Dan Western Stole My Girlfriend

It was official. The universe hated me. Unless you’ve experienced it yourself, I don’t think you will ever know how awkward it was for me to walk into school the next morning and have the very first person I saw when I stepped off the bus at the school gates be the person I had a very vivid sex dream about only a few hours prior. He was standing near the school gates talking to his friends when I spotted him, and I swear my face burned the second I did. Dan looked up as I approached the gates and despite my efforts to avoid looking at him, our eyes connected. If it was even possible, I felt my face go even redder as images of my dream flashed in my mind. I think Dan noticed that I was acting weird because a smirk crept onto his face and he opened his mouth to say something. I didn't want to hear anything he had to say so I just ducked my head and entered the school as quickly as I possibly could, not looking up again until I got to where my friends and I meet up of a morning.

“Hi,” I said hurriedly to Ash and Hansel as I approached them.

“What’s up with you?” Ash asked. “You’re all like, flustered, or something?”

“What? Nothing. Nothing, I’m fine. Where’s Taylor?” I said quickly, trying to change the subject before Ash and Hansel could push me into telling them what was wrong – not that I would have told them the truth. As much as I loved and trusted my friends, I hadn’t been able to bring myself to come out to them yet. Holly was the only person outside of my immediate family who knew and I really hoped she would keep it to herself because I could only imagine how some people at the school would react. People like Dan, who is a shit-stirrer but not particularly physically intimidating, weren’t my main concern. If he found out about my sexuality, the most he would likely do would be to blab it to the whole school. No, I was concerned about some of the other guys at my school, who would happily use me as a punching bag if they knew I liked guys. So it was better if nobody knew, at least for now. I knew I would have to tell my friends one day, but… not yet.

“Taylor? I don’t know, she should be here by now,” Ash said, thankfully taking the bait. He suddenly looked concerned and Hansel and I exchanged a knowing glance. It’s pretty clear to the two of us that Ash and Taylor have massive crushes on each other, yet neither will admit it. Hansel and I have been trying to drop subtle hints about it but it hasn’t seemed to have got through to them yet, which is a shame because we think they would be a really great couple. Maybe one day they’ll get there but for now, they’re much too awkward about it.

As we waited for school to start, Ash, Hansel and I looked at the other students milling around, but didn’t see our small, blonde friend anywhere and it wasn’t until the bell rang to get to class that she finally turned up, out of breath and looking stressed.

“Oh my God, I didn’t think I was going to get here on time! First I overslept because I was up late last night studying for my textiles theory test coming up, and then I couldn’t find my shoe because Pringle took it to play with so I had to run around trying to find where he might have taken it. Then I had a flat tyre on my bike so I had to get Dad to take me to school and then we were nearly wiped out by a truck running a red and ugh! What a morning!” Taylor ranted, only taking a breath once she finished.

Her mentioning her textiles test suddenly reminded me of an upcoming physics test that I had barely even thought of since it was announced a couple of weeks ago. The thought made me immediately start to inwardly panic. This was a big test and I couldn't afford to fail it. The only way I was able to pull my emotions together at that moment was to remind myself that it was still a little while away and I vowed to start studying that afternoon in detention. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly; the dark clouds in my head parted.

My brief moment of panic put aside, I put an arm around Taylor’s shoulder and glanced down at her feet. Her left shoe looked a little worse-for-wear but it was still in one piece. “You made it here, though, that’s the main thing. And hey, Pringle didn’t totally destroy your shoe; that’s a development,” I said, trying to calm her down as she has done for me more times than I can count when my anxiety gets the better of me.

“True,” Tay said, taking a deep breath. “Stupid dog. I’ve gone through so many shoes because of him. Anyway, we should get to class. We’re going to be late.”

Taylor and I headed to the music classroom while Ash and Hansel went off to their Business Studies class for a double period. I always loved double music for a couple of reasons; the first being that I just really love music and I happen to be quite good at it and the second being that our teacher, Mr Myles (or Sam, as he prefers to be called), is really encouraging and always makes our classes a lot of fun, even when we’re doing boring stuff like learning scales and arpeggios. In the first half of the lesson, we started to learn how to notate music, which was one of our core subjects for the year and in the second half, we were allowed to mess around playing the instruments. Okay, well I say 'mess around' but we were really supposed to be working on our performance pieces for the half yearly exams, but since they weren't due for months, I don’t think many people were actually working. Me, I was playing around practicing some songs I had recently learned, humming the tunes softly while I strummed the guitar.

"Avery Redmond."

I heard my name and looked up from the fret board to see Sam in front of me.

"Yes, sir?"

"What's that you're playing?"

"Um..." I paused, trying to decide on if I should tell him the truth, or lie and say I was working on the assessment. He cocked his head to the side, a slight smile on his face, which told me he already knew I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to. "It's this song I learned. 'With Me' by Sum 41."

"I know it. Did you figure out the chords on your own?"

