Nerves ✩ Phan AU

Chapter Two

As Phil exited the store, Dan quickly rushed to the back of shop to clock out. On the way there, he shoved Phil's receipt in the pocket of his apron. Hopefully his manager wouldn't notice he had worked overtime and given a customer free samples- which weren't actually samples, rather two full-size lip scrubs worth nearly £7.

As he burst through the door to the back, some other workers eyed him curiously as he rushed towards the machine and ran his card through. Immediately after turning around, he almost crashed directly into his boss, Rose.

'Fuck,' Dan thought. 'Exactly what I need right now.'

Rose was a short, round woman, with curly blonde hair down to her shoulders. She had a similar fashion sense as Dan, as today she wore a skater dress with a pattern of roses on the skirt. Dan thought this was quite ironic considering her name was Rose. Despite her friendly exterior, Rose was actually quite strict when it came down to policing her staff.

"Daniel," she began. Dan nearly winced at hearing his full name; he hated being called that. "Did you just give that man two free lip scrubs? We don't give out free samples, nor do we spend an hour with a single customer."

Dan frowned, fidgeting at the hem of his sky-blue sweater. "Sorry," he said blankly. He didn't have an explanation for his actions, just simply that he thought Phil was cute, and he knew that giving out free products just because a customer was cute wasn't going to fly.

Rose waited for him to explain, but Dan just fidgeted more under her glare. "Daniel, I expect better of my staff. I'll give you a pass because it's your first week, but please don't do it again." Swiftly, she turned around and exited towards stock room.

Dan hurried out of the shop, hanging up his apron on the way out.

On the way home on the tube, Dan pulled out his phone, planning to text Phil. He reached in his left pocket to fish out the receipt, but found that it wasn't there. 'Huh,' he wondered. Shoving his hand down his right pocket, it was also empty. Dan soon realized that he had left the number in his apron at work. A tumble of swears rushed through his mind.

Dan leaned back in his seat, running a hand through his hair, annoyed. So many things could go wrong on the hunt to retrieve that number. Despite this, he placed his trust in Phil to text him first. Phil was the one who began the flirting, after all.

———

Phil sat at home, on the edge of his bed, switching between staring down his phone and the receipt with Dan's number scrawled onto it. Letting out a soft sigh, he laid down on his back, his legs still dangling off the edge of the mattress. He rolled over, picking up the rectangular paper and opened the drawer of his bedside table, slipping it inside. Phil pushed it closed and sat up slowly.

Many thoughts rushed through his head, jumbled together, words toppling over one another as if he was stammering just like Dan. Dan. Why had he done this? 'I have a girlfriend, for god's sake,' he thought, just another sentence among the many that were running through his head at the moment. 'Calm down, Phil. You just gave him your number, that doesn't qualify as flirting. He probably won't even text anyway.'

As if she had heard his thoughts, Sophia entered the room, leaning against the door frame and crossing her arms. Sofia, Phil's girlfriend, was a taller girl, with long orange hair. She was on the thinner side and wore similar dark but more feminine clothes than Phil. She had a harsh yet striking face, her eyebrows featuring a strong arch and her full lips always seen in a half-frown. Phil didn't have any strong feelings towards her, negative or positive. He was dating her for mainly for publicity for his band, Modernday Glory, as she was employed as a model. It was quite stereotypical, their relationship. Lead-guitarist of a semi-popular indie band, Phil Lester, dating semi-popular model, Sophia Pattullo. Both were signed by elite agencies.

Phil hadn't seen her enter, as he was rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands with anxiety. "Hello," she murmured, just loud enough for Phil to hear. He stopped rubbing his eyes.

"Hey Soph," Phil answered, testing out a new pet name on her.

"Soph? I haven't heard you say that one before." She raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah. I'm not sure if I like it either."

"Mm," Sophia responded, pulling out her phone dismissively. "I'm ordering Chinese takeaway, alright? Just let me know if you want anything." She walked away, not bothering to let Phil answer.

Phil grumbled something unintelligible in return, laying back down in his bed. He rolled over, pulling the covers over his body as he went. He wasn't particularly hungry, nor did he want to sit down to dinner with Sophia, but he pulled out his phone to text her what he wanted anyway.

get me an order of sesame chicken and lo mein, thanks ^_^

Phil spent the next half hour of so surfing Twitter and Tumblr, finding nothing particularly interesting. He sent out a tweet and reblogged a post or two, but other than that, was incredibly uninterested and incredibly bored. His mind wandered, and wandered, and wandered... back to Dan.

He knew nothing about the boy, other than his name, and yet he was intrigued. Dan, who wore pastels and florals, who blushed at every comment Phil made, whose brown hair fell in front of his eyes in the cutest way possible. Yet, he couldn't even gather the courage to text him. Granted, texting a boy with the intention of chatting him up wasn't the best thing to do when you had a girlfriend. So he decided, simply, to not text him. If Dan texted him first, then so be it- he would text back. However, texting him first wasn't on the plan of things to do.

Sophia came in, interrupting his train of thought about Dan, with his sesame chicken and lo mein.

"Would you like to eat alone or with me?" She asked, holding the plate of food out to him.

"I'll eat alone, thanks," Phil said, reaching towards the plate of food. Sophia's eyes narrowed, but she hands over the meal anyway.

Phil eats in bed that night, surfing the web and falling asleep with a plate on his chest and a computer in his lap.