no homo howell™

2 messages received

New chapter added as of 1 Dec 2017.

—

Message received on 9 January 2016!

danhowell: phill

phillester: phill who? i only know phil

danhowell: ugh ur so problematic

danhowell: phil

phillester: yes dan?

danhowell: okay so you know how sherlock has 3 seasons

phillester: yes??

danhowell: we should totally rabbit it

phillester: rabbit what

danhowell: the website?

phillester: rabbit what

danhowell: ur hopeless omg

danhowell: basically it's like skype and we can watch movies and tv shows together

phillester: girl we finna do it

danhowell: add me bitch

—

Dan propped up against his black headboard, anxiously tapping his laptop's keyboard as he waited for Phil to join the call. He had put up the second season of Sherlock to watch with Phil. It was one of his favorite seasons, the consulting criminal's crown jewels scene in the show being one of the few things that generously donated to a rarity of his genuine smiles. A second screen popped up with a buffering icon on a blank black rectangle.

"Dan? I hope I'm not in the wrong room again."

Phil's voice crackled slightly through the poor connection. It sounded like velvet, perhaps a significantly weaker version of Brendon Urie's voice. Dan reckoned that if Phil put in effort, he could pull off a rendition of any Panic! song.

"No, no. You're in the right room," Dan chuckled. The screen remained black. Phil asked, "Is your camera off?" Dan shook his head, frowning, "No, it's on." He could hear Phil sigh disappointedly, clicking his mouse and typing on his keyboard. His keyboard was noisy, the clacking sound clearer than Phil's voice.

"I guess it's a connectivity problem," Phil muttered and Dan could hear the unhappiness dripping from his words.

"I can't start the episode either," Dan complained, clicking fervently on the play button. Phil suggested, "Maybe it'll work next time." Dan nodded, "Probably." Phil typed a bit more and Dan piped up, "Your keyboard's noisy." Phil paused his typing and asked in a small voice, "I'm sorry, does it bother you? I have a friend who gets really bothered by the noise, but I can't really get a new keyboard. It isn't a priority of mine at the moment, so—" Dan interrupted him, leaning back into his seat, "No, it's fine. Are you using an old computer or something?"

"Yeah, one of the first models of Mac, actually. I'm saving up for a quieter laptop. My—" Phil was interrupted by another man in the background.

"Phil, I can hear your keyboard from across the bloody hall!"

"Sorry!" Phil called back. Dan asked curiously, "Who's that?" The blue-eyed boy answered, "My roommate, Chris. I was about to say he gets annoyed too."

"I can buy you a laptop, if you want," Dan offered. He came from a considerably well-off family, so he didn't mind paying for his friends at times.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Phil laughed.

"I could totally do it, though," Dan said. Phil shook his head, "No, no, no. Don't get me a laptop." Dan smiled, asking, "You live in London, too, right?" Phil raised an eyebrow and nodded, but before he could say anything else, the call abruptly cut off.

phillester: i don't know what happened i think the wifi got cut off

phillester: yeah it got cut off because chris was being an idiot

danhowell: eh it's fine

danhowell: my brother just got off from school and i have to get him lunch anyway

danhowell: see you soon

phillester: see you!

danhowell: i wanna get you something on your birthday

danhowell: mind telling me your address?

—

Dan sighed to relieve his anxiety as he neared the post office. In his hands was a box and in the box was a sleek package wrapped with a comics page from a newspaper he had read the week before and a thousand packing peanuts. It had Garfield on top, so Dan gathered that Phil would like that. Well, at least, he hoped he would. There was always Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes to compensate if Phil didn't take a liking to Garfield. So, being the anxious fool he was about what comic Phil liked best, he spent the last two hours cutting panels from different comics out and pasting them all over wrapping paper.

He wrote Phil's address on a birthday notecard he had gotten from the dollar store. It had an ugly cartoon of a lion on the cover but it was the best one he could find among all the hideous cards.

Dear Phil,

Happy birthday! I hope you like your present and you don't have to feel obligated to return it or pay me back. It's a gift, you keep those.

Dan