"Yeah, kind of. There were a couple I couldn’t figure out so I looked up the tabs for them."

"It sounds like you've done well so far. Have you considered performing at the talent show in Term 3? We could use some more musicians in amongst the dancers and comedians."

I had been tossing up about whether to enter the show or not. It was one of those school events, like an assembly, that everyone has to attend but not everyone has to participate. It was the compulsory attendance that made me nervous, because not many people knew about my singing and guitar playing and I wasn’t sure I wanted anyone else to. I still had around 5 months to decide if I was going to enter, so I could take my time thinking about it.

"I don’t know," was my response to Sam's question. "Maybe."

"You should think about it. I think you would do well. I'll let you get on with your playing," Sam said, waiting for me to nod in acknowledgement, and then he walked away, leaving me to my thoughts.

The rest of music class went by quickly after that. In fact, it felt like the entire school day went by quickly, because before I knew it, I was heading to Mrs King, the textiles teacher's classroom for my second detention. I had, up until the moment I stepped foot into the detention room, managed to avoid speaking to Dan, despite having English and Health with him, and I hoped to keep it that way to avoid any flashbacks of my dream while I was near him. Even just hearing him speak to other people today brought back memories, so if he tried to talk to me while we were alone, it was going to be torture.

Unsurprisingly, I was the first to enter the classroom, with the exception of Mrs King, who was seated behind her desk, reading something. She looked up when I walked in, pushing her too-big glasses back up to the bridge of her nose where they belonged.

"Take a seat, Avery. Do you have homework that you can do?"

"Yes. I have a test to study for," I replied, pulling my backpack off one of my shoulders and spinning it around so I could dig in there for my physics text book.

"Is that the physics test you're talking about?" Dan's voice came from behind me, startling me and causing me to immediately blush.

"Y-yes," I stuttered, then cursed myself for being so nervous.

"The hell is up with you today?" he asked, frowning, "You've been acting really weird."

I opened my mouth to indignantly declare that I was perfectly fine, and what did he know anyway, when we were interrupted by Mrs King.

"This isn't a social club, boys. You're here as punishment, so I suggest you stop talking and find somewhere to get on with your studying in silence."

"Yes, ma'am," Dan said with false respect, even throwing in a salute before he moved to a desk in the second row. I took his lead and also chose a desk, mine being in the third row and diagonal from his. We both opened our textbooks and started to read, though it was only ten minutes or so before I found myself distracted.

Despite not being able to look Dan in the eye at all during the day, it was easy for me to study his face, in particular the bruise he had on his jaw, while he was busy studying physics. The bruise was looking slightly better, but it still looked pretty painful and it would take a while to heal. Whoever hit him, hit him hard; much harder than I had. There must have been a lot of anger behind the punch.

Even though Dan was adamant yesterday that it was some drugged-up guy from soccer who had attacked him, I didn’t fully believe him. I mean, sure, it was possible, but Dan seemed a bit too defensive when I asked him about it. But then, that made me wonder who, if it wasn’t a random soccer player, would do that to him? Maybe his brother, Martin? They never had the sort of relationship that I have with my brother, but I couldn’t imagine Martin punching his brother that hard and getting away with it with their parents. I really didn’t know, but I, for some reason, really wanted to know what really happened.

"Will you quit your daydreaming and get up so we can leave?" Dan's voice demanded from next to me. I stopped staring into space and looked up at him. He was standing beside my desk, looking down at me with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Oh, uh yeah. Sorry," I mumbled, my cheeks burning. I quickly shut my unread physics textbook and shoved it in my bag, zipping it up and then standing. Dan moved back slightly to give me some room to get out from behind the desk, and we both headed out of the classroom together. Mrs King barely looked up from her book as we passed her.

"What were you thinking about so deeply anyway?" Dan asked as we walked down the hallway.

"Nothing," I said quickly.

"Suuuureeee, you weren't. Come on, you can tell me. It was about how ridiculously good looking I am, wasn't it?" Dan pestered, nudging me gently in the ribs with his elbow.

I shoved him away. "No, what the fuck is wrong with you?"

"You know you want me."

"I can’t imagine wanting anyone less," I scoffed, and sped up my walk so I was a few feet ahead of Dan. I threw open the door to the school and power walked out to the car park. He just laughed and continued walking at his regular pace. I was thankful for that because memories of my dream were swarming around my head and I felt like my face was practically on fire.

It was a massive relief to throw myself into Jamie's car without Dan saying any more to me. I didn’t want to talk to Jamie about why I was rushing either, so I quickly pulled my iPod out of my bag and shoved my earphones in my ears. Jamie took that as a hint (he's used to my mood swings) and started the engine, thankfully taking me home without questioning me.

I was quiet for the rest of the night; only saying the bare minimum to my family during dinner, and then excusing myself to my room to do the studying I should have done during detention. I went to bed at around 11 o'clock and managed to fall asleep before midnight for once. I didn’t dream. Praise the freaking lord.