palpitations (phan)

thirteen

Two years had past since the Howells had moved in across the street from Phil. In the meantime, they probably played more video games than either could even fathom counting. Dan and Phil had made it an almost routine to recruit to either of their homes in the afternoon to be in the other's presence, and it usually resulted in them staying for dinner at whichever house they were in.

When that first September together had rolled around, they learned that Dan would be attending the same school as Phil, even ending up being in the same class. Since then, Dan and Phil's mums had been sure to put in early requests each year that the two boys would end up in the same classrooms, which had been a plus for both their kids and them, seeing as it meant the two would always have a friend and they'd never have to worry about them being too lonely.

In the few weeks leading up to the end of the school year, Dan had sent out invitations to his thirteenth birthday. He'd decided to wait until after summer had officially began to celebrate the event, claiming that all the best parties were when school was out. That, and if it was a total flop then he wouldn't bare witness to all of his classmates talking poorly about it in class the next Monday.

A few of his closest friends had RSVP'd, including the two class clowns, Chris and Pj, a pretty girl named Louise, and her best friend, Cat. And, well, Phil, of course. He didn't even need to ask him.

"What are you even doing for your birthday?" Phil asked from his spot on Dan's bed, where he laid on his stomach, eyes fixed on Dan's television screen and a game controller in hand.

Dan hummed. "Normal party things. Mum says it will probably be my last real birthday party, so nothing crazy, I reckon. We'll probably just play games while the girls are here and then watch movies or play video games on the telly downstairs with Chris and Peej after they leave."

"Cool." Phil died in the game they were playing, handing the controller back to Dan. "What do you want?"

"Huh?"

"For your birthday, I mean."

"Oh. Uh, nothing is fine. I'm okay with nothing. Just show up and that'd be pretty cool."

Phil laughed. As if he were really going to get his best friend nothing for his birthday. He would, however, have to think some more about that. Later, he thought.

So the next day after school, Phil made up some dumb excuse as to why he was unable to hang out with Dan and instead went to the mall with his mum. They went through multiple stores and shops before Phil finally came across the perfect thing for his friend.

He excitedly showed his mum, who laughed and agreed that Dan would absolutely love it before placing it on the store counter and paying.

The day of Dan's birthday party, bad news settled over the city in the form of a dark and dreary rain cloud. The weather woman on the news channel forecasted a heavy rain, but nothing more, meaning that if there were no updates, Dan's birthday party would be able to go one without any interferences.

But of course, that's not how fate had decided to play out.

At two o'clock, an hour before the start of the party, Phil decided to turn on the television in the downstairs lounge. The device immediately turned on to the weather channel, big red print at the bottom of the screen listing off a multitude of cities in which a tornado warning was being issued.

And as luck would have it, the city of Manchester was on that list.

"Mum?" Phil called into the dimly lit house.

His mum appeared after a moment from around the corner, walking out of the kitchen and into the lounge to sit with Phil.

"Yes, love?"