Lists

drums (one)

Lists

(Okay so this will be written from high school Phil's POV, it's set in England. I'm so sorry if this sucks oh my gOsh)

30 things that I like

1

I'm going to start with the obvious, and that's the drums.

When I drum, I lose what's going on around me. Everything I feel goes into how I play. I can't really describe it too much, mainly because I can't. I can't put into words what drumming makes me feel. I would've told Dan this when he told me to make lists, but he'd probably scoff and give me an example of what he would write. Which would be something like; "I don't play the piano. The piano is an elegant river winding and turning, but that is fine for I can swim."

I smiled writing that mainly because it's true. If he read this he would sniff and tell me to stop making him sound like a prat, and he'd be really offended only because it's true. I can practically hear that articulate voice scolding me.

I really like the drums, and I have two favourite songs. One is "Love Will Tear Us Apart," by Joy Division. I like Joy Division but it's so sad thinking about Ian Curtis. He was 22, so only 6 years older than me. When I told Dan he killed himself, Dan said "That's where you'll be heading if you don't do something about your anxiety." and it scared me how he thought I could do that to myself.

The best thing I can play though is "I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor," by the Arctic Monkeys. That's what I played Dan when we had the music room to ourselves at school. Before I played to him he used to wrinkle his nose at the word drum. "Gosh, Philip, you're so uncultured. Drums are so loud and make such an ugly noise. The piano is beautiful, like the king of all instruments." This did actually hurt a lot, but most things of what Dan says hurt a lot. He's actually quite cruel.

I don't know why I'm friends with him. We're like summer and winter. His music is soft and light, like his radiating smile and tanned skin and chocolate brown hair that curls. My music is loud and ready, like my ugly blue eyes and translucent skin tone. However, Dan couldn't be more different to the instrument he plays. He's loud and enthusiastic, and everyone likes him. He's the guy you'd turn to if you hadn't done your homework due the next lesson. He'd probably lecture you on not doing it but let you copy his answers as he ranted at you. He's the guy the teachers call 'love,' and 'pet,' because he offers to carry boxes of text books and things. But the thing all the girls and some of the guys love him for is his music. In assemblies they prop the old oak piano at the front of the room and he plays something, anything as people file into their seats. No, Dan Howell was nothing like me.

I wasn't lonely, but my friend group wasn't huge. It consisted of Chris and Peej, and they were nice to me. They did a lot of talking which I was really comfortable with, because I didn't want to talk really, even though they're my friends. Peej was especially close to Dan in the beginning, and he said to me one day "Why don't you hang out around the music block. You could play your drums in school at lunch. You might even befriend that Dan kid."

So one day, after a lot of persuasion and mental preparation, I asked Mr Smythe if I could book the drum room in the music block every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday lunch. He was probably so shocked that I had a voice that he couldn't refuse. I went into the music block, and there are several rooms. There's the main room where teaching goes on for first years and year eights. Then there's a corridor leading to the practice room, where bands are allowed to go. Then there's the instrument room, where woodwind and general percussion play. Then there's a piano in one room, and guitars and drum kit in another. I could hear a really pretty tune radiating through the door, and I admired through the rectangular door window. Dan Howell's fingers brushed over the keys, arched and poised like they were dancing a beautiful dance.

I didn't realise I'd been staring. He opened the door and smiled. "Ingénue atoms for peace," he said. I nodded, and quickly moved on to my room.

And that's how it went. Every Wednesday and Thursday and Friday he'd play and then come and tell me. It was the third Thursday in when he said to me "Are you Philip Lester?"

My mouth went dry and I just shrugged. "You can call me Phil."

"Oh, no. Philip's much nicer. I'm Daniel."

And then he would just speak to me outside the piano room, in the corridor, limbo. It was strange, he's the first person I've enjoyed listening to. Like he was my friend. I was interested in the way he spoke about piano. It was almost how I felt about drums. But it wasn't, because drums are on a whole other level to Dan's piano.

Dan loves his piano quite a lot, and I kind of really like that.