#“There is No Land Left In Britain to Dig a Grave” sounds like the name of the greatest punk album of all time

[thespamman24]

DOn't turn british people into cats unless you're sure their tea can be drunk by cats. Otherwise they will die, and there is no more land left in Britain to dig a grave.

[trysomecats]

Caught in a Web Part 5

Summary: Dan was offered to join Willow Grove Academy, Britain’s most prestigious and renowned private school, on a full scholarship. All of the other students are rich, unlike Dan who comes from a modern lower class society. Things become complicated when he lies about his background to Phil Lester, the most popular and richest boy in the school.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

The confession happened before the food had even arrived. They were at a small Italian restaurant with prices that were thankfully affordable. Dan viewed it as a small victory, considering that Phil was going to hate his guts when he revealed the fact that he was nothing but a pathetic liar.

Dan had initially planned on confessing before they even went inside the restaurant, but it was hard to interrupt Phil’s bright eyes and cheerful babbling. It was only after they had sat down at their table and ordered drinks when he spoke the truth.

“-and we can go on vacation together when our next school breaks comes around. I figured the four of us could go somewhere new, an adventure, you know? There’s this place in America called Roswell - it’s in New Mexico I think - and there’s this conspiracy theory that aliens landed there one time. And it got me thinking that we could go there and, well, who knows, maybe-”

“I lied.”

“What’s that?” Phil asked, eyes still crinkled with happiness as he sipped his cider.

Dan’s mouth was dry. Despite this, once he began speaking, it was impossible to stop. He was a fly making his last stand before the spider came to kill him. Everything came pouring out, right there in the middle of the most expensive dinner he had ever eaten, with the first boy he had ever loved.

“I lied,” he repeated. “I lied about everything. My dad doesn’t work in India, he works in a shitty cubicle copying papers all day. I was never homeschooled, I went to public school instead. The headmaster at Willow Grove was feeling charitable and gave me a full scholarship to attend. I don’t have any money to my name, most of my clothes and games are second-hand. I’ve lied about everything, Phil, everything...”

‘I lied because I was scared you’d judge me,’ were Dan’s unspoken thoughts. ‘I lied because you were the first people besides Louis who talked to me, and I never had any friends before you, Pj, and Chris.’

Phil was staring at him, his mouth open. All traces of happiness were gone and replaced by obvious shock and anger. His eyes, usually so beautiful and blue, were wide and glinted darker than usual.

“I’m really sorry,” Dan spoke, when the silence became suffocating. He felt like he was going to vomit.

“I’d like for you to leave,” Phil finally spoke. His voice was so soft, but it sounded as if he struggled to get the words out. It was as if he were seething with anger on the inside, but trying desperately to keep calm on the outside. “I’d like for you to leave right now.”

Dan didn’t need to be told twice. He shoved his chair back and stood up quickly, knocking over his glass of sparkling cider. The waiter rushed over to help with the spill, but Dan only pushed passed him. People from nearby tables shot him glares as he ran through the restaurant and created disturbance, but he couldn’t have cared less.

He left without turning back, so that Phil wouldn’t see the tears streaming down his cheeks.

Somehow, word had got around by the time Dan went back to school the next day. He arrived at the very last minute, when the bell had already rung. There was no use coming early, because he knew that Phil would never talk to him again, and neither PJ nor Chris either. Oh God, he dreaded having to face Chris, who was easily the most tempered out of the trio.

Louise was one of the first people to give him an icy glare when he walked into French class.

“I guess I was wrong about you this whole time,” She spoke loud enough for the whole class to hear.

“I guess you were,” Dan found his words, but he didn’t dare look at her. His heart was pounding fast, and it took all of his willpower to remain seated rather than leaving the classroom.

Louise wasn’t done with him.

“You might not be rich, but you’re just as greedy and snotty as everyone else in this school! I didn’t take you as the kind of guy to use someone for their money. I mean, do you even have anything to say?”

“No,” Dan told her, his throat too tight. His hands clenched his pen tightly, and tears were pooling in his eyes once again. Before coming to school today he’d sworn to himself that he wouldn’t cry, but evidently that was not going to happen. “No, I don’t have anything to say Louise, so just don’t talk to me.”

She gladly took him up on that offer for the rest of French class, as well as Arithmetic too. In fact not one person offered him any sort of greeting. Joe made brief eye contact with him, but it wasn’t friendly, and Zoe didn’t look at him even once.

It took Dan a great amount of courage to step into his Advanced Literature classroom, and when he did, he immediately regretted it. His usual spot, the one next to Phil, was taken by another student who Dan recognized as Anthony Padilla. Phil didn’t even spare a glance at Dan, talking with Anthony as if he always sat there.

Dan’s face felt hot as he hurried to an empty seat in the back of the room. Phil might have not been looking at him, but the rest of the class certainly was. The entire school had obviously known by now about his lie.

But there was nothing more he could do; Dan knew that he had been slowly digging his own grave at Willow Academy from the very start. In a way, he had known from the beginning that sooner or later his life here would end in disaster.

Dan made it three days before everything became too much for him to handle. In his old school he had been used to being ignored, but this was a lot different. People who used to talk to him on a regular basis now either gave him the cold shoulder or blatant scorching glares.

