When I Met Dan (A Dan Howell Fanfiction)

Eight

Dan's P.O.V

It was summer but it was cold. Well, colder than usual, and the last place I wanted to be was outside. Phil had sent me to go and buy some milk for his coffee; interrupting my session of scrolling through Tumblr.
The grey sky and walking did not make me particularly happy so I wasn't in the best mood. But isn't it weird how one word, one action, one thing, or one person can change your mood completely in seconds?
I decided I wanted to get a quick Starbucks while I was on the way back to our apartment, holding a TESCO bag containing two pints of milk, I bumped into someone, looked down and saw familiar blue eyes. Seconds ago I had been frowning, now I was trying not to grin too much because I thought I'd freak out the girl I had bumped into outside Starbucks. Grace. Ironic, how we met this time in exactly the same way we met the first time isn't it?
Thank God she recognised me too, otherwise that would've been another awkward moment that would haunt me for months after.
"Oh my God, hi Grace." I said as soon as my brain had collected itself.
Her pretty blue eyes lit up, "Hey Dan!"
"How are you? I mean how have you been in the past 5 days since I last saw you?"
She cracked a smile, "I'm great thanks, I just took Em back to the train station for her to go home." I saw her shiver slightly.
"Were you about to buy a Starbucks?" I asked, glancing at the sign.
"Yeah I was thinking about it."
I felt slight butterflies in my stomach, but I had to ask, "Do you want to get coffee together?"
She tilted her head a tiny bit, reading my expression and guessing I was a bit unconfident. She gave me an encouraging smile, "Yeah, sure I'd love to."
We walked into Starbucks, talking together and we sat down at a table for two.
"Is YouTube your job then? Do you earn enough to live off it?" She asked.
I told her briefly about advertising and YouTube partners, then asked, "Do you have a job?"
She looked down and explained about her rich parents, how she couldn't find a job that made her happy, and about her collage dropout.
"I dropped out of collage too! I started having Existential Crisis' and then I started doing YouTube as a full time hobby, and the subscribers and stuff grew."
We talked about our parents and it got quite deep at points where she told me about her parents never being there for her and Emily. I bought her coffee and we learned so much about each other. We talked for a couple of hours, drinking quite a lot of caffeine and enthusing over anime, American Horror Story, and different music and opinions. It was never awkward, and I am a very awkward person. Cliché or not, I definitely felt like we were two puzzle pieces that fit together. Very similar, but different at the same time.
You're lucky to have met her. The voice in my head said to me. I was about to agree, but then I considered it:
Luck? Luck didn't exist. Luck is the word people use to explain unlikely events that happened in their favour. I was so pleased I had met her, and this was certainly not the last time I would see her, but I felt like it wasn't a coincidence I had bumped into her. Twice.
Was this meant to happen?
Was this supposed to happen for a reason?
I don't know why, but as I looked at her laughing in the warm lights at a joke I had just made, something inside me really really hoped so.