The Boy Upstairs (DanXReader)

Chapter 19: Slurtainly

Dan quickly let go of me, letting the two of us stumble away from each other as we looked around frantically. I quickly spotted a woman holding her phone and grinning at us from the edge of the ball pit. What if this girl was one of his fans? I really didn't want the public to know about us nor did I feel the public really needed to know. I enjoyed my privacy and I didn't want people randomly stopping me on the street. I already got recognized occasionally from the picture with Phil and the video Dan had posted which was weird enough.

I looked over at Dan with panic. He was looking at the woman with a relieved smile. "Z-Zoe! How're you?" he asked, seeming to relax a bit.

"Alfie and I heard about this place and decided we had to do a date and vlog here! How're you? And who's this?" Zoe said, stuffing the phone in her pocket and hopping into the ball pit.

I grabbed Dan's hand and instinctively shrunk behind him slightly. He looked back at me with a reassuring smile as he squeezed my hand. "I'm doing well, thanks for asking," he said, looking at Zoe with a smile. "Zoe, this is _____. _____, this is Zoe."

"Nice to meet you, _____," Zoe said, enthusiastically sticking her hand out for me.

I looked at Zoe with a slight sense of hesitance before shyly reaching out and shaking her hand. She seemed nice enough and it comforting to know that Dan actually knew her. At the very least she wasn't just a random person who'd caught us on our date. "H-hi, you too," I smiled.

"Zoe! There you are! Oh, hey Dan!" (A/N: Fun fact! As I was writing this bit I suddenly got a notification saying Alfie liked one of my tweets. Fan fiction is apparently magic :D) 

The man who'd just joined us must've been Alfie. He was holding a selfie stick with a camera attached and the camera looked to be recording. I felt my heart speed up as I tried to keep control of my breathing. "Hey guys, it looks like I've found a wild Dan! Say hi Dan!" Alfie said, happily making it so Dan and I were now in the frame.

"H-hi Alfie..."

Alfie quickly turned his attention to me. "Hi there!" he said as I tried my best to disappear behind Dan. "What's your name?"

"I-uh... I..." I said, my anxiety building.

Dan quickly pulled me closer as Zoe quickly looked towards Alfie. "Could you please stop recording, Alfie?" she asked

"Oh, yea," Alfie said with a smile as he stopped the camera. "Sorry, I didn't think you guys would mind."

"It's no problem," Dan said, tracing gentle circles on my hand. "I'd prefer it if you didn't include us in the vlog, though."

Alfie nodded with an understanding smile while Zoe glanced at me with an apologetic smile. "Of course. I totally understand, wouldn't want to out you two like Jim did with us," Alfie laughed.

My eyes widened as I glanced at Dan. Out us? Were we really that obvious right now. Zoe had seen us acting close at least. I'd barely said anything around Alfie though and he'd seemed to catch on quickly enough. I couldn't help but stress over the idea of a random fan of Dan coming across us and figure out what was going on.

"I'm Alfie by the way," Alfie smiled at me.

"N-nice to meet you," I said, smiling as best I could. "I'm ____."

"It's good to meet you, _____," Alfie said. "Anyone that can get Dan to go outside must be really special!"

"I-I... I uh-" I said, blushing as Dan smiled awkwardly.

"Hey, Alfie," Zoe said, quickly taking the attention off of me. "How about we go grab a couple of drinks at the bar?"

"That's a great idea," Alfie grinned. "You two want to join us?"