Phil's parents were infuriated when Phil got home from "school". They were literally waiting for him at the front door, doing the stereotypical 'angry parent' pose (hands on hips, eyebrows creased). Phil literally gulped as he walked into his house.

"Where on earth have you been?" Stereotypical angry-mother tone.

"At school?" Phil squeaked, his petrified eyes wide.

"Oh yeah?" Stereotypical father-has-no-idea-what-is-going-on-but-roll-with-it tone.

"How come we got a call from your head teacher, saying you were absent all day?"

"I was in school, I just didn't go to any of my classes." Phil mumbled, tugging at his long, pink sleeves.

"And why was that?"

"I just didn't."

"Did something happen?"

Phil stayed silent and completely ignored his parents' gaze. He knew that, as soon as their eyes met, he would blurt out absolutely everything.

"What has happened?" Phil's mum's voice got much softer when she realised something bad could potentially have happened to her son.

"Nothing important."

"Phil... we won't be angry."

Phil then made a huge mistake. For a second, he flickered his eyes up to meet his mum's. The truth then raced out of him.

"Someone beat me up because of my outfit and then I spent most of my day crying in the toilets." Phil said it so quickly that the words almost merged together; luckily his parents understood.

"Who beat you up? Did you tell a teacher? Did they get in trouble? Are you hurt? Did-" Phil cut his rambling (worried) mother off.

"I didn't tell anyone and no, I'm not really hurt. Don't worry about it: I'm used to it."

"Has this happened before?"

Phil sighed, diverting his gaze to the ground. "Just a few times."

"Oh, Phil... You need to tell someone." His mum gently wrapped his arms around her son who was trying his best to hold back his tears.

"Okay, I will." Phil swore that, for the sake of his parents, he would tell a teacher about Luke. Or at least he would try to...

-

Phil walked into school, his head hanging low. He felt undeniably self-conscious, all because he decided to stick to dark colours for that day. Phil generally believed he looked like an idiot. It felt like every he passed was staring at him with judging eyes, although not a single person even turned his way.

He made sure to carefully watch where he was going so he could avoid Luke at all costs.

He got to his tutor room to see that his tutor was sitting at his desk, on his laptop. After a couple of moments of just silently standing by the door, Phil spoke up. "Sir, can I talk to you?"

The teacher looked up and nodded, gesturing for Phil to come over. "Before you start, is there any particular reason why you weren't in tutor yesterday?" Phil swallowed: there was no way to bail now.

"That's kind of what this is about." Literally on cue, Luke walked into the room with his friends. "Actually, never mind." The teacher looked more than confused when Phil backed away and slowly sat down. Telling someone about Luke was going to be harder than he thought.