"Come on, Bear. You can't stay in that room forever. It will be good for you to breathe some fresh air…"

If he didn't love Louise as much as he did, he would kill her. She knew Dan hated parties, and even more so the people who attended them. He avoided people on a daily basis at college so he was not amused when he realised that Louise dragged him out, not because there was some sort of emergency, as she had claimed, but to take him to Mia's party.

A crowded house swarming with horny drunktards and mumbling jerks and loud music he never, ever listened to storming out of every window was not the kind of place he would like to spend his extremely few free nights at.

"I can and I will and you kidnapping me will not change a thing. And if Ty's there…"

"Don't be paranoid, Bear." She said softly and held his hand. "He's as much of a social recluse as you. I really doubt he will come…"

Dan and Ty had been dating for eight months when Ty decided he wasn't ready for a relationship and broke up with Dan, leaving him broken-hearted and miserable, wondering what he had done wrong. Dan wanted to be a translator and Ty an engineer so they almost never crossed paths on the campus and they didn't live in the same dorm either. Dan was thankful because it allowed him to slowly and painfully start pulling himself together.

Or that's what he thought, until he found out that the reason Ty left was not because he wasn't ready for a relationship but because he didn't want a closed one. Rumours spread like disease and it did not take long for Dan to hear about the late, very late and very crowded parties in Ty's room.

Dan locked himself in his room, only getting out for his classes.

"You can have my word I will not speak to you ever again." he shrugged.

"Great. Now you are being paranoid AND dramatic."

Louise shook her head as they grew closer to the party. Some people focused their attention on them when they arrived and a couple of them came to them to say "Hi" and offered them plastic cups with suspicious drinks inside. Dan enjoyed alcohol as much as the next person and he got easily drunk, but he wanted to be sure what on Earth he was drinking. He was about to put the cup away when Louise dragged him to the middle of the room and started to dance with him, exaggerating her moves and stealing my fist laugh in what seemed forever. That was, until she suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him into a big hug. Dan was confused but he hugged her back nonetheless. She was his best friend and was always giving him comfort whenever she felt Dan needed it, and he thanked fate for crossing their paths. Then he realised that this was no ordinary hug and that something was wrong. She was tense, he could feel it in the way her hands held him right where he was and the way her back was stiff and straight. No signs of the usual warmth nor tenderness came from it and made Dan's heart beat faster, for he knew something had alarmed her and wanted to protect him from it.

He cupped her cheeks and lifted her so she would look at him. Louise was pale, fear and guilt shining on her eyes. She whispered an apology and buried her face in the crook of his neck. He did not want to look back. He knew he was not going to like it.

He did anyways and immediately regretted having done so. Ty was sitting on a couch, very busy looking for something he must have lost in some boy's throat who sat on his lap, his hands firmly grabbing onto his bottom. Dan felt tears welling up and tried to escape Louise's embrace and ran to the nearest door. Just as he crossed the threshold, Dan crashed against someone and would have fallen to the floor if that someone hadn't grabbed him by the arms and held him.

"I'm… I'm sorry. I… wasn't looking." Dan mumbled without looking up. He didn't want them to see his tears.

"No problem." Replied a deep, rough voice "Hey, are you alright?" Dan could even hear the frown in his voice and slowly lifted his head to meet the strangers gaze.

Phil Lester. Fuck. He was one of the top students in the Geoengineering department, specializing in planetary engineering and, one of the most brilliant people to have attended that college. Ever. And if his brain wasn't scary enough, his looks definitely did the job. Hair black as space itself and so was his eyeliner, framing his shinny blue eyes, with splashes of gold and green here and there, Dan noted. It was as if the universe floated inside of them. He was wearing a Gengar T-shirt, revealing his sleeves full of different Pokemon and other videogame characters, and black skinny jeans.

Dan was a dead man. He knew it.

"Oh, Gods, I'm really sorry! It wasn't my intention." Please don't kill me. Dan prayed.

"Hey, buddy, relax." Phil laughed at Dan's desperation "You didn't answer me yet. Let's grab a beer and talk outside, what do you say?

For a split second, Dan considered turning down his offer and leaving towards the security of his own bedroom but that would mean that he wouldn't take Ty's image off his head for the rest of the night. Instead, he thought, if he accepted Phil's offer, maybe he would be able to distract him a little and think about something less hurtful.

