Not On Fire (Phan AU)

19 | trying

Phil's not at school today. He's probably sick or something, but it still comes as a shock when he walks into first block, expecting to find Phil in his seat, prepared and ready for the day ahead, only to see an empty seat in his place. How he survives English is beyond him. Honestly. He did perfectly fine before he knew Phil, but once you have a friend in a class, it's kind of hard to switch back to not having one. Louise is in there, of course, but it's not the same. They're still walking on thin ice--just slightly thicker than before--as they readjust to each other and try not to overstep boundaries.

    Maybe they'll never truly go back to the way they were before, but they're trying. Not necessarily as much as they could, but it's a step in the right direction. Anything is better than what they were like before. And he doesn't even know what's worth fighting for anymore or if Louise can really change in the end. There's no way he's putting all his efforts into it only to have Louise back out at the last second, claiming she can't change or whatever. This has to be important to her--he has to be important to her. That's the only way a friendship will work.

    He's fully prepared to awkwardly spend the lunch with Louise, as they try to fill in the silence with short words and phrases that do little to help. Last time he checked (not that he's been paying a lot of attention, honestly) PJ and Chris were still working on the short film, which he still doesn't know what it's about, but it's not that big of a deal. He makes them all the time, apparently, from short little one minute ones to twenty minutes or so, but he doesn't show them anywhere--not yet anyway. From what Dan's gathered through their limited interactions, he's practicing for a short film festival that's coming up during the summer, which is why he's making so many. Not that PJ and Chris would really help the situation. He barely knows them after all, apart from a few random facts here and there. Except they're his best bet at breaking the tension and just talking, even if Dan and Louise aren't.

    He's not even sure anymore.

    When he sits down at the table, he's pleasantly--or as close to that as he can be--when he sees that PJ and Chris are, in fact, joining them for lunch. They're already talking amongst themselves, something about the film, that much he gathers. Louise is completely out of her element, being unable to join in considering she knows nothing about it. She stares right at Dan when he sits down, no smile on her face. The constant noise helps him feel a little bit more at ease, but even as he goes to take a bite of his sandwich, he can't help but feel like she's still staring at him. When he looks up, his suspicions are confirmed.

    "Hi," he says, realizing that he had forgotten to when he first arrived. Probably because he was too distracted by the scene in front of him to realize that it wasn't just something he was watching on television, that he was actually apart of it.

    This break PJ and Chris out of whatever trance they were in that made it seem like Dan and Louise weren't there.

    "Oh, hi! I didn't even notice you were there," PJ says, as if it wasn't obvious when they both jumped at the sound of his voice.

    "That's because he was too busy admiring how beautiful I am," Chris chimes in. Which is nothing surprising considering within a few minutes of first meeting him, Dan could already tell he was that kind of a person--the one who cracks jokes in any form, ranging from mild to full on sexual.

    "I'm sorry about him. Honestly don't know how I've been able to last so long, putting up with him and all."

    "I had to put up with Dan when he went through his emo phase. Trust me. You have it easy," Louise says, finally lending her voice to the conversation. She sends one look at Dan, as if to reassure him that she's just messing around, before looking at the other two.