First thing in the morning, Dan had a meetup. Not exactly first thing, but early. With the stress of the night before and jet lag, he was already tired, and waking up with only five hours of sleep was definitely not his favorite thing ever.
Phil hadn't replied to his text yet, but he'd sent it pretty late so there was a chance Phil hadn't seen it yet. Hopefully. Dan just wanted to be friends again, to stop feeling guilty, but he was still terrified by the thought of confronting him.
Dan: Hi Char!
Char: Hey Daniel!!! Good luck today :)
Dan: thx. gtg, talk later
Dan closed up his phone and walked out the door, checking his fringe one last time before going out into the open. A golf cart was waiting to take him behind the scenes somewhere nearby, but he had to walk through the lobby again. After last time, Dan was understandably a little hesitant. Still, he walked through, keeping his head up high in a facade of confidence. Fake it til you make it, he supposed.
No one stopped him, as most people were probably still in bed. They might've also been worried he would yell at them like he had at the girl in the elevator. During his apologizing spree he'd sent her a DM and explained the situation partially. Not the part about Phil confessing his love, but in a little more detail than he had for everyone else. Plus a more personal apology. She was actually pretty nice, it seemed, even though she had told the whole world about what had happened. It was technically his fault, for freaking out like that. He pressed that to the back of his mind and let the excitement of the meet and greet fill his mind.
"Hello, Mr. Howell," said the driver, getting ready to take him to the center. Dan took a deep breath as the cart set out, along with Luke Cutforth and Emma Blackery. They mostly talked amongst themselves, so he stayed quiet. He'd never really talked to them, anyways, and Emma had supported CharlieSkies that one time. Not that he held that against her, but she seemed pretty preoccupied.
Dan was supposed to go to some letter-labeled hall, so he left Lemma at the golf cart and went inside with his own security guard. The guy seemed pretty nice, with short-cut hair and thick arms. A pretty cliche security guard. His name tag said Roger, but Dan didn't introduce himself. If he said anything, his voice might crack out of sheer fear.
"Right here," said Roger, stopping at a big opening in the wall leading to a partitioned off area, behind which Dan assumed was the meetup area. Thousands of fans. All waiting to see him and touch him and ask him about Phil and life and everything he didn't want to talk about.
As one might expect, he was a little nervous. Luckily for him (something good was happening for once) he still had time before his meetup to talk to Charlotte. He dialed her number into his phone.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Hi Charlotte it's Dan," he ran together, a little bit breathless.
"You're nervous, aren't you?" Dan swore she was a psychic.
"Yeah," he said, nodding in real life too. Is this what it had come to? Whimpering like a baby to his roommate every time something bad happened?
She sighed. "Need a pep talk?"
"Yeah," whimpered Dan again.
"You will do great, Daniel. Don't let whatever happened in the past screw with you now. Once you get back to your room, cry about it all you want, but for now, you are invincible. So go, and be awesome. Okay? Now I have to go to work, so see you later, bye."
She hung up before he could reply.