"Sure… I could do a little fresh air" He replied and they headed together towards the kitchen, where they grabbed the first bottles they found and slipped through the back door and into the garden. They sat in silence on sunloungers, next to the pool, for a few moments, admiring the bright night sky.

"So" Phil was the first one to speak, sipping at his drink "May I have your name or do you prefer exchanging code ones?"

"Dan Howell." he laughed.

"No one wants to get on the code name wagon!" Phil whined playfully. "I'm Phil Lester."

"If it helps, my friends call me Bear." He noted that Phil beamed at him and a huge smile spread across his face.

"Yes! Code name wagon! I'm Lion and you are now my new best friend. Cheers!" They laughed and made a toast. They drank and chatted about everything and nothing, realising that they had much more in common that Dan originally thought.

"You are a lot different than people portray you."

"Oh, really?" Phil frowned "What do they say?"

"Well… Everyone talks about how brilliant and scary you are and spread all kinds of ridiculous rumours."

"So that's why you were trembling like a leaf when I met you?"

"I thought I was done for!" Dan laughed and Phil playfully punched him in the shoulder. "Until I realised that you were the dorkiest dork ever and I'm sorry to having thought otherwise."

"You are forgiven just because you are the second dorkiest here. Anyway, you almost ran me over back there, care to tell me who or what were you running away from?" Phil asked nonchalantly after finishing his last bottle. "No one runs away from a party teary-eyed like that unless they've seen something they didn't like."

Dan thought for a moment, breathed in deep and exhaled slowly before answering, choosing his words with care. He was more than just "tipsy" and prayed he wouldn't cry.

"It may sound stupid and a bit cliché?" Maybe it was the alcohol. But he wanted to open himself up to Phil, the boy he met just a couple of hours before, more that he had done to any of his friends. "This is the first party I attended since my ex broke up with me and…" He took another deep breath and tried to calm himself before he spoke again. "I just saw him making out with someone else I felt like shit because, even though I know and I understand that being dumped is not the end of the world and that I will get over it eventually, but it still hurts like hell, you know what I mean? That's when I decided to leave and I crashed into you…"

"It's not stupid at all. It's a situation no one wants to live." Phil gave him an awkward side hug. "I don't want to sound shitty or anything but I'm kinda happy that you ran into me earlier? Because I got to meet you and I think you are the person I've had most fun with in a while."

Dan gave him a little smile and rested his head on Phil's shoulder.

"This is the most fun I've had in a while too."

"I'm not going to ask for the details or anything but, who's your ex? I can't believe he let go of someone as cool as you! You even shared your code name!"

Dan laughed again. He thought it was a good feeling.

"Ty Rogers."

Phil frowned when he heard that name.

"Wait. I thought he was dating someone called James, from the Language department?"

"That would be me" Dan gave him a dry smile. "It's my middle name."

Phil's scowl deepened.

"Now I'm pissed. I think there's something you need to know and I really hope you don't hate me when I tell you." He waited until Dan nodded before continuing. "I share one or two classes with this guy and a couple of months ago he approached me and invited me to one of his "parties" in the dorm. I declined, saying that I would never be with someone on a relationship. It's against my moral compass. I must say he didn't take it well and left." Dan frowned and bit the inside of his cheek. Phil waited until Dan motioned him to go on. "But some weeks after that, he told me that he was now single and available again and asked if I would reconsider his offer, as there was "no longer an obstacle". I felt disgusted and really sad for that James guy because he had been dating a jerk who not only didn't love him but" He paused, like he was considering whether or not to finish that sentence. One look from the boy beside him convinced him. "But bragged about how many people he had been with without his boyfriend knowing…"

That last line was all it took Dan to start crying. Phil had just confirmed his deepest fears and he could feel his heart breaking once again. Memories of the day Ty broke up with him flooded his mind. Dan remembered the pain in his chest and the tears running down his face. He remembered asking Ty if he had ever cheated on him and the way he denied it, saying that it was just because he was not you if he was ready to be in a serious relationship yet. And Dan believed him. He covered his face with his hands as he sobbed even harder. He felt the sadness and the misery flowing though him, breaking every little illusion he had to pieces. He felt so stupid. For having trusted Ty so much. For believing, just a moment, that he was important enough to be told the truth. For thinking that Ty had cared.

Dan felt one of Phil's hands rubbing his back while the other was stroking his hair. Phil whispered nothings into Dan's ear. They stayed like that for several minutes. Phil did not try to stop him from crying but instead comforted him, rocking him softly back and forth, waiting for Dan to calm down at his own pace.

