irl

Chapter 14

That night, the two friends had stayed up very late, and then completely passed out around 3am. Luckily, they didn't catch "Santa" in her-AHEM- his endeavors, and awoke to a nice surprise.

They both groggily walked into the living room to discover that the Christmas tree was surrounded by presents.
"Merry Christmas, boys!" Phil's mom sang, entering the room. She held two mugs of hot chocolate and handed one to each of them.
"Thanks, mum," Phil smiled, and Dan thanked her as well.
"Well... why don't you two open your presents!" She beamed, sitting on a couch by the tree.
"Wait, me, too?" Dan questioned.
"Yes! As long as you're a guest here, you will be treated as if you're family."
"Thank you," he smiled, picking up a present with his name labeled on it, from "Santa". He tore the paper to reveal a portable phone charger. "Awesome! This is going to be useful for when I'm out of the house. Let me tell you, a phone on low battery is my worst nightmare," Dan joked (it really wasn't a joke, though). Phil opened one of his presents from Santa, and revealed a brightly colored shirt.
"Santa seems to know my sense of style," he said, looking directly at his mother.
"What can I say," she shrugged, "he sees you when you're sleeping, and knows when you're awake!"
"That's kind of creepy, honestly," Phil countered, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't ruin the Christmas magic!" Dan chucked a pillow at Phil.

They all continued tearing wrapping paper to shreds to reveal specially thought-out presents for each other. When they eventually ran out of the wrapped gifts, they had themselves some breakfast, which Phil's mom had made.
"I hope you like waffles," she smiled to Dan, handing him a plate.
"Who doesn't like waffles?" He started eating the food, a big grin on his face.

~•~

They day was great for the three. They stayed in all day, watching Christmas movies and enjoying each other's company. Out of curiosity, Dan unblocked his mother's cell phone number once more. One message came through.

Merry Christmas, Daniel. I hope you're doing well.

He resisted the urge to groan out loud, knowing that his mom didn't really mean well. She was just trying to lure him back in with fake kindness.

I won't fall for it. Your fake flattery won't fool me into crawling back to you.

Dan had a heavy-set stare the entire time he was thinking about this, and Phil became slightly concerned.
"Are you okay, Dan?"
"Huh," his head snapped up as he blocked his mom's number once more, and pocketed his phone. "Yeah, I'm good," he responded, realizing what his friend had said. Phil raised an eyebrow, but shrugged it off, nonetheless. Dan went to look out the window, then realized something.

It's snowing.

He quickly got up from the couch that he was sitting on and went to the window.
"It's snowing!" He said, as if he were a happy child.
"Really!" Phil shouted, getting up, too. This left his Mom on the couch alone, pausing the movie they'd been watching.
"ITS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!" Dan shouted, basically sprinting to get his jacket on. Once outside, he sat on the ground and stared up at the sky, letting snowflakes fall on his face.
"What are you doing?" Phil laughed, lightly hitting him on the head as he sat beside him.
"I always loved looking at the sky when it's snowing a lot, like this," he explained, sighing with content. "It's just so... magical? I feel like I'm in a snow globe or something." Phil joined Dan and looking up at the sky.
"You're right," he said quietly, as if to not disturb the snowflakes. While Phil was distracted, Dan sneakily took a handful of the soft snow and threw it into Phil's face.
"Seriously? I was just enjoying a pleasant-" he was hit with another handful of snow.
"Since it's not really snowball snow, throwing this powder in your face is the best I can do," Dan shrugged, smiling mischievously.
"Fine then," Phil grinned, giving Dan a shove so that he fell face-first in the cold snow.
"Now that wasn't necessary."
"Yeah, but it was funny."
"For who?"
"For me, and that's what matters, isn't that right?"
"Sure, it's not like I matter at all," Dan joked, just before tackling his friend to the ground. "Your pain is amusing, too!" He chuckled, laying on top of Phil, who was now face-down in the snow.
"Okay, okay, you win, Dan! You win! Please get off me!"
"I'm not that heavy!" Dan said, getting off of Phil and holding out a hand to pull him up.

"I swear to god, you two are just like children!" Mrs.Lester giggled from the doorway. "I feel like I'm watching two kids playing in the snow for the first time!"
"Mom, that's creepy. Especially since we are grown manly men!" Phil said, puffing out his chest and putting his hands on his hips, standing firm.

Dan shoved him into the snow.

"We are in no way immature, I have no idea what you're talking about," Dan shrugged, suppressing a laugh as Phil got up. His black hair was dusted with white snow, very prominently.
"It's cold. I'm going inside, you coming?" Phil asked.
"Yeah, I'm coming. My socks are all wet." Dan answered, following Phil inside the house.

A good day.