Well, it's Complicated...

Chapter 14 - Amber

Chapter 14 – Amber

I laid in bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking about two weeks ago, when Emily and I walked in on Dan and Phil making out in the lounge. The four of us had come to an agreement, but I still sensed an odd kind of tension between Dan and me, and between Phil and Emily. It felt more awkward knowing that Dan and Phil had a thing going than before.

I was completely lost in thought when I heard a gentle knocking at my bedroom door. “Amber?” I heard Emily call tentatively from the hallway.

“Yeah?” I responded, rolling over to face my bedroom door, which was cracked open.

Emily leaned her head in just enough so I could see about half of her face. “C-can I come in?”

“Yeah, sure. Of course.” I sat up, and she walked into my room. I patted the bed next to me, and she sat down.

“I wanted to talk to you about Dan and Phil,” she said, acting a lot more shy and awkward than usual.

“What about?” I was pretty sure I knew what about, but I wanted to make sure.

“About the—the incident, in the lounge, two weeks ago…” Her voice trailed off.

“You mean us walking in on our boyfriends making out with each other in their lounge?” I laughed, and Emily smiled.

“Yup, that’s the one. I just…I feel…weird about the whole thing.”

“Weird? Weird how?”

“Well, it’s complicated…” she sighed. “I just feel…if they had a thing going, why did they start going out with us?” Emily looked straight into my eyes, and I noticed tears glistening in the corner of her eyes.

“Well, maybe…you know, you make an excellent point. Why did they start going out with us if they had a thing going?”

“Are we gonna start coming up with theories as to why they started going out with us, or are we just gonna wonder?” Emily asked. Judging by the look on her face, she was already coming up with theories. As a matter of fact, I was too.

“We can come up with theories if you want.” I smirked, and she laughed.

“Hmmm…maybe the phandom was making up more and more accurate Phan theories by the second and they thought they needed a cover-up?”

“That’s—actually quite possible.”

“And probably would work better than Dan’s ‘fyi i like vagina’ tweet.” We both laughed. Emily was back to her normal self again. “But…why us, then?”

“I have no idea. And did Dan and Phil even tell the internet about us when we started going out?”

Emily thought for a second. “I’m not sure they made an official announcement, but remember when Dan and I started going out? Dan tweeted a selfie of me and him on our first date.”

“And I think Phil did the same with mine and his first date.” I sighed, lost in memories of mine and Phil’s relationship.

“Hello? Earth to Amber!” Emily said, and I snapped back to reality.

“Huh? I’m sorry, I got a little distracted.”

“Anyway, like I was saying, I remember that some people started to ship me with Dan and you with Phil—”

“—and the Phan theories started to subside, even if only slightly.”

“Right. People were still shipping Phan and writing phanfiction and stuff, but there were also people shipping Danmily and Philber and writing fanfiction about us.”

“Wait a sec, you read Danmily and Philber fanfiction?” I asked, confused and slightly creeped out.

“Well, Dan showed me some a while back, but that’s not the point. The point is that people were writing fanfiction about us—”

“—and it didn’t bother Dan and Phil because Danmily and Philber were real.”

“But then…how do you explain…” Emily took a deep breath before continuing. “How do you explain Dan flirting with you and eventually kissing you? And how do you explain Phil kissing me?”

I thought for a minute. “I have no idea. That would’ve caused more drama, I think, because people were already shipping Danmily and Philber. And if they both broke up on the same night…”

“Yeah. Twitter and Tumblr would’ve imploded.” Emily nodded her agreement.

“Maybe that bit wasn’t about the fans. Maybe Phil had developed genuine feelings for you, and Dan had developed genuine feelings for me.”

“Wait a second…did Dan and Phil even mention anything about the dual break-up?” Emily stared off into space, deep in thought.

“Hmmm…I don’t think they mentioned anything on the night, but I think the other day Dan tweeted a selfie where you were next to Phil and I was next to Dan and they were next to each other. Is that right?”

In response, Emily pulled out her phone and started scrolling through something. “Yup. I’ve got it right here.” She turned the phone around and showed me the screen: I was on the far left, Phil was next to me, Dan was next to Phil, and Emily was on the far right. “A very subtle message that I think maybe two people in the entire phandom picked up on.”

“Maybe more than two, because I think I remember seeing some Damber fanfiction somewhere.”

“Amber, just because there’s fanfiction doesn’t mean that the entirety of the phandom picked up on Dan’s subtle hint.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Then again, the phandom is kinda notorious for blowing things way out of proportion…maybe someone noticed it, made a Tumblr post about it that got a shit-ton of notes, and then the Damber fanfiction emerged.”

“Probably.”

“Wait a second, why are we sat here coming up with theories about why Dan and Phil started going out with us when we can just ask them?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but closed it when I realized I didn’t have an answer. “I have absolutely no idea.”