im here // phan

twenty five

Was he really that insane? Like I would ever leave him for Dan and Phil. What I really want is for all of us to be friends. Just a group of guys hanging out.

"Chris, you are crazy! I am never going to leave you. Remember the promise I made to you years and years ago? I said to you that I will be your friends, forever and always, as cheesy as it sounds, its true. I mean it and I stand by every word, got it?" I inquired, and he nodded his head a bit.

"I'm sorry I even doubted you there, really. I won't leave you either." Chris stated, and I pulled him back into an embrace. Like I said, he's my oxygen, my source of life. Then, Ms. White's voice came over the intercoms.

"Attention students, classes will begin in 5 minutes, so make sure you are in your first period classroom when the bell rings. Thank you." She said, her voice lifeless and gone. Sometimes, I wondered if she was still alive. By that, I mean her soul. Her body was there, but sometimes it seemed like she wasn't there.

"We, we should go, go and get Dan and Phil. Yeah?" He pulled back from the embrace, and jogged down the stairs. Dan and Phil were still on the couch, but now Dan was awake and they were looking at a book together. Phil was laughing and pointing, and Dan would look, then laugh along with him.

"There they are." I said, pointing at them. We approached them, and it seemed like they didn't hear the announcement.

"Ready for class, guys?" Chris asked, and they looked up at him. Phil nodded, and Dan rolled his eyes. A perfect representation of their personalities.

"Yeah, let's go!" Phil exulted, and Dan dragged himself up from the couch, and Phil did too.

"Follow me. It's pretty easy to get to the chem class from here. We walked by it on our way here." I explained, and then trailed behind me as we walked out of the library. We took a right out, and then walked past a few classrooms. A couple kids looked at Dan and Phil, then muttered to their friends, and looked back at us.

"Here it is. Chem class." I pointed to the room labeled 112, and we walked inside. The teacher looked at them like they were 20 feet tall, but they sat at the table with Chris and me. Everyone in the class dazed, but they didn't seem to care at all. I wish I was as care free as they were.

Chris leaned close and whispered, "Everyone is looking at them. Should we do something, or leave them be?"

"I think they are handling it fine." I replied, and he nodded, and sat back normally in his seat.

Class started, and the teacher introduced Dan and Phil, and they sat there very awkwardly and waved. Then, the teacher explained a lab we had to do (which I didn't pay attention to, I was off in my own world) so Chris got up and gathered supplies for us, and Dan, Phil, Chris and I did the lab.

———

It was lunch time, and Chris and I guided Dan and Phil to the lunch room. Their jaws hit the floor when they saw the beautiful architecture; gold arched up the wall, carefully crafted wall designs, and wooden lunch tables.

"This is beautiful, woah." Dan said in awe, looking up and down at all the details. Phil was too lost to even say anything.

"Let's eat." Chris said, and we all walked to our lunch table. Phil pulled out his phone, and then his face lost all color when he looked at it longer. No one else seemed to notice.

"Phil, you alright?" I asked, and he shook his head. Dan looked at him right away, and noticed his changed appearance.

"Video. Watch." He unplugged his earbuds, and played the video for Dan, Chris and I.

The video was set in a dark basement. There was someone in a chair, gagged with a sock. There was another person, who was holding a gun to the person in the chair's head. They were masked and there was no way of identifying them. Then, they started to speak.

"Phil, Phil, Phil..." The masked person said, and it was heavily auto-tuned so you could've even tell who they were fro the voice.

"Looks like little mommy isn't safe at all." The masked person said, then cackled. The gagged woman was squealing with all her might. She was red in the face, and her cheeks were streaked with tears.

"You have to end things with Danny boy, oh lets make this even better, kill Danny boy, or mommy dies." The husky voice said, and now tears were running down Phil's face.

"Choose. You have 48 hours, then I'm shooting mommy. You can find me at the park on the street of your school when you have his body." Then the video ended. Chris was in shock, Dan was almost crying and Phil was balling.

"Whoever this is, they are asking me to choose between the most important people in my life. I can't do this." Phil sobbed, collapsing into Dan's side.

"You won't have to. I'll kill my self, and then just take him my dead body. He will think you did it, and your mom can live." Dan suggested, and Phil declined right away.

"No way, no way, you can't do that." Phil mumbled, swiping the tears off of his cheek. Chris looked like he wanted to suggest something, but he just stayed quiet.

"There is no other way, Phil. One of us has to die." Dan said, looking into Phil's eyes. I wanted to say something, but surely I would mess up. I would just make it worse.

"I can't do this. 48 hours isn't enough time. I take hours to choose which shirt to wear. There is no way in hell that I would be able to act quick enough." Phil demanded, and he stood up, and stormed out of the lunch room. His intentions, I did not know.

"I'll follow him." I insisted, considering I didn't help at all in here.

"You have to convince him that I have to die."