Depths

19. Firework

This chapter has been edited.

...

This is the song Danny's working on. I think it's so beautiful, Chase Holfelder has the literal sexiest voice in existence. All credit goes to him and Katy Perry for the song and the cover song, but in this story, we're going to pretend like Danny invented it because I'm not creative enough to make my own song and music 😊 yaaaay.

OMG guys... a complete shit storm is on the way. This isn't just the calm before the storm, this is happy before the terrorized.

I'm excited.

...

Danny sweated over his computer, his fingers typing away rapidly filling out a job application, as a receptionist, that Phantom could hopefully get. So far, in the 3 weeks that Phantom had been living there, the merman had been to 5 interviews, and all of them fell through. Danny would love to give Phantom the benefit of the doubt, but he had a nagging suspicion that it was because of Phantom's resting bitch face, and bad attitude, that was preventing him from getting a job. 

He knew that the problem couldn't be anything like a lack of reliable transport, because not only is this a small town and you can walk anywhere, but Danny also had a car and was willing to drive Phantom anywhere he needed to go if only he would be allowed to stay. So the problem had to be Phantom.

That just made things harder than they already were, and despite the fact that Danny, Sam, and Tucker were all trying to help Phantom learn proper manners and respect, the merman wasn't doing too well. 

It didn't help that this was a small town and there weren't a lot of options when it came to employment. Mostly the only places to work was in some position at a restaurant, but Phantom couldn't do that for fear of him getting wet somehow and exposing himself. Working at a restaurant wasn't an option for Phantom, so the only other thing that Danny could come up with was some boring job as a receptionist or assistant. 

Phantom wasn't making it easy though, and Danny was running out of places to apply for him. Phantom didn't have a degree, no prior experience, and was also a high school student. Those three things closed a lot of doors, and Danny was worried that his father would start to change his mind about Phantom staying if things continued the way they were. Danny was sure the only thing that was keeping his father from considering kicking Phantom out, was his grades; he had extremely high A's in everything. He was doing great in school, which Danny realized in relief, was buying them time.

They needed to figure something out quick, or Phantom would soon overstay his welcome.

Danny submitted an application for one of the only available jobs left and put his head in his hands. He was so stressed out, he couldn't believe that he didn't have a head full of gray hair by now.

He needed to relieve his stress, and soon.

He sighed, opening up garage band, figuring he would work on the songs that continuously get abandoned 'cause of a lack of a singer. He pressed play just to remember where he left off on, allowing the sound of the electric piano and guitar to fill the room. He hadn't worked on any of his songs since Phantom first showed up, and he honestly missed doing it.

Phantom's ears picked up when he heard the sound of the music playing from Danny's computer, the tone of the music was nice, but that awful monotone automated voice was completely ruining it. He was sitting on Danny's bed, trying to complete his homework, but he listened to the words of the song as he did so. It was sweet, the lyrics had meaning, and he could see how other humans would find it inspiring. If only Danny didn't need to have that horribly fake voice recording on it.