"Thank you." Dan hiccupped, finally drying his tears with the back of his hand. "I'm alright."

They stayed silent for a few moments before Phil spoke up.

"Now I really want to kick his ass."

"He's not worth it." Dan sighed. "But I would really like to pay him back somehow." They lay on the same sunlounger, thinking of ways to accomplish his revenge. "I know!"

"Can I kick his ass?"

"I was thinking of something less violent, Lion. And please don't be weirded out."

"I'm all ears, Bear." Phil smiled and turned to face him.

Dan quickly explained his plan and Phil could not agree more. They exchanged their phone numbers and went back inside to put their plan in motion.

"Where have you been?" Louise threw her arms around Dan when he found her back inside the house. "I was so worried! I couldn't find you anywhere after you bolted off and you wouldn't answer your phone!" Dan quickly told her what had happened. "I'm so going to kick his ass."

"Phil said the same thing."

"I still can't believe you were with Phil Lester this whole time."

Dan smiled and said nothing; instead, he received a text from Phil asking him to get ready.

"Come on, Louise." He took her by the hand and dragged her to the middle of the dance floor, a couple of meters away from Ty. Dan's chest still hurt, but his anger kept it under control. Ty would get what he deserved. "Let's dance."

Just as he had finished telling her about what they had planned, Phil made his entrance. He grabbed some bottle he was offered and headed to the centre of the room alongside his friends, PJ, Chris, Tyler, Caspar and Felix and his girlfriend, Marzia. He had introduced him to the group before Dan went to search for Louise. They knew some of the details of the scheme and were more than happy to help.

They began dancing and laughing until Phil "accidentally" bumped into Ty. Despite the loudness of the music, Dan was within earshot.

"Oh gods. Sorry. I didn't realise!"

"Phil!" Ty purred. "Don't worry, I'm fine. You can dance with me, though."

"Sure, why not?"

They started moving to the beat of some new techno song no one knew the name of, under the attentive gaze from Dan. Phil guided Ty in order to make him turn his back on Dan and let Phil make sure the other boy was alright and signal him when the time came.

"You sure are hard to catch, Phil." Ty laughed "Luckily, you can't escape from me now. Why don't we go somewhere more… private?" He tried to kiss Phil's neck, but he moved out of reach before that happened. Blue eyes met brown and Phil spoke.

"I'm sorry, but I came with someone." That was Dan's cue.

"Oh, I'm sure they won't mind if you disappear for a while." Ty pouted, putting his arms around Phil's waist and pulling him even closer. Dan felt sick, but he ignored his gut telling him to run away as far as he could and forced a smile before standing beside Phil and gently unwrapping Ty's arms from him.

"As a matter of fact, I do mind." Dan answered cheerily.

"Dan?" Ty was confused, to say the least. "What are you doing here?"

"Phil invited me." Dan kissed Phil sweetly in the jaw. "It's the last party before the midterms and he didn't want me to miss it."

Back on the garden, Dan suggested hitting Ty where it would hurt him the most. His ego. Phil would work Ty up and then Dan would come to reveal himself as Phil's boyfriend. Though Dan would never admit it, he enjoyed seeing Ty's face crumble when he saw Phil giggling and pressing a kiss onto Dan's temple. He had not been expecting to see his ex that night, much less with the guy he had been pinning over the last couple of months.

"I'm lucky you were dumb enough to let Dan go. He's the most amazing and kindest person I've ever known and I will make sure he never feels the way he felt when you hurt him" Phil declared and cupped Dan's face and gave him the most passionate kiss on the lips. They felt soft against Phil's, like they had always belonged together, and he stroke Dan's cheeks gently. Their tongues did not battle for control, but danced with each other. Dan grabbed him by the waist and deepened the kiss while Phil's hands flew from his cheeks to his nape, so he wouldn't move away.

Electricity rushed through them and lost track of time and, by the time they separated their lips, Ty was long since gone. They laughed and Phil placed a kiss on Dan's forehead.

"Thanks for not hating me and letting me help you"

Dan hugged him.

"It was not your fault, Phil. I'm happy"

They beamed at each other and then, Phil had an idea.

"Hey, do you want to come to my dorm and play Mario Kart?"

"If you are so eager to lose, then I'll follow your lead, my Lion."

"This may be the beginning of something great, Bear, but I'm not losing."

"We'll see." Dan smiled and they exited the house, their fingers interwined.