Misfit (Phan AU)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

a/n: okay hi, before you read i need to tell u some things. This is a recap chapter from Phil's POV of the night of the fire, you're gonna see some familiar bits that will make you say 'wtf i already saw this???? i didnt sign up for RERUNS' and its also rlly boring lol but the next chapter will be- u know i say every time the next chapter will be better and it never is

ALSO real quick warning just in case, there's a scene where JanMan kinda pressures Phil to *wink wonk* but don't worry, nothing ends up happening without consent 

*Phil's POV*

There were a few things I was exceedingly good at managing, some of which including constructing the perfect bowl of popcorn and finding the most fitting places for stickers to spend the duration of their lifetime stuck to. However, for as many things I was talented at, there seemed to be twice as many I faced difficulty with. One of the many things I'd happened to draw the short straw on was the skill of concentration.

Whether it was sitting through the duration of a boring lecture in class or remembering the right time to take my food out of the oven, I always found my attention easily drawn by something else. There was always something more exciting to be addressing, something newer and impossibly more fascinating that I needed to consider. The world was bright and endless in all the right ways, how could I possibly be expected to limit my mind to one topic at any given time?

Normally this was relatively manageable, not even such a bad thing really considering it meant I always ended up experiencing things to the fullest. There were just a select few circumstances that made it a real hassle, one that was borderline unbearable.

Not being able to concentrate when you're sorting out paperwork? Not the end of the world.

Having difficulty focusing on the road whilst you're driving? A different story.

Between the quiet thrum of music through the speakers, the flashes of welcoming lights and colorful folk scattered through the streets, and the quiet chatter coming from my right, everything seemed more captivating than the stretch of oncoming road spanning ahead of me. Even ignoring it all in favor of dozing off for a few seconds seemed preferable to the familiar terrain I'd been staring at for ten minutes now.

I guess that's why the shout that came from the passenger seat all of the sudden was so loud and determined, likely the follow-up of many previous attempts at communicating the message, given my tendency to overlook whatever wasn't demanding my immediate attention.

"This is my road here!" I blinked, taking a moment to register the outburst before slamming my heavy foot into the brakes. In retrospect it seemed I'd been pretty close to veering off into the world of the unconscious after all, had it not been for the interruption.

"Alright." I chuckled, playing it off as nothing as I flicked the switch to my turn lights and followed the directions I'd been offered. A pleased hum followed that, a relieved sort-of noise that told me the urgency had only been a product of stress that I wouldn't receive the message in time.

"Thanks again for this, I really can't begin to explain how much this means to me." I felt my cheeks flush in answer to the sentiment, successfully pulled back from the brink of long-overdue sleep with just a short sentence. It was a nice feeling, having something that could reel my attention in so effectively, someone who was infinitely more interesting to concentrate on than everything else.

I risked a glance in her direction, a faint smile invading my features involuntarily when I found her distractedly studying the lengths of my CD collection. No one else really understood the value I put on having physical copies of the music I liked, I'd been thrilled to find out that Janice was also an avid album collector herself.