"Phil?"

one

One minute, I was talking and laughing with him. Once I open my eyes after my mom walks in, he's gone. She asked me what I was doing. I told her. She told me I was going insane, that he's all in my head.

"Phil is real, mum. I just don't know where he goes when you walk in."

"Now, Dan, you need to go out and make some real friends. Please, you can't stay locked up in your room all day," she says back to me.

I lean away, towards the window. It's like she doesn't remember what happened the last time I tried making friends with the kids at school.

"It's not that easy, mum. You know what happened last time," I mumble.

"Come on, Dan, at least try again," she pleads with me. Knowing I'm not actually going to, I nod just to get her to leave.

Once she closes the door, I flop down on my bed, trying to get some rest. 11:37, way past when I usually go to sleep. My eyelids are growing heavy. I'm about to fall asleep until I hear Phil tapping at my window.

"Where did you go earlier? My mum keeps asking me about you and telling me you're not real," I tell Phil as I'm opening the window, going out to sit with him on the roof.

"Sorry, it's just... I don't like being around other people that much. You know my anxiety, Dan..." he replies quietly. I nod it off, picking up a new topic to talk about.

"I found this abandoned shed a couple hundred meters into the woods. We could bring some bean bags or whatever out there, make that our new hangout spot so my mum doesn't always walk in on us," I mention the idea to Phil, who just sits there quietly at first.

"Yeah, sounds quiet enough, I'm okay with it," he replies.

I hear a knock on my bedroom door. I tell Phil to wait outside, away from the window, and quickly scramble back inside and plop myself down at my desk, pretending I'm doing homework, even though I don't go to school anymore.

"Daniel?" my father says as he creaks open the door.

"Yeah, dad?" I say back, swiveling my chair around to face him.

"Your mum tells me you're talking to Phil again..."

I cringe at this, knowing what's coming.

"Dan, I know it's hard for you to make friends, but you need to start trying again. It's not healthy for you to be talking to absolutely no one, let alone a person you think is there, but not," he says to me.

At this point, I'm starting to get absolutely furious. "But he is there, dad," I growl through gritted teeth.

"Daniel, don't you argue with me. I expect not to hear anymore of this 'Phil' character," he says sternly back to me.

I look away with tears beginning to form in my eyes, but slowly nod, hoping he'll leave me alone, finally. As the door creaks closed, I sneak back out the window to continue talking to Phil, only to realize he's gone.

12:18. Time for bed anyways, I guess. I don't even bother to change, I just crawl under the covers and try to fall asleep.