Never Told A Lie (Phan fiction)

Chapter 20

It’s a quarter to six when Phil rises from his seat, smothering his slightly crinkled shirt before announcing, “I should head home now. I don’t want my parents to worry and stuff.”

Dan lifts his head, stomach twisting with disappointment because he had kind of hoped for Phil to stay a little bit longer, so they could talk some more. It’s okay though, Dan supposes, Phil still needs time and he has to accept that after all.

So he just says, “Alright, I’ll take you to the door, okay?”

Phil nods, smiles nervously at him. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

Quickly Dan scrambles to his feet, runs his fingers through his hair once before stepping next to Phil, who looks kind of lost towards PJ and Chris.

“Um- bye then, guys.” He says at last, kind of waves at PJ and Chris before turning to the door.

“Bye, Phil.” Chris replies, nodding at him with a smile.

“You’re welcome to hang out with us again whenever.” PJ adds kindly.

“Yeah, okay.” Phil says, blush rising up the back of his neck. “Thanks and stuff.” He smiles unsurely at them both before glancing at Dan and turning to the door.

“I’ll be back.” Dan calls over his shoulder before ushering Phil out into the hallway and closing the door behind them.

“See, I was right.” He says to Phil then, grinning happily.

“What do you mean?” Phil cocks his eyebrow at him.

“They both like you.” Dan states his observation and he feels quite happy about that, too, because Phil deserves to have people in his life that he can hang out with and call his friends and although Phil only met Chris and PJ because of Dan, it doesn’t make things any less real. Because Chris and PJ do in fact like Phil and if Phil wasn’t so shy and reluctant, maybe they would have all become friends a lot sooner.

“Do you really think so?” Phil asks unsurely, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I know so.” Dan reassures, comes to a halt when they reach the front door.  “And I can only agree with PJ, if you want to, you can hang out with the three of us as often as you want.”

“I- I don’t know-” Phil mumbles, unsurely.

“It’s fine.” Dan interrupts quickly. “Like I said earlier, think about everything and then we can talk about what’s going to happen next, yeah?”

Phil looks at Dan, kind of torn and unhappy, but then just nods in the end.

With an encouraging smile Dan leans over to open the door for Phil and he is momentarily a little bit taken back because it’s pouring down with rain outside and even though it’s England they are living in, it still kind of surprises Dan, considering that it’s been quite sunny all day.

And Phil doesn’t seem to be prepared for that kind of weather either because all he is wearing is a thin jumper and Dan feels bad letting him walk home under such conditions.

“Oh, fuck.” He curses under his breath.

“What’s wrong?” Phil asks in confusion, glances from Dan to the open door and back again, not finding the cause for Dan’s swearing.

“I can’t let you walk home in the rain with nothing but a jumper on.” Dan explains, closing the door to keep the freezing air outside, while he contemplates whether it would be alright or not to offer his hoodie to Phil.

Phil blushes, shrugs his shoulders dismissively. “It’s fine, Dan. Really! I don’t mind the rain.”

“But I do.” Dan replies stubbornly, steps back a little and then just decides to screw it and quickly pulls his hoodie over his head.