butterflies & hurricanes // phan

Six

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06

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I enjoyed being with Dan. It was weird, I mean, before today I haven't even really talked to him, and it usually took me ages to get used to new people.

But with Dan... I felt as if I had known him for ages. We got along perfectly, and never did he make me feel uncomfortable with myself, nor was the situation awkward.

Have you ever met anyone like that? Someone you just got along with this well right away?

We talked a lot, and I found out that Dan indeed was short for Daniel. His last name was Howell, and he also had a middle name, but he didn't want to tell me what it was because I didn't want to tell him my middle name either, ugh.

Dan was 21 years old, a year younger than me, and he lived here in London, just like I did.

He started playing the piano when he was just four years old. Not because his parents forced him to, but because he wanted to. He saw his mum play the piano and wanted to do the same thing. She taught him the basics, but as soon as he had learned all that, she didn't know what to do anymore, so his parents hired a teacher.

Dan never called himself talented while he told me all that, but I could tell he was, not just by the way I heard him play, but it was obvious from how he told the story to me.

Dan didn't really like his teacher in the beginning because she was really strict, but she helped him to play and in hindsight, he was really grateful for that and appreciated it as he got older. When he was 16, they even started getting along really well.

She died in a car crash when Dan was 19.

He got a scholarship at Cambridge University for studying Musical Theatre a few months before, but declined because a friend of his told him he's not gonna make it far with that degree. So he started to study Law at King's College.

Also, Dan and that "friend" are not friends anymore.

He also loved dogs. He had one at his parent's house, Colin, but couldn't take him to London as dogs weren't allowed in his and his girlfriend's flat.

Oh yeah, right. The girlfriend.

Her name was Sofia. She was from Sweden, a year younger than Dan, and judging by the look on Dan's face when he talked about her, the best person in the universe.

Not gonna lie, when Dan mentioned her for the first time I got jealous. It was a weird feeling, as if my heart sunk all the way down to the bottom of my stomach, and for a second I couldn't think clearly anymore.

But I tried to ignore that feeling. Who was I to feel jealous? I barely knew Dan and even if I did, he probably wouldn't like me, at least not like that. I didn't even know about his sexuality. But I also didn't ask obviously because it's not just something that I could bring up in a casual conversation, especially not after he literally told me he had a girlfriend. Duh.

Dan didn't talk about Sofia a lot; he probably didn't want to be annoying. But I could see his love for her in his eyes. It was the way he smiled; the kind of smile that reaches your eyes as well.

We've been talking for quite some time already when we started talking about movies.

"That movie is great, I love it. Seriously, it's like my favourite movie."

"I'll check it out," I said and smiled.

"You should! I can't believe you never watched it, though."