Never Told A Lie (Phan fiction)

Chapter 13

Dan is rather surprised about it, but the fact that Phil found out about the bet doesn’t affect him in any way.
He is happy. He makes jokes. He smiles. He laughs. He is the same person he has been before. No signs of heart break or sadness and Dan is quite glad about that too because he thought things might be a bit wrong now, that he might feel awful (which would be quite normal and understandable, considering that he was somewhat emotionally invested in Phil) but nothing.

It feels like everything has gone back to normal again because his stomach doesn’t flip anymore when he thinks of Phil and his soft lips, and his heart doesn’t speed up anymore and everything is kind of normal again. Especially because Dan doesn’t feel bad or anything for breaking Phil’s heart and that’s exactly how things are supposed to be in Dan Howell’s life.

But as glad as he is about everything, Dan is also kind of worried. Because if he’s being honest, Phil is the closest he has ever come to being in a relationship, the closest he has come to having feelings for someone and it’s kind of concerning that he doesn’t feel sad or heartbroken at all.
It kind of makes Dan wonder if he is even capable of truly loving another person, because honestly, it wouldn’t surprise him one bit if he weren’t.

In the end, however, Dan is more glad than not that breaking things off with Phil has run so smoothly and not affected him at all.

-

Dan isn’t sure what to expect in school on Tuesday. 
For some reason he expects things to be different, that people will treat him differently because of what he did to Phil but then he remembers that no one actually knows about anything he and Phil have done (not even PJ and Chris know the details) and Dan just kind of blends in with everyone else – well, as well as he can with being popular and everything.

During his lessons some people talk to him – some of them being his friends, others being strangers. A few girls try flirting with him, run their fingers up and down Dan’s arms and bat their eyelashes. And Dan enjoys all the attention, he really does, he feels like now that Phil is out of his life, he can fully concentrate on being the popular man-whore that he sort of is again, but something is weird. Everything he does feels kind of, well, not really wrong, but it doesn’t feel right either and Dan is kind of really confused.

By the time lunch comes around, however, Dan has somehow succeed in clearing his head and he is quite calm and relaxed and not thinking about Phil or anything concerning him at all and everything is fine. But of course Chris is pretty much bursting with curiosity and by now Dan really thinks his best friend deserves a punch or two from him.

“Figured out what you’re gonna do about Lester yet?” He asks the second Dan sits down, not even leaving him time to say hello.

“Not necessary anymore.” Dan replies shortly, gritting his teeth because fuck- it’s kind of annoying how all of their conversations seem to revolve around no one else but Phil nowadays. Can’t they just talk about girls and videogames and shit?

“How come?” Chris questions. “Have you finally realised that you li- fucking hell, PJ.”

There are some hast movements under the table and by the way Chris reaches down to rub his leg, Dan supposes PJ has kicked him – for some him unknown reason. 
PJ gives Chris a funny look and Dan is strangely reminded of the day before but then PJ turns to him again and asks “Why don’t you have to dump Phil anymore?”

The curiosity and eagerness is pretty much written in his eyes and Dan raises his eyebrow at both boys’ weird behaviour but then he just shrugs. “He found out about the bet.” He replies nonchalantly, as if it’s just a casual fact and not something that he has been thinking about ever since he got Phil’s message. And it totally isn’t eating his mind away thinking about just how Phil has found out about the bet because Dan sure as hell hasn’t told him about it and he is at least 80 percent sure that Chris and PJ haven’t either.