Not What I Thought

Part 10

"I'm in love with Phillip Lester."

How did I not realize this before? Dan thought. Dan couldn't go back now and tell him that though. Phil didn't like him back. He let out a slow breath.

I'm in love with Phil.

He just wants to be friends.

This realization is killing me inside.

Dan went over the three facts in his mind numerous times and then started crying again. He was friend-zoned by the guy he loves.

Dan's stop came up and he got off the bus, scanned his card and ran the rest of the way home. Seeing as he never exercised, Dan was short of breath by the time he got home. He took the lift up to the third floor and then walked into his family's flat.

Dan turned off his phone so he didn't have to talk to anybody. He took his shoes off at the door and walked to his room. On the way he peaked in on his brother who was sound asleep and had a trash can next to his bed. Maybe he really is sick.

Dan stood there to be sure his brother wasn't pretending to be sick. Dan kept looking over his brother, his body not moving an inch, his chest barely moving with his breaths.

A sudden cough came from his brothers seemingly lifeless body and he dry-heaved for a minute or so and then laid back down.

"Adrian?" Dan said, concern coating his voice. He ran to his brothers bed and took him in his arms. "ADRIAN?!" Dan screamed when his little brother didn't reply.

Adrian opened his eyes a little and saw his older brother. "Hey." He said weakly, "Sup big bro?"

"Adrian." Dan said with relief. He hugged his brother tightly, "We need to get you to the hospital!" Dan said, standing up and positioning his brother in his arms so he could cradle him like a baby.

"No, no. I'm fine." Adrian said as he began to dry heave once again.

"No fuck it. We're going to the hospital." Dan said determined.

Dan started running down the hallway towards the door when his father walked in and saw his youngest sons condition. "What the fuck? Is he okay?" Mr. Howell said.

"No! He needs to go to the hospital." Dan said as Mr. Howell took Adrian from him and started towards the car.

"You guys I'm fine." Adrian repeated from earlier, his face even more ghostly looking.

"No you're not, but you will be." Dan said. His dad put Adrian on Dan's lap in the back seat and then got into the drivers seat and sped off towards the nearest hospital.

10 minutes later they arrived at the hospital and they rushed in to see it almost deserted of people. The only ones there were the workers and a couple of people in the waiting room.

The workers looked up and saw Adrian's condition and rushed over to help. The three were swept away to a room and Adrian was immediately hooked up to some machines and nurses started taking his vitals.

Dan and his dad were told to wait right outside his room so they sat there in anticipation. The silence was broken when one of the nurses came out with a blank expression on his face. "He's going to be fine. It looks like he ate something and got really bad food poisoning. It's a good thing you brought him here when you did. Any longer and he would've had damaged organs."

"Thank you, sir." Mr. Howell said formally, "May I call my wife? She will want to be here."

"Of course." The nurse said and went back into the room. Mr. Howell pulled out his phone and walked a little ways down the hall. Dan walked into his baby brothers room when most of the nurses had left. He sat down in a chair next to his brothers bed. Adrian looked over, already looking better than before. "Hey bro. What's up?" Adrian said, sounding a little bit stronger than before too.

"Nothing really. What the hell did you eat that gave you food poisoning?" Dan questioned.

"I got dared to eat raw meat last night by David." He stated, "That probably did it."

"'That probably did it' are you fucking crazy?!" Dan said, his voice raising slightly, "You realize you could've died earlier had I not come home?!"

"Yeah yeah, but you did and I'm not dying so can we move on?" Adrian said, seeming tired of the subject.

"Adri!" Dan said, using Adrian's nickname. "Stop pushing this off like it's no big deal!"

"But it's not!" Adrian said. He was about to say something else when their mum walked, well more like ran, into the room and flung her arms around her son. "Are you okay? Do you hurt anywhere? How are you feeling?" Mrs. Howell barely had time to say the questions before Adrian gave her a sad look, knowing that he had worried his mother by taking a dare.

"I'm fine mum. Don't worry. The doc said I'll be good in a few hours anyway." Adrian said with a smile.

"Okay." Their mum replied, relaxing a little. "Just please be okay." She looked to Dan and her relaxed expression hardened. She must blame me for this. Dan thought.

"Dan. Can I talk to you outside?" She gave him a hard look and he knew she meant business.

"Yeah. Sure." Dan replied.

They walked out of the room and she immediately turned on him, "How could you let this happen?!"

"Me? I didn't even know he did that really late last night when I was sleeping."Dan said, over-enunciating the last few words.

"Well why didn't you stop him?" She said, not understanding what Dan was telling her.

"Mum! I. Was. Asleep! I couldn't have stopped him. I knew you'd blame me for this." Dan said, accidentally pouting like a 5 year-old, an old habit he got from getting in trouble a lot as a kid.

Mrs. Howell took a deep breath and sighed, "Please don't pout Danny. I just figured you were there to take care of him when we weren't able to like every other time. I never thought that he wouldn't have someone watching out for him."

"Mum. I have a life. I want to be able to live my life and have fun without having to always watch out for my little brother." Dan explained.

"I understand. Thank you for bringing him here though. I really appreciate it. Without you he could've damaged his liver or one of his intestines."

Dan hugged his mum and the action felt unnatural so he pulled away shortly after the gesture was made. They walked back into the room and sat at either sides of Adrian's bed.

"Please don't scare me like that again. You looked dead." Dan said. Adrian laughed, looking and sounding healthier than before.

"Mum.. Please don't blame Dan for this.." Adrian began, "It was my stupid choice."

"Oh Adri. I don't blame him." Dan coughed, "Well not anymore at least." Mrs. Howell gave Dan a look that said shut up or I'll skin you alive.

Adrian laughed and suddenly looked tired. "Mum, I'm gonna go take a walk." Dan said as he left Adrian's room.

Dan turned his phone on and saw he had two text messages.

From: Amyyy

Hey! You okay?

From: Phil <3

Hey Dan. Sorry 'bout today. Made you skip for no reason. See ya tomorrow.

Dan replied to Amy with a simple "yeah" and then thought on how to reply to Phil.

Hey! It's okay! Can we meet up again? Same place. We need to talk.

Dan then ran out of the hospital and towards their rendezvous point.