dan

Dan literally stops - freezes  on the ground, lost for words and unable to believe what he is seeing.

Sure, this person was glaring down at Dan with what could only be described as a look of disgust and annoyance, but still, it was a fucking face for crying out loud - a very miracle in Dan's world.

"What are you staring at freak?" the guy asks, his blue eyes narrowing at Dan and his arms crossed over his chest.

"Y-your face," Dan stammers out, after which realising that they probably weren't the best choice of words in this particular situation, immediately going red after the words leave his mouth.

"What, never seen a face before loser?" the guy asks, annoyed and losing patience with this random, weird kid on the floor in front of him, he's already having a shit day, this is just adding to it.

His response made Dan want to laugh at the plain irony of it all, but even so, Dan just kept his mouth shut as he doesn't want everyone to know about his condition, ever.  So Dan just remains silent, staring up at the guy in front of him. His skin was pale, tattoos peeking out from his shirt collar, his eyes were dark on the edges, but his irises were the most beautiful blue, but they were cold, like ice. He carried around a cold, 'don't mess with me' aura, and it seemed like most kids avoided him, and it wasn't hard to see why.

"Lost your voice now? You're such a freak," the guy says, rolling his eyes and walking on, making sure to step on Dan's right hand on the way, making Dan wince in pain and glare at his back.

He watches as the guy walks away, rounding a corner, leaving Dan on the floor back in his world of blurry faces. Pj helps him up, and Dan rubs his sore fingers.

"Who even is that?" Dan asks as he follows Pj to his art class.

"That's Phil Lester," Pj says simply, "he's trouble and danger, and that's all you need to know about him."

"Why is that all you need to know about him?" Dan asks.

"Because that's all he is. He's the kind of person your parents warn you to stay away from, he's basically fearless, he's rude, arrogant," Pj starts, listing all these other qualities which would add up to make the worst person in existence.

Dan sighs. Why couldn't someone nice, friendly and polite have a face visible to Dan? But oh no, it had to be the kid who seemed to hate the world and everything on it. If Dan wanted to know more about why this guy's face was visible to him, he now knew it was going to be a challenge - but for once in his life, Dan was determined.

"Look Dan, just stay away from him okay?" Pj asks as they sit at desks in the art room, "I want to look out for you, and trust me, that guy is nothing but trouble. he'll ruin your life."

"That's a bit harsh," Dan says, frowning.

"Just promise me," Pj begs.

"Okay, I will," Dan says, but he knows in the back of his mind, that curiosity will get the better of him.

What makes that Phil guy immune to Dan's blurry face?

Art goes by quite quickly, and before Dan knows it, he's following Pj to wherever the hell they're going to sit for first break. Pj stops at a table under a large tree, which has quite a few people sitting at it. Dan recognises two of the people there - mainly from their clothing and hair - Louise and Zoe.

"Everyone, this is Dan, Dan, everyone," Pj says as they slot in, Dan between Louise and Pj.

"Wow, helpful," Dan says, feeling nerves start building inside of him.

"Huh, I like him, we should keep him," one person says - the guy next to Zoe in a grey sweater - making a few people laugh.

After a few minutes, Dan starts to settle down, relax. No one asks why Dan is struggling to recognise anyone, or not making eye contact. Dan feels quite happy - but thoughts of troublesome, dangerous Phil Lester with his visible face keep eating away at the back of his mind.

Dan has to find out more about this.

***

Dan has two senior classes - both English.

He has extension English with Zoe and Louise, and now he has standard English with complete strangers. Great. Dan walks into the classroom and heads straight for the back, not wanting to be called on by the teacher.

"You're in my seat freak," a harsh voice says, and Dan looks up to be stopped in his tracks yet again - it's Phil and his face.

Is it weird that Dan wants to hug Phil for somehow enabling him to see what a face looks like? He won't though, Phil looks likely to stab him if he tried.

"Why don't you sit in a different one then?" Dan retorts, tearing his eyes away from Phil's face, even though he just ants to stare at it to make up for all the faces he can't see in his life.

"Because that's my seat,"  Phil snaps  angrily.

"Do you have seat OCD?" Dan asks simply.

"No, what the fuck, why?" Phil says, confused and just plain annoyed with Dan - he's having a bad day so this stupid new kid isn't helping matters.

"Well in that case, it won't kill you to move to another seat," Dan says, smirking triumphantly as Phil grumbles and sits in the seat beside Dan, seeing as it is the only other free one at the back of the room.

"You're so fucking annoying," Phil snaps, an icy glare on his features.

"You don't even know me," Dan says, "so that's quite harsh."

"I don't want to know you anyway," Phil says, glaring at the desk, "annoying little shit."

"Nice metaphor," Dan says, smirking, knowing that he's annoying Phil even more, "very inventive."

"Why can't you just be afraid to even look at me like everyone else?" Phil asks angrily, glaring sideways at Dan, who just shrugs.

"I'm not like everyone else," Dan replies.

"I wish you were," Phil grumbles.

"Why?"

"So you wouldn't annoy me as much."

"I don't mean to annoy you."

"Well news flash, you do loser."

"Why am I a loser?"

"Because you just are."

"That's rude."

"Well I'm rude, didn't they tell you?" Phil asks, finally snapping, slamming his fist on the desk.

"I don't know you," Dan says, making Phil frown in confusion.

"What has that got to do with anything?" He asks.

"Well if I don't know you, then how would I know if you were rude?" Dan asks, raising an eyebrow at Phil - who's seemingly lost for words.

"You're still annoying," Phil snarls, "so can you stop talking to me and avoid me like everyone else does? I'm trouble and you're just a petty little braniac with a perfect life and grades to match."

A perfect life. That's a joke.

"Again, you don't even know me," Dan says, looking down.

"Who are you then?" Phil asks, annoyance laced through his voice, "so I can know you, tell you that you're the most annoying little shit I've ever met and then you can fuck off."

Dan looks over to Phil, an idea forming in his head; another way to piss Phil off, but also to see if he's heard of Dan's condition before - if it's familiar to him in any way.

Dan locks eyes with Phil, who's waiting for an answer impatiently.

"My name's blurry face," Dan says, "and I care what you think."

**********

an// hey hope you enjoyed! here's the chapter as promised. It's a bit shorter, but I wanted it to end there :)

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Thanks so much for all the reads so far! I never expected so many people to read this book so quickly. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and like the book so far :D