Back-Up Boyfriend

Let Me Help You, Help Yourself

"Phil!," A sheer woman's voice called from downstairs. "Philip!" Phil woke up practically jumped out of bed. 

"What mum?!" Phil says as he runs down the stairs to meet his mum, and Dan, standing in the doorway. "You have a friend, he says his name is Dan." She says, looking nervously at Phil. 

Phil's eyes meet Dan's. He subconsciously smiles at him. "Phil?" His mum asked again. Phil snaps out of it and looks at his mum. 

"Oh yeah, this is Dan he's a friend of mine uh," Phil didn't know where to go from there. "He invited me over today after we hung out at prom." Dan continues. 

Phil nods. "Yeah, so Dan why don't you come upstairs so we can hang and stuff? Don't forget your shoes." 

Phil's mum looks at both of them and shrugs, Phil was in year 12, what else could she do? Dan slid his sneakers off and followed Phil up to his room. 

"What are you doing here?" Phil asks, sitting down on his unmade bed. "I thought you could use some company, you know maybe get out of the house," Dan replies, looking Phil up and down.

"Nice Pj's by the way." Phil was wearing blue plaid pajama bottoms and no shirt. He sheepishly covered his chest. 

"Shut up, I'm fine I don't need an intervention or anything."  Phil says, his eyes glance over towards the overturned picture frame. 

Dan notices, and lifts it up. "Really?" Phil sighs and shakes his head. "Fine, we can do whatever you think I need to do, just let me get dressed." 

After Phil awkwardly got dressed in the bathroom across the hall, he and Dan left. "So where are we going?" He asks from the passenger seat of Dan's car. In the daylight he could see things much better. His car had black leather upholstery and the backseat was littered with CD cases. 

"Why do you ask so many questions?" Dan asks as he backs out of Phil's driveway. "Well," Phil continues. 

"We've barely known each other twenty four hours and now your just taking me somewhere, what if you're a serial killer!" Phil says. Dan chuckles. 

"Yeah because the guy who has piles of My Chemical Romance and Muse CD's in his backseat is going to secretly be a serial killer." Phil shrugs. "It could happen,"

A moment of awkward silence falls on the car. Phil finally breaks it by piping up. "My Chemical Romance huh?" Dan shrugs. 

"It's just a small obsession," Dan says. "I'm secretly emo at heart." Phil lets out a quick laugh. 

Dan pulls the car into a parking spot at Starbucks. "First stop: Coffee." Phil looks over at Dan, who was unbuckling his seat belt and gathering his wallet. 

"Wait first stop?!" Phil asks confused. Dan nods. "It's all part of 'The Dan Howell Breakup Makeup cure'!" Dan replies. Phil scoffs. 

"You really made up a name for this?" Phil says. Dan nods. "Don't laugh! It's 99% effective!" Phil gives him a look.

"Oh really, off of what?" Phil asks, now closing the car door and meeting Dan in front of the car. "Well it's working now isn't it?" 

Two cups of coffee and some small talk later, they were off to their next destination. "So," Phil says, still skeptical about this entire thing. "Why do you know so much about getting over a breakup?" 

Dan shrugs, "I don't really know actually," He turns down an empty road. "I mean I've had my fair share of breakups, so experience I guess?" 

Phil looks at his lap. He didn't want to hit a soft spot, but feared he already did. "Sorry, I-I didn't mean to low blow you." He says. 

"No it's cool, you're grieving, and I'm over him. It's okay Phil." Phil sighs and turns towards the window. 

"So where are we going?" He asks. Dan laughs. "You and the fucking questions." 

After the hour drive, they stopped at a park. Just a recreational park with the standard picnic tables and barbeque, except they all looked disheveled. Almost like the dystopian future had already started to occur. 

"What are we doing here?" Phil asks. Dan walks around to the trunk of the car to get a picnic basket and a blanket. 

"Uh Dan?" Phil asks as Dan carries the items towards them. "Don't get any ideas, the food is for lunch and the blanket is because that table is on it's last leg, literally." The picnic table was leaning on one remaining, dry rotted, leg. 

Phil nodded and watched as Dan set up the blanket and picnic. Dan sat down and motioned for Phil to do the same. 

"So, again questions," Dan rolled his eyes and let Phil continue. "Why are we out here?" Dan swallowed the bite of sandwich he had in his mouth. 

"Well," Dan says clearing his throat. "As you can see, it's completely empty out here." Phil nods. "Yes the zombie apocalypse happened, continue." 

"Well, since we're so far out, no one can hear you scream." Phil moves himself away from Dan. "I'm not a psychopath! I mean scream, yell, get your frustration out. No one will hear you and judge you. Trust me dude." Dan puts a hand out to help Phil up. 

Phil hesitantly takes it, and lifts himself up. "So what am I going to yell about?" Dan wipes some dirt off on his jeans and shrugs. 

"Anything, curse, scream, do whatever you need to do." Phil hesitantly opens his mouth, but no sound comes out. "Come on man, like this," Dan kneels down and screams. "FUCK!!" 

Phil jumps. This guy was mental, this guy was actually mental. "It'll really help, seriously, just think about what he said to you, how his face looked, how much of a dick he was." 

Phil practically snarled at Dan. "Stop!" Dan nods. "Good, that's good, continue." 

Phil takes a deep breath. "You brought me out of my house, and took me on this bullshit breakup adventure! Who does that?! I've only known you for a fucking day!! Maybe I wanted to be alone in my room!" 

Dan takes a step closer to Phil. "Why so you could rack it around in your brain how it was somehow your fault?!" Phil falls silent. 

"I've fucking been there mate! You hate yourself, you wish you were dead, you wish you had a second chance! You forget about all the forgotten anniversaries, the ignored calls, the looks at other men! You were the fucking problem, you guarantee yourself this!" 

Phil's eyes fill with tears. He didn't, couldn't admit that Dan was right. Dan takes in deep heavy breaths. 

"Fine," Phil says quietly  Dan looks over at him, his hands on his hips. "Fine. Travis is an asshole." His voice intensified with every syllable. 

"He is a twat and fucking worthless to me!!!" Dan smiles a bit. Phil lets out a final loud screech. 

"Feel better?" Dan asks, putting an arm on Phil's shoulder. Phil nods. "Good, let's get out of here." 

It was dusk when Dan pulled his car back into Phil's driveway. He turned the car off and looked over at Phil. "Are you going to be okay?" 

Phil swallows. "I honestly don't know." His voice was hoarse from yelling. Dan nods. "It's going to feel like that for a while." 

Phil nods. He didn't need this reassurance. "Thanks, for everything." Phil says, his hand lingered on the door handle. Dan cleared his throat.

"No problem, you can call me whenever you need anything. I've got wheels, I'll be there." Phil nods and opens the door. Dan watched him walk into the house. He rubbed his eyes, and started the car.