Illusive (phan)

Chapter XI - Melancholy

**a/n basically the glitch that disabled comments on the last chapter has been fixed, so if you want to re-read that chapter and comment and also jog your memory, ;)**

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Chapter XI - Melancholy

[Dan&Ethan Apartment, Central London, 1:08 pm, F 14/10/16]

DAN: (walking into kitchen) "Morning."

ETHAN: (incredulous) "Morning? That's it, I've had enough."

DAN: (continues making cereal) "What?"

ETHAN: "Were you ever going to tell me what's going on?"

DAN: (shrugs) "I don't even know what's going on."

ETHAN: (sits at the breakfast bar) "Dan, ever since you came back from shopping with Phil with bruised knuckles, we've barely had a conversation, you're always in your room, you either go to work really late or not at all and you don't leave the house for anything else. My mind's made up a million different scenarios, so can you please put me out of my misery and tell me what the hell happened?"

DAN: (sits down, not eating from the bowl in front of him, sighs) "I had a realisation."

ETHAN: (raises his eyebrows) "What was your realisation?"

DAN: (mumbles) "Phil cares about me."

ETHAN: (under his breath) "Yeah, no shit." (raises his voice) "And what made you have this realisation?"

 DAN: "He said he didn't like that I drink so much. It was bad for my liver and blah blah blah."

ETHAN: "So what?"

DAN: "Remember when you said that to me? Rhia's said that too. And my grandma. That's all the people that care."

ETHAN: (chuckles) "Dan, honestly--"

DAN: "And now Phil is on that list."

ETHAN: "Dan--"

DAN: "And then he told me his uncle had liver cancer. Another sign."

ETHAN: "How is that a sign?"

DAN: "He's opening up to me."

ETHAN: "Are you getting cold feet about the bet? Phil's a very open person. You might be reading into everything too much."

DAN: "Did you know about his uncle?"

ETHAN: "No."

DAN: "Exactly."

ETHAN: (sighs) "And what did you say?"

DAN: "What? Does it matter?"

ETHAN: "Well, you always get extremely defensive when someone mentions your drinking habits, so I'm figuring out if damage control has to be done."

DAN: (narrows his eyes) "No."

ETHAN: "I swear to God if you said anything mean about his uncle."

DAN: (frowns) "I was going to, but I- I just told him to shut up."

ETHAN: (shocked) "That's great, Dan!" (laughs) "You sorta managed to control yourself."

DAN: (face remains expressionless) "The worst part is, he blamed himself. When I told him to shut the fuck up and go away, he told me he was sorry and that he just didn't want to lose me."