Opposite Omens | Phan

Chapter 8 - Everything Stays

Dan stumbled into the Uber Phil had ordered for them, the wheels being parked right outside of the hospital exit. Thoughts swarmed him from all directions, some being justified and others being borderline ridiculous. However, instead of focusing on the clear subject at hand, he chose to let his mind wander. His eyes floated to stray leaves on the trees lining the passing roads, them flowing in the wind and down onto the ground below. The sun lingered in the sky, indicating the time was close to midday. Gusts of the crisp autumn breeze hit his face through the open car window, Dan taking a deep breath of the fresh outside air. It felt good to be outside again.

Even though it had been a couple weeks since the man had properly bathed, his curls still refused to be tamed. Their frizziness seemed to have no bounds, stray strands blowing backwards in the wind. People passed by on the street, taking no notice to the jet black car speeding past them. He wondered what was going on in their lives, knowing very well that life did not just stop for the world while he was hospitalized. Even though it had seemed to.

Phil was cuddled up against his left side, using his shoulder as a cushion as he slept. It was quite obvious he hadn't gotten much sleep lately. Pangs of guilt pierced his mind as he glanced back to his slumbering friend, remembering all of the buildup that had led them to the very situation they were currently in. Dan had walked out on his problems, on his life, on his best friend. And that was not something that he was proud to admit.

The aspect of the tattoo was simply a test, he now realised. A test to see if someone was going to lay down their entire life thus far for something that they couldn't change. After all.... would he have done any of that if the tattoo DIDN'T exist? The answer: probably not. The relationship that he had with Phil ran deeper than anything he could have ever imagined, and he was going to throw that all away for a couple of stray swirls on a blank canvas?

Hell no.

The ride back from the hospital was a pretty sizable amount of time, anywhere from around 30 minutes to an hour depending on traffic. Being that it was somewhere close to lunch time, that travel time was certain to be on the higher end of the spectrum. Dan decided to calm his aching mind instead by surfing through his social medias, an effort that only seemed to make it worse.

Searching up the 'danhowell' tag on tumblr only yielded countless pity posts directed towards him and his condition, instagram and twitter giving much of the same results. Theories of what exactly had happened to him made him giggle, the laughter being a way to cope with a constant wave of guilt he was receiving from reading through all the constant support and positivity. The "Phandom" could not always be counted as a positive place to say the least, but at least it could be noted that some things truly could unite such a diverse amount of people. It was soothing in a way.

Dan took this time to finally write the tweet that the people had been waiting for. He didn't know how to exactly get the message across that he wanted, but he was an internet celebrity after all. People just wanted answers, not the next shakespeare.

Sincere or jokey? All the information or just bits and pieces? Wake up Phil and consult him or just leave his own thoughts? There was an endless amount of ways that he could write down the bad news, as well as the good news, finally deciding to stop overthinking it and just get to writing it down. Maybe he would feel better after he started just typing. So, after taking a long and deep breath of the cool air surrounding him, he put his thumbs to his screen.

He typed and deleted drafts for a good 10 minutes, groaning in frustration at each failed attempt. However, despite the reasonable amount of noise he was making, Phil didn't so much as stir. Finally, after fumbling around for a bit too long on his lackluster explanation, Dan finally settled on the following: