Nothing Lasts Forever (Phan)

Chapter 15

Phil POV

The next day I woke up to an empty house. But I didn't just sit around moping. I got up, I had a shower, made some breakfast, cleaned the house up, and just generally started getting my life back together. I dyed my hair, my ginger roots had started showing through. When everything was clean, I decided to do some baking, so I wouldn't be left doing nothing. You think when you don't do anything, and right now, thinking was dangerous. 

When the muffins were finished I took them down to Mum's apartment. I had kind of neglected her over the past week. But when I go down there, I'm surprised to find her and another woman sitting on her sofa.

"Hello?" I ask. Mum looks up and grins. 

"Phil this is my friend Gayle. She lives next door. Gayle, this is my son Phil."

"Hello Phil, say, you wouldn't happen to be one of two young men my granddaughter always watches on her phone would you?" Gayle smiles at me. I nod slowly. 

"Yes that's me, AmazingPhil." I give her a fake smile and look pointedly at Mum.

"Yes yes, and the other one, Dan is it, he's done a bit of walkabout hasn't he? You two seem to be quite the fuss currently." Gayle continues. I wince.

"Yeah, um if you don't mind, I just came to drop off these." I hold up the muffins. "But I've got to go now."

Mum nods in understanding, and jumps up to grab to muffins. 

"I'll be over for dinner." She whispers. I nod.

"See you later." I wave. Mum gives me a tight lipped smile and Gayle waves back.

"I hope Dan comes home soon dear." She calls.

Don't punch her Phil.

I think to myself as I leave the apartment.

***

For the rest of the day, I make my way around all the newspapers and radio stations I can find, putting in adds asking everyone to drop their search for Dan as it wasn't helping anyone. I called for anyone that had hired some private investigator to dismiss them. I thanked everyone for their help, and explained that I didn't want to force Dan to come home if he didn't want to and that this had all gone way bigger than I had intended. I was stopped every five minutes as I walked down the street, and asked everyone I meet to pass on the message. 

It was around four thirty in the afternoon when I got home and I was exhausted. I went straight to the kitchen and started cooking tea for Mum and I. It felt good to be cooking for two again, instead of just one. Cooking for one was lonely. I looked some recipe for something fancy and started cooking it. I was just putting it in the oven when Mum entered the kitchen.

"Hello. Oh, something smells good."

I set the timer and walk over to give Mum a hug.

"Hey."

"Phil I'm sorry about Gayle, I didn't tell her about your situation..."

Shaking my head I give Mum a small smile. 

"Its fine." I assured her. "I'm glad you're making friends."

Mum's face lights up and she starts talking about all the people she's met and how nice they've been. Glad for the distraction of focusing on someone else's life, I listen intently. When dinner's done, we sit at the table and I talk about my week with everyone. It doesn't talk long before we come to the topic I've been dreading.

"Phil, are you sure you want to give up on Dan?" Mum asks.

"I don't want to, but I don't see what else there is to do." I sigh in defeat.

Mum chews a mouthful of food thoughtfully.

"Neither do I, But I don't think you should give up."

"Everything he owns is here, he'll have to come and get it eventually. He's not stupid, he know that if he's going to leave we have to sort out the apartment agreement and everything. I'll just wait to then."

"What are you going to do until then?" Mum questions.

"Take a  break from YouTube maybe? I'm not sure. I'm just going to work it out as I go."

"Whatever you think is best." Mum shrugs.

Later after Mum has gone home, I change into a pair of Dan's track pants and one of his tee shirts. Even though I was getting my life on track, didn't mean I wasn't allowed to be sad. I curled up in his bed with my laptop and stalked through all of Dan's social medias. He hadn't been active since he left.

We were no longer trending. I think that was due to a mixture of my pleading with everyone to stop, and the world's short attention span. Logging into Dan's secret tumblr, I look through what the phandom was doing. People were talking about how I wanted it to stop, and that this might be the end of phan. Everyone seemed distraught, and I couldn't help but feel guilty. I knew a lot of people had made friends through us, and we were about drop everything. Dan already had dropped everything. Suddenly I felt torn in half. I wouldn't able to run DanandPhilGAMES anymore. I wouldn't have an instant collab partner. I wouldn't have danisnotonfire. 

AmazingPhil and danisnotonfire were a pair. They weren't meant to be seperate.

And without danisnotonfire-

What was the point of AmazingPhil?