piano lessons // phan ((being rewritten))

lesson four

Something was off.

Dan's bedroom looked similar to how it always did. The piano was still in the corner, the picture of him and Phil was still on the nightstand, and the fairy lights hanging on Dan's bed were still there.

Still, something was different.

It took Phil a moment to realize why everything looked so odd. Dan's bed was actually made, his desk wasn't cluttered like it normally was, and the stack of books he kept on his windowsill was standing upright. Everything was organized.

Sure, Dan cleaned his room before he made videos, but that was only once a month. And anyways, Dan had already filmed a video for this month. Phil knew, because Dan had asked him to help edit it to perfection.

Then why was Dan's bedroom so...clean?

Usually Dan didn't bother organizing his room. He kept it neat enough to where it wasn't terrible, but it was still almost always messy in someway.

The sheets of music Dan kept at the piano were gone, probably tucked away inside the bench. It was always ready to be played, so it threw Phil off not seeing it where it usually was.

Where was Dan anyways?

It was around the time they started the previous lessons, so after eating and washing his dishes Phil decided to just ask Dan if he was ready to start. He figured Dan was in his room, scrolling through tumblr or something like that.

Dan walked into the room, buttoning up a white collared shirt and humming softly. When he looked up, he noticed Phil in his doorway and nearly bumped into him.

"Hey," Dan said, slightly puzzled. "What's up?"

Phil, eyeing his outfit, frowned slightly. "Are you going out? I thought we were having another lesson."

"Oh," Dan said, his smile dropping. "I thought I told you, I have a date tonight."

Once those words left his mouth, Phil could feel his heart plummet. He had a date? Since when did Dan bother with dating? Feeling stupid, Phil blushed—And to think, he thought Dan could like someone like him.

"Oh," Phil muttered, staring at the floor.

"Yeah, sorry I forgot to mention it. She's coming here in a bit, if that's okay with you."

She. Phil never stopped to think about whether Dan was actually interested in guys or not.

"Oh, yeah o-of course. I guess...if you need anything, I'll be in my room." Phil could feel his cheeks flaming. He felt so, so stupid.

"Thanks, I'm giving her a tour of the place and then we're going out to dinner." As Dan said this, he began leaning against the doorframe, putting his hands in his pockets. "I really hope she likes me. I think this could go somewhere, ya know?" He turned to Phil, but he had turned away.

Phil laughed weakly. "How could she not like you? You're Dan Howell."

"Yeah, you should totally meet her sometime," Dan said, nodding eagerly.

"Ha, totally..." Phil, with nothing more to say, wished his roommate good luck and walked out of the room.

The second Phil got to his bedroom, he closed the door and slid down it. Putting his face in his hands, he exhaled deeply. All he could think about was how naive he was to think he might've had a chance with Dan.

---

Phil heard them. He heard her laughter, soft and light. He heard Dan trying to act casual, but Phil knew he only used that tone of voice when he was especially nervous. He heard their footsteps through the hallway; he heard Dan trying to show off by playing a song on the piano. He heard them leave, the sound of the door slamming shut making him jump.

After what felt like hours, Phil got up from his spot on the bed. He had been watching Netflix on his laptop, trying desperately to drown out the sound of them bonding. It didn't work.

He didn't know what to do with himself. He wandered the house, looking for something to do. Somehow, he ended up back in Dan's room. His gaze lingered on the piano, and before he could think about it, him and his laptop were making their way towards the instrument.

Grabbing the desk chair and dragging it towards him, Phil placed his laptop atop. He sat down at the bench and searched up YouTube. Just cause Dan wasn't around didn't mean Phil couldn't learn.

He typed in 'piano lessons for beginners' and pressed search. Immediately, hundreds of videos popped up. He clicked the first one. An energetic man with curly blond hair appeared, and Phil couldn't help but think about how ridiculous his blue sweater looked on him.

The man started talking about treble clef, and began teaching Phil what Dan had taught him the day before. Phil continued watching, reviewing the notes. The man pointed to a board behind him, where a staff materialized on the screen. Phil watched intently.

By the time Dan got back from his date, Phil was on the twelfth video of the man's teaching series. He'd learned his name was Andrew, and he was a professional piano teacher/youtuber who had a decent amount of subscribers. Phil felt he was better at reading notes already; he'd even managed to learn 'Yankee Doodle.'

When he heard Dan enter the room, Phil muttered a 'hey,' without turning away from his laptop. Dan walked over to his closet, putting his coat away.

"Hey," he said brightly. Looking over Phil's shoulder, he asked, "what are you doing?"

"This guy named Andrew is teaching me how to read notes," Phil said.

Dan's smile faltered. He didn't know if he should feel offended or not. Could Phil not wait one night to have another lesson? Was he really that bad of a teacher? Not knowing what to say, he muttered a simple, "oh, okay."

Dan sat on the bed, watching Phil. After a minute of silence, he made a face. "Are you not going to ask me how my date went?"

Phil sighed, pausing his video and turning towards Dan. "How did your date go?" he asked.

Dan didn't like the tone of his voice, but he tried to overlook it. "It was great, she's great. We're going out again later this week."

Phil nodded along, pursing his lips. "Cool."

"Cool?"

"Yeah, cool."

"Okay then?"

"Okay."

Dan nodded while biting his lip, confound. Eventually he got up, walking out of the room and into the hall. Phil followed him, bringing his laptop with. They made eye contact for two seconds before quickly going opposite directions. While Phil went to his bedroom to watch more videos, Dan stayed in the living room, wondering why everything felt so different.