name for Computer Class) so he went in the other direction towards the computer lab. The unfortunate thing about having physics first period was that I had physics first period with Dan and Holly. I'd been hoping to avoid seeing them so soon after Holly dumped me, but unlucky Avery never gets his way, does he? Oh no, no he does not.

Very soon after Hansel and I entered the classroom and took our seats, who should arrive but Dan Western with his arm wrapped around Holly’s waist and whispering something into her ear, making her giggle stupidly. I groaned quietly to myself. I hadn’t told my friends that Holly had left me yet, so the sight of my ex-girlfriend with someone else shocked Hansel a bit. He opened his mouth to ask me what was going on but I shook my head, indicating that I didn’t want to talk about it. Dan and Holly were still walking into the room when Dan tore his attention away from Holly and glanced around the room. His eyes met mine, which I narrowed at him. He grinned and very deliberately touched Holly’s face and tilted it towards him before kissing her directly on the lips, keeping his eyes on me the entire time. I clenched my fists under the desk, really wanting to punch the smile off his stupid face.

“Whoa,” Hansel whispered under his breath after seeing the interaction.

“Yeah,” I grunted back. The teacher decided to grace us with his presence then, so Dan and Holly had to go and sit down. Of course, it had to be right in front of me and Hansel. Dan took the opportunity to turn around in his chair and smirk at me. I lifted one of my hands out from under the desk and flipped him the bird. He grinned and turned back around. Holly glanced back then, and when she saw me, she had an apologetic look on her face. I dropped my eyes to the graffitied desk and she turned around quickly. I kept my eyes to myself during the whole lesson because Dan was deliberately flirting loudly with Holly the entire time and if I didn’t, I would have ended up punching him.

When class ended, I grabbed my stuff and went to leave the classroom as quickly as possible. As I went to walk past Dan, he grabbed my arm and pulled me so that my ear was near his mouth. Holly was talking to someone so she didn’t see our quick and quiet interaction.

“I won, Redmond. Good job with the makeover, by the way,” Dan whispered to me. I was confused. I didn’t know this was a competition for Holly as the prize.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Western?

“Nothing, I just want you to remember that she’s not yours anymore.”

“… Okay,” I said, still as confused as ever. I pulled my arm out of Dan’s grip and left the classroom in a hurry.

My mind reeled throughout the rest of the day, wondering what the hell that was about. I already knew that he stole my girlfriend. I didn’t need to be reminded. But, I suppose Dan is a cocky bastard and when he gets something he wants, he has to show it off to all the poor unfortunate souls who missed out on it. Such a great guy, I know exactly why people love him so much.