The Youtuber Inn

Worried

(Phil's POV)
11:00 pm

"You said we'd talk tonight." Dan folded his arms and frowned at me.
"Dan,"

"No. Yesterday, you said 'we'll talk about this tomorrow night.' It's tomorrow night, Phil."

"Why do you care so much?"
I argued, now looking up at him. He stood firmly above me as I refused to stand and match his level (well, get as close as i could to his level considering that he was one of the tallest human beings of all time).

He looked away, clenching his jaw.
Just as I begin to speak, I get a text from Grace.

Grace:
"Hey, I went out with a few people....I really need you to pick me up. No one else is available...directions below."

Below she had attatched directions to some night club called "Fold." Dan looked down at me with furrowed brows.
"Who's that?" He asked, nodding at the phone. I sighed.
"Grace wants me to pick her up. We'll talk later, I'll be right back."

I grabbed my coat, phone, and wallet and headed for the door.

"Ph-" Dan began to shout my name, but the door slammed and cut him off.
He needed to be cut off.

Grace couldn't have texted at a more perfect time. I needed an excuse, any excuse, to get out of that conversation. To get out of that question which, to be honest, I didn't know the answer to.
The night was quiet and cool, and hardly any little specks of white had decided to pierce through the pitch black sky.
I cracked my window, smiling at the cool breeze which whipped my inky hair onto my face to an almost painful extent. As I pulled up to the club Grace had directed me to, my smile melted.
What was she doing at a place like this?

I didn't know Grace to well, but I knew she wasn't a "lets go grind up against strangers and ingest shots of strange orange liquids that probably will cause me to make extremely poor choices" type of girl. Grace was a "lets stay in my well-lit kitchen all night with a bottle of Chardonnay that will probably cause me to drunk-call all my exes" type of girl.
I spotted her sitting on the back steps of the club with her head in her hands and her dress strap half off her shoulder. She didn't look like Grace.

I stepped out of the car and shuffled over to her. I lowered my hand to her and she looked up at me, frowning.
She placed her cold hand in mine and I pulled her up from the steps, escorting her to the passenger seat. She closed the door and sighed.

"Thank you so much, Phil. Seriously you are fucking awesome." She said, now smiling. She leaned her elbow onto the door and put her cheek in her hand. I couldn't help but ask what happened.

"It just didn't go well," she sighed, "That's really not my scene, you know? And the whole plan for TCC was to stick together, and-"

"What's TCC?" I asked. She looked at me, her eyes wide, then suddenly buried her head in her hands again.
"Shit." She muttered.
I hung my head, eyes back on the road.
"Look, you can't tell anyone about this, ok?" She said to me. I nodded.

"Me, Connor, Niomi, Jenna and Troye formed this stupid little group called The Cutout Club. The whole idea is that we all are left out, unnoticed, disliked, or whatever made us feel "cut out"."

There was a pause. I sat silently, focusing on the road. "That's, cool." Then I realized what I was doing. I was cutting Dan out. But what was I supposed to do? I couldn't talk to him. Not yet, anyway. I wasn't ready. I'm still confused about last night. The kiss was good. The kiss was great. Dan is great. But I'm not in love with Dan. No, I'm not in love with Dan. That's crazy. That's stupid.
I pushed the thought to the back of my head.