Paper Hearts (Phan)

10 days after

"Wie fühIst du dich?" Mrs. Keene asked. She pointed to me with worry on her face that had been there since classes had started up again.

[How do you feel?]

"Terrible." I told her. She frowned.

"Auf Deutsch," she said sadly, moving on to the next person and not even bothering to correct me or have me reply with something correct "auf Deutsch."

[In German, in German]

__________

"We need to go talk to that cop." PJ announced as soon as he caught sight of me across the school yard. He trudged through soggy flowers as quickly as he could and grabbed my hand. "Chris and Cat said they're staying here"

"We can't just leave-" I started, but he interrupted me with a quick shove on the shoulder.

"They said they'll cover for us. Let's go."

"Chris is totally gonna rat us out, PJ-"

"No he's not," PJ rolled his eyes dramatically and stomped his foot against the pavement in slight frustration and annoyance "I have some information about him that his anatomy teacher could put to good use."

"Like what? Chris is literally a fucking angel in that class-"

"This one time when he got drunk, he hijacked the anatomy skeleton and accidentally set it on fire after dropping his cigarette through the eye socket. Yes, yes, good job Chris. Now, not only are both alcohol and cigarettes forbidden from entering the premises of this sad excuse for a school, but that skeleton was the teachers pride and joy. He rats us out, he's dead meat, and I'll literally kill him myself."

Before I could process what he'd said and contemplate how PJ knew that entire story, he grabbed my hand and I followed him the entire 23 minute walk down to the police station without objections.

On the way there I thought about what Dan had said to me on one of the first few days, the first week maybe, about how he wanted to be a fire. I couldn't remember exactly. Time seemed insignificant now that had nobody to count the days with.

After the memory of what he'd said resurfaced, I couldn't get the image of a fire out of my mind, for at least the past 9 days or so. It'd gotten so out of hand; I'd begun to classify myself as the fire instead of him.

And I also began to question which of us was the match that set our paper hearts ablaze.

__________

PJ flung open the swinging glass door and didn't bother to hold back his frustration and anger as he yelled "I need the cop that saw Dan Howell last!"

A guy dressed sharply in a blue uniform and black tie stood up, his dyed red hair jumping around messily as he walked. "Who're you?" He asked with a slight southern accent, his eyes squinted at us suspiciously.

"I'm his... cousin. And this is... also his cousin."

The red haired cop shrugged, and either he didn't care or just didn't want to keep in what he saw, because he gestured outside and we waited for him. When he shut the door and stood towering over PJ but a little shorter than me, the sunlight gleamed off his name tag, which read 'J. Dun' and the name clicked as Joshua Dun, associated very closely with Tyler Joseph.

"You two got names?" He sniffed, swiping quickly at the side of his nose.

"I'm PJ, and this is..."

And they both turned to me, and I said the first thing that popped in my head. "Magnesium is the 8th most abundant element in the earth's crust, though not found naturally in its elemental state."