Talk To Me

Chapter 30: New Year

A/N HAPPY NEW YEAR! It's fricking 2016?! What the hell? Why does it feel like it was new year 2015 like three days ago? I hope 2015 was good to you all, and I hope 2016 is even better.
Question: what was your favourite moment of 2015?
Me: meeting Tyler Oakley and meeting my two best friends.
Also I know I kind of set myself up for a chapter in between this one and the last one but I realised it was going to be ridiculously short so I decided not to do it.

Dan's POV

I was standing in the kitchen chatting with Tyler, a glass of wine in hand. It was 8pm on December 31st and the four of use were gathered at mine and Phil's apartment. Phil and Troye were currently at Tesco as we'd discovered that we were thoroughly understocked in snacks for a drunk Tyler. We were catching up about our Christmas and Tyler was being Tyler.

"So how are you and Phil going?" he asked, half insinuative half caring. I rolled my eyes and smiled.

"We're going good. Christmas was a lot of fun."

"Oh really?" Tyler asked suggestively. I almost spit my wine and shoved him lightly.

"Not like that!" I exclaimed. He just smiled and raised his hands in surrender before taking a sip of his wine. "How are you and Troye?"

"Good, we went back to Michigan and spent Christmas with my family and it was a ton of fun. Now stop changing the subject Dan." I blushed; he saw right through me. "I talk about this stuff all the time; its your turn."

"Fine," I mumbled.

"You guys are coming up on your one year anniversary right?"

"Yeah, January 21st." I replied softly.

I can't believe he's stayed with me for a year.

I didn't realise I'd said that out loud until I saw Tyler's expression.

"Don't think like that Dan." he said gently. "He loves you."

"I know, sometimes it's just hard to remind myself." I admitted. Tyler just nodded, giving me a kind smile. "Now can we talk about other stuff?" Tyler burst out laughing and I couldn't help but laugh a little too. The conversation drifted until we heard the front door slam.

"We're back!" Troye called, as they made their way up the far too many stairs in our apartment.

"And we brought enough food to feed an army." Phil huffed as they finally made it up. His face was flushed but grinning madly as he hauled his bags around the corner. I suddenly froze as I caught sight of his smiling face, my whole body stiff and my wine glass lifted to my lips as a horrifying thought suddenly crossed my mind.

"Dan? Dan are you okay?" Tyler asked concerned from beside me, placing a hand on my arm.

"I'm fine," I replied hollowly, setting my glass down abruptly. Troye and Phil both looked at me concerned, before looking at Tyler for explanation. A silent agreement seemed to occur as Tyler suddenly moved to drag Troye into the lounge and Phil moved to my side.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly.

"I'm fine." I replied, the lie obvious even to me.

"Dan you're pale as a ghost right now." he stated.

"I don't want to be him." I whispered so quietly that Phil strained to hear me. He looked confused for a brief second before his eyes widened in understanding as he saw my fixed gaze on my half empty glass.

"Dan," he said suddenly, gently but forcefully gripping my shoulders and turning me to face him. I met his gaze and swallowed thickly. "You are not him. You could never be him. Having a drink doesn't make you him. He was an extremely stupid, abusive, alcoholic man who doesn't deserve to be referred to as a human being. You are not."

"I-I'm sorry, I-I'm being s-stupid." I murmured, ashamed.

"Dan," he said looking straight into my eyes. "You're not stupid, but you are also most definitely not him. You don't have to drink if you don't want to, but don't let his stupid choices stop you if you do."

I took a deep breath before shakily smiling.

"Thanks Phil." I said. He smiled before leaning in to kiss me. We grabbed our drinks and some food before making our way into the lounge. We sat down and both of our friends gave me a concerned look, which I replied with a comforting smile. We sat and chatted for ages, interspersed with random video/anime watching. By the time 11:59 rolled around we'd devoured pretty much our entire kitchen and drunk several bottles of wine. We were all a little tipsy, Phil and I less so than Troye and Tyler. We had the TV on to a channel which was displaying the countdown and we were all waiting, excited.

10...

9...

8...

7...

6...

5...

4...

3...

2...

1!

"Happy New Year!" Tyler shouted, before being pulled into a kiss by Troye. I turned to Phil only for him to lock our lips together. I smiled into his lips before kissing back. I couldn't help but smirk as I saw out of the corner of my eye Troye and Tyler fall back onto our couch, still kissing. We finally separated, not letting go of each other.

"Happy New Year." Phil whispered.

"It's 2016." I murmured in awe.