After hours and hours of pleading with his mother, she had agreed to set up a meeting with the headmaster to discuss his transferring back to public school, but she wasn’t happy about it in the least.

Now he would be looked down upon in school and at home.

When lunchtime on Wednesday rolled around, he skipped it yet again to hide in the library. There was no way he could possibly eat; his stomach had felt too tight and uneasy every since PJ has discovered his secret.

His thoughts lingered back to the conversation he’d had with his mother this morning.

“This could completely change your future Dan,” She’d said with a shake of her head. “I hope you know what a wasted opportunity this will have been. And you won’t even tell me why! I was under the impression that you were coming to like Willow Grove....”

His breath felt too short as he thought about how badly he’d messed up. The look of pure disappointment on Phil’s face was impossible to forget about. Dan had been the cause of it….

Because that’s what he was, a disappointment. If he knew how to talk to people, or was smart of good looking, or had something to counter against his awkward, pathetic personality, then maybe things would be different. Maybe he would have been able to befriend Phil without having to lie. There were so many opportunities to confess early on, before the web had grown too big. But he had wasted those opportunities, and now the web was wound tightly across his throat, choking him.

Dan realized that he wasn’t in the library anymore. His feet were taking him down the winding hallways, so he could be somewhere alone, somewhere where he could hide forever…

His breath was still short as he reached the bathroom, and as soon as he reached a stall his stomach lurched. He heaved his meager breakfast into the toilet, over and over again until there was nothing left to come up, not even caring that the door was still wide open.

He felt shaky and his heartbeat was thunderous.

He wanted to be anywhere rather than here, but home was almost just as bad, and there was no safe place to go. His only comforts were Phil, Chris, and PJ, but he didn’t have them anymore, and now he couldn’t breathe.

An immeasurable amount of time passed before Dan became aware that someone was speaking to him.

“Dan? Hey- what’s the matter?”

“C-Cant-,” Dan struggled to find his voice, the dizziness becoming overwhelming at this point in time. “Can’t breathe, I-”

His stomach twisted again and he was back to dry heaving. His knuckles were white as they gripped the porcelain. There were black dots interfering with his vision, mingled with the hot tears that had built up in his eyes.

“Try to take some deep breaths Dan,” Chris encouraged, but his voice was distant and Dan could hardly focus on it. The voice became sharper and more desperate.  “Dan! Come on, you have to breathe!”

It was easier said than done.

“Fuck,” Chris was swearing, and Dan realized that he had collapsed onto his knees.

It took several minutes, but Dan managed to evade passing out. As soon as his breathing was back to normal, Chris took him by the arm and led him outside the school before he could protest.

Dan was completely silent during the whole ride to Chris’ house, and the other boy didn’t say anything to him. When they finally got inside, the mansion big and empty and unbearable, Chris sat him down on a sofa worth more than Dan’s house and handed him a bottle of water.

“Drink it,” Chris demanded, watching with sharp attentiveness until Dan had taken several gulps of the clear and refreshing liquid. Chris, meanwhile, had taken a seat next to him.

“Jesus, just look at you. When’s the last time you’ve slept?”

Dan spared him a response, because they both knew the answer to that one.

“You have to give me some answers Dan,” Chris finally said. “We both know that you didn’t lie to take advantage of us.”

What?

Dan looked up at Chris in confusion. “H-How do you know that?”

“Well, obviously I was pissed as fuck when Phil and PJ told me the truth about you. But then when I calmed down, I got to thinking about things. You never once asked for...well, anything. If you were really just friends with us for our wealth, surely you would have tried to get some, yeah?”

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Dan finally muttered after a moment of silence. “I lied, and that’s the real problem here.”

“It matters to me,” Chris said, folding his arms. “I want an answer, Dan.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Dan began to feel desperate for some sort of way out of this. “I mean, I don’t even know why I did it! I was an idiot, okay? I’d never been to such a fancy school before, with chandeliers and school lunches too expensive to afford! I didn’t have any friends in my old school, so I certainly didn’t expect to have friends at Willow Grove! When you guys actually started talking to me, poor insignificant me, I panicked! Does that answer your fucking question? Does it!?”

“Yeah,” Chris said sharply. “It does! Dan, you need to talk to Phil about this as soon as possible.”

“What are you talking about? Phil doesn’t want anything to do with me, and I completely understand why!”

“No Dan, you don’t get it. Phil loves you!” Christ took a hold of his shirt collar. “I don’t understand why you’re just letting everyone assume that you were after our money!”

Dan pulled away from him. “What’s the point of trying to explain? I lied!”

“But you didn’t lie to hurt us; you didn’t lie to hurt Phil!”

“It doesn’t matter Chris! The whole point is that I wasn’t honest with Phil, or any of you! I have a meeting with the headmaster tomorrow, so I can make arrangements to go back to my old school.”

“You can’t do that. Dan, you have to talk to Phil!”

“No I don’t!”

“Yes you do!” Chris said, gripping Dan’s sleeve so he couldn’t rise. “Besides, you have to whether you want to or not. I called him and told him about your panic attack, and he’s on his way now.”

i’m sorry for taking SEVERAL YEARS to update. If there’s anyone left who still remembers this ol’ fic, then you have my gratitude as well as my sincerest apologies!