Worse » daniel howell AU

11

I explained what happened at Dan's house, and I knew the question would come up, but I wasn't nearly prepared enough when Phil asked it.

"So what exactly happened with you two in the past?"

Matt looked at me as the question arose, all of us now being sat together in various spots around the living room. Matt knew how I felt about this topic. I didn't like to mention it, mainly because it took me such a long time to get over. I nodded a bit to Matt as a gesture to say that I was fine. My eyes went to Phil again.

"We were really good friends for a long time, since year one actually. Anyone who knew us then could tell you that we were practically inseparable. Then in year five, maybe six, the other kids started getting really mean, and that wasn't much problem for me, but it was for Dan. He wasn't comfortable with himself after the bullying started.. So when were around twelve or thirteen, I think, he figured out that he could try to fit in more which meant he had to stop being my friend. He just one day told me to leave him alone, to not talk to him again. Then, he started rumors about me to help pull himself up," I explained in long monologue. My eyes had found their way to the floor somewhere in the middle of my rambling and when I looked back up, I saw the saddened look in Phil's eyes.

"It took me a long time to get over it. I haven't had a real best friend since then... But now, I've got you," I smiled weakly at Phil as I finished. He flashed a small smile my way at my last statement. "Well, I promise that I'll never do that to you," he reassured with the smile still upon his face.

-

We spent a little while afterward deciding what to watch, and finally settled with Sherlock's series four because Matt had yet to watch it and Phil had seen two out of the three episodes. Meanwhile, I watched all three the night they came out because Sherlock coming back was such a glorious occasion, and I was not going to miss a thing. We quickly did the math and figured out that it would take about four and half hours to get through all three episodes.

With it already being close to 5 o'clock when we decided what to watch, we figured that Phil wouldn't want to walk home in the dark (and we didn't want that either) and after experiencing the drama of the last episode, I was sure that he'd be too emotionally exhausted— speaking from personal experience— to even leave. That led to Phil quickly going home to grab clothes and things he may need if he stayed the night, along with asking his parents for permission to stay the night because y'know, we're not the most rebellious of teens.

When Phil finally arrived back at my place, the Chinese takeout had already come, being spread out across the living room coffee table, and blankets & pillows covered the majority of the large sectional couch we all would soon be sprawled out across in various positions. Phil went to change into some comfortable pajamas he brought with him. I didn't blame him. You need to be comfortable for the four hours of drama Sherlock entailed.

Phil strolled back into the living room wearing bright yellow emoji pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. I stifled a laugh as I saw the bottoms, acknowledging to myself that some of the emojis looked pretty creepy.

We all got comfortable under our blankets. I settled for the corner seat, my legs lying across in the direction of Phil. Phil's legs lay adjacent to mine, both of us laying on the same portion of the couch while Matt lay on the other portion. He had the smaller, but still big, section, so as to fit his whole body comfortably on it, his head was rested partially on me. I wasn't complaining as this was something that had happened a few times before and caused no problems. I poked Phil in the leg with my toe as Matt pressed play to the first episode. Phil gave me a quick, playful glare before focusing on the tv screen. I smiled to myself, silently appreciating Phil for being so amazing.

-

The next few hours consisted of a lot of exasperated sighing, some shocked and confused whispers of "what the hell" from Matt, slightly louder words of confusion coming from Phil as we got to the last episode, and me, depsite having already watched all three episodes, dramatically speaking combinations of "oh no" and "yessss." A few tears came from myself, and even if they later denied it, I was almost certain that both of the boys watching along with me at least had a couple tears in their eyes during one or two of the scenes.

Somewhere within the first episode, my mother had arrived home. Her greetings to us were quickly shushed by Matt as he watched the screen intently. I flashed a small smile as an apology for him, but she soon saw what we were watching and understood his reasoning. I barely heard my father getting home just after the second episode started, interested in the show on the screen entirely.

We were correct with our assumptions that Phil would not want to go home after our Sherlock binge session, so he took Matt's old bedroom for the night while Matt, deciding to also stay the night instead of driving back to his place, slept on the couch. As the entire house calmed down to an eerie quiet with my parents going to sleep fairly early and the rest of us forced to trying to sleep, I felt more awake than I should have.

A/N:
Next chapter will probably give you more insight into the aftermath of the falling out between Dan & Aliah. Also, Phil is even cuter than normal (if that's even possible) in the next chapter.

Question: Do you guys like Matt? I think I'm gonna bring him into the story as a bigger part with the next chapter, so I want to know your thoughts.

Thanks for reading!
xx Megan