The Boy Upstairs (DanXReader)

Chapter 8: Malteasers

Preemptive A/N: I feel a bit bad about that title...

Two hours later Dan and I were leaving the theater, happily chatting about the movie. My mind was still reeling from how amazing the effects... and Benedict Cumberbatch... had looked not only in 3D but on such a large screen.

"So you like this cinema, then?" Dan asked, looking proud of himself for having thought of it.

"No..." I said quietly, looking down at my feet as Dan glanced at me.

I did my best to hide my smile as Dan stopped walking and looked at me, seeming to be unsure to if I was joking or not. The look of genuine surprise I saw when I looked up made a smile break out on my face. Dan rolled his eyes and gave me a light shove as forced a fake laugh. "Such joke. Much funny. Wow," he said, his tone sounding the most sarcastic I'd ever heard it.

"Such meme. Old reference. Wow," I shot back, faking a cringe.

"Coming from the one who still says awesome sauce?" Dan asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's right, Phil told me about that."

"Hey, don't diss a timeless classic just because your meme will never live up to it."

Dan scoffed, looking at me with fake disdain. "Um, excuse me," he said, suddenly donning a valley girl accent and taking on a sassy stance. "Doge will always be a classic. And don't you lie to me, you loved that thea-tar!"

I suddenly found myself laughing harder than I had in a long time, not having ever expected Dan to be quite so spot on at impersonating some of the girls I'd gone to high school with. Once I regained composure I saw that Dan was looking at me a smug smile, obviously proud of the reaction he'd gotten.

"Alright, alright! You got me, I really liked it!" I confessed, grinning ear to ear.

"Good, we'll have to go back sometime!"

I nodded as Dan turned around to lead me to a grocery store. I blushed as the realization of what Dan had said hit me. He'd said, "we'll have to go back sometime." As in we... the both of us would have to see a movie together again sometime. He must've meant it as friends though. We'd only been back together as friends for a couple hours. Why was I getting so flustered and caring so much over little wordings?

Why did I even care so much about the idea of hanging out with Dan again? He was the one who'd stopped keeping contact in the first place. And that was just because he'd started making new friends. Now he was big time YouTube star with over six million people following him. What was to say he'd even actually want to hang out with me again after today?

But he'd also said I could buy him lunch sometime to repay him for lunch earlier as well as saying he wanted to help me when I needed it. And just now he'd said that we'd have to see a movie again sometime. But there was also nothing to say he wouldn't change his mind later either.

"You coming, _______?"

I looked up and nodded, Dan's voice breaking me out of my downward spiral of self-doubt. I quickly caught up and walked beside Dan, deciding to focus on the here and now. Even if Dan did decide he didn't want to hang out with me after today, we still had today and I had to make the best of it.

After walking for a while we made it to the grocery store, Dan grabbing us a cart. "So whaddya need?"

"Oh you know... a little bit of this and a little bit of that."

"Real specific there..."

"Shuddup... I don't have an actual list. I just need the essentials so I can eat something other than takeout until I start work. I can look around while you get what you need though."