The New Boy: Phan High School AU

Chapter 40 - Phil's POV

I'm carrying an armful of costumes after the Friday night show of our final weekend when I feel a tap on my shoulder.

It's Dan. "Hey, I gotta go change and stuff, but find me before you leave, yeah?"

"Um, yeah sure," I answer.  It's kinda odd. I mean, we always say goodbye to each other, but it's just when we find the time, and it's never like a big deal thing, usually just a hug and maybe a kiss on the cheek. But not a big deal, so why does this sound like a big deal? 

I'm probably reading to far into it. But I mean,  neither of us are ever like "Hey, make sure you say goodbye" or whatever. I dunno. Dan makes me overthink things. I like him, though.

I dump the costumes into a box marked 'Wash' so that Jamie can take them to the launderette later.  Woah. That's odd now that I think about it. I barely saw Jamie at all today and when I did, she Danny weren't together, even though they usually are. They've not broken up, right? Dan says they're kind of always together...

I leave to go find Dan and grab another armful of costumes before I go home.

"Hey," I greet Dan as he exits the dressing room. 

"Hey, you found me!" He grins. "I'm gonna go to Hamura's with Ethan and Danny, you wanna come?"

"Nah. Thanks though. Normally I wouldn't pass up sushi, but I've got some costuming things and also, Ethan scares me." Ethan is the other main dancer in the theatre; he's Danny's best friend and helps out where Danny can't.

"Yeah, he's kind of...intense," Dan agrees. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yep, 5:30 call time."

"Good." He pulls me in for a hug.

"G'night, Dan," I say, kissing him on the cheek.

"I love you, Phil," he says into my shoulder.

"I love you, too."  The words come right out of my mouth, surprising me.

He kisses me on the cheek before we break apart.

His phone dings. "Yikes, that's probably Ethan wondering where I am." He picks up his bag to leave. "Goodnight, Phil!"

"Bye, Dan."  I wave before entering the dressing room to collect more costumes. I lean against the door for a moment, processing the last few minutes of my life. Did that really just happen?

"I suppose it did," I murmur to myself as I reach up to take the Rat-tappers' jackets.

When I enter the costume shop, Jamie's there, tossing things into the bin. She looks up as I come in. She gasps. "What happened?!" She steps towards me. "Are you okay? No, of course you are, it's a good happening. But if it's good, why are you upset?"

"What? Nothing happened, I'm fine!"

She just looks at me, eyebrows raised. "No, what happened?"

Suddenly I remember. "Oh right. The reading people thing. Jesus."

"Now you're just avoiding the question, mate. Seriously, why are you so freaked out?"

"Um. Dan...kind of...just...toldmehelovesme..."

She shrieks. "Wait, shit that was loud." She continues in a quieter tone. "Holy fuck, Philip, that's great! So why are you so upset about it then? Did you not say it back?"

"No, I did. ...But that's kind of the problem."

"Ohhh. You're worried you don't love him. Well, what do you think?"

"I don't know. That's the problem. You're supposed to be the feelings expert, what do you think?" I ask.

"Thanks, I am the feelings expert. Anyway, I think you're confused about what love means," She tells me. "There's a lot of different kinds of love. There's even multiple kinds of romantic love. Saying 'I love you' doesn't have to mean 'I want to spend the rest of my life with you and also have your babies' it can just mean 'I like you more than I like other people' or 'I get butterflies when I see you, but they're the good kind so I hope you stick around for awhile'. Love means whatever you want it to mean. And I promise you Dan's not trying to tell you he wants to marry you."

I laugh. "Well that's a relief. We've only been dating a month."

"Yeah, and you guys are taking things slowly," she adds. "And I mean that as a good thing. I don't think Dan's ever had a boyfriend before, and I don't think you've had many."

"Yeah, slow is nice," I agree. "It's comfortable."

"Ah, to be young and in love again!" She sighs dramatically, putting a hand to her forehead as if she wasn't only 2 months older than me.

aww I love this chapter im crying it's so relevant

so this girl that I hate just dropped out of our show and I'm kind a pumped lol

also I finally saw the new ghostbusters today. I didn't think it was that good of a story tbh but the acting was good and I loved the characters and the actresses.