Smile {A Phanfiction}

Smile (chapter twenty five)

Dan

The last of the leaves had fallen onto the yellow and dying grass and the colder weather had finally come in from the north. People were keeping warm in their gigantic scarves and gloves and hats. Winter had started and I could already smell the gingerbread and eggnog in every store and honestly, I was looking forward to the festive season.

I was planning on staying home (in Phil and I's flat) this Christmas. Not that didn't want to spend time with my family, I just really had my heart set on staying in London...and with Phil. We were even going to have a small house party with some friends like Pj and Chris, as well as some of our crew from our (now finished) tour. I know it's unbelievable that I actually have friends and hardly hang out with any of them regularly, but when it comes to the holidays, you just seem to realize that you're not completely alone in this world.

Even though I still felt very alone, I knew some people were still there for me.

Anyways, Phil and I were running around like maniacs while trying to get ready for this party. Buying food and drink for our friends, decorating the flat and doing last minute clean-ups, which really just meant shoving everything into our wardrobes and sweeping dirt and dust under every rug.

"What are you doing?" I walked into the lounge to find Phil obsessing over the cleanliness of one of the coloured chairs around our dining table.

"What'd you mean?" Phil looked up at me surprised. "You said we had to do a major clean of the flat."

"Yeah, but you don't have to spend all your time cleaning the chairs!" I said with a mocking tone.

"But the blue one is the one that needs the most cleaning! You can see all the specs of dirt on it." He gestured towards the chair and tried to show me all the spots on it.

I rolled my eyes in return to his comment.

"So what about the decorations?" Phil said while standing up and looking down at the chairs to admire his handiwork.  

"Yeah...We should go into town to buy some more, I barely even finished the tree with the amount we have."

"Seeing as the party is tomorrow, we should go sometime today."

"Okay, a bit later," I peered a little closer at one of the chairs. "Hey mate?

"Yeah?"

"You missed a spot."

Phil glared at me. "Shut up!" And I knew that was my queue to start running.

He chased me down the hall and into my room. Pillow fight round 2.

*************

Phil

Dan and I were about to leave the flat and I was getting my coat on when I heard my phone chime. I looked down at it. A text from Victoria.

"Doing anything for the holidays?"

"Having some friends over tomorrow to celebrate." I responded.

"Sounds fun! What time should I be over?"

"For what?"

'The party of course! I'm allowed to come right?"

"Yeah sure."

"Okay, just text me details later."

"Yeah, OK."

"Bye!"

I slipped my phone back into my coat pocket. I really did not want to think about this right now. Dan and Victoria being in the same room. Of course it was a party and people would be covering the entire flat and making it almost impossible to Dan to even talk to Victoria, but I couldn't help but panic. I got lost in thought, playing out scenarios in my head about how the events would unfold when Dan would see her enter the flat.

"Phil! Are you coming or not, it's going to get dark soon!"

"Yeah, coming!" I yelled back to him from my bedroom. I'd have to tell him sometime, just not right now. Not yet.

I rushed to meet Dan at the front door. I tried as hard as humanly possible to seem like I wasn't panicked or on edge.

"Good to go?"

"Yeah. Definitely."

*************

Dan

We weren't out for long. The two of us left at 5:00 and came back at around 7:00, but ever since winter had come the days were shorter and the darkness of London evenings rolled around twice as fast as usual. And the shopping trip wasn't that eventful and pretty normal as far as shopping trips go, besides the part when I had nearly lost Phil in the grocery store when we were out buying food for the party. We laughed at that until we came home.

But the next day people would be coming over and Phil and I had decorations to put up and snacks to prepare. The two of us, being the nerds that we are, spent as much time as possible making every piece of tinsel look just right and every Christmas cookie's icing as cute as we could make it (despite all of them turning out badly anyways because Phil and I are literally like disabled monkeys when it comes to baking).
But after our festive struggles, the flat looked good and the food looked...well it looked kind of terrible but I swear everything tasted amazing.

I had even (when Phil wasn't paying attention and putting food in the refrigerator) stuck a bit of fake mistletoe to the top of the doorframe going from the hall into the lounge. I had found it in one of the craft shops we went into it buy decorations and thought it would be a cute idea for any couples that might come to the party, or maybe even a joke if two friends walked underneath. I was definitely not thinking about kissing Phil under it...

You sit on a throne of lies Dan Howell.

...

Phil 

"Looks good!" I walked into the lounge from the kitchen. The lounge is where most of the best decorations were including our fake, but beautiful, Christmas tree.

"The tree never looked better and I don't mean to toot my own horn, but our tinsel game is own point!" Dan turned to me and held his hand out for a high-five.

I rejected his gesture. "If you never say the words 'on point' again, it'll be too soon."

"Aw come on bro." He said while punching my arm repeatedly. I joined in too.

"Bros, bros, bros!" We said in unison. I don't know why we had started doing it lately, but now it was kind of becoming a staple thing with our friendship. I like to think it was just Dan masking his feelings for me or something...I try not to laugh every time I think that.

Why would Dan ever have feelings for you?
Plus, you have a girlfriend...are you actually thinking about Dan like that again?

"Should I grab us some ribena to congratulate us for getting off of our asses and getting work done?" Dan laughed. "Hey, you okay there, Phil?"

I felt him grab my shoulder and start to rock me slightly. "What? Yeah, sure. Sounds good." I said quickly.

"Okay..." And with that, he walked out the room.

I almost didn't notice the mistletoe hanging from the ceiling...