Phan Fic-
Based on the song "The Moment I Knew" by Taylor Swift
Christmas lights that should have been taken down at the beginning of the month glistened in the packed apartment and Phil wondered why they had never taken them down. They had been fairly busy that month but surely they could have found time to take them down, Dan had complained every time he saw them but Phil secretly liked them being up still as they made the apartment feel more like a home. Phil had his eye on the door, waiting for Dan to burst in with his "baby I'm right here" smile. Time was ticking away on the clock , Phil finding himself watching it every few seconds rather than pay attention to what was going on around him. Every second that passed by was one spent waiting and a second closer to slowly losing hope. The majority of his friends were gathered at the house , their voices filling the normally quiet apartment, people occupying on the normally empty chairs. People asked Phil how he had been as he combed back through his memories, how Dan said he'd be there. As the party around him carried on, Phil felt as if he was living in slow motion, as if no one else noticed what was going on around him, standing there in his best shirt with no one to impress. His friends were all laughing as he looked around the room but there was one thing missing. Phil kept glancing towards the door and started to imagine what it would feel like when Dan walked in, imaging it to be like a million little shining stars aligning and he would have been so happy.
The hours started to pass by slowly and Phil watched the clock continuously for the majority of the night. One of his friends was showing of her party dress and new red lipstick but Phil just wanted to be alone as he looked at the clock once more as he realised how long it had been. He quietly excused himself from his friends, trying to hide from their concerned looks and asking about Dan. Phil quickly left out of the room, pretending that he needed to go do something, anything to get him away from the questions he knew his friends would have. However a couple of his close friends always seemed to know when there was something really wrong so they followed Phil down the hall into the bathroom. Phil gripped hold of the bathroom sink, trying to not fall apart as sinking feeling started in his stomach. Each of his friends asked him what was wrong and all he could say hopelessly was,
"He said he'd be here."
His friends eventually managed to convince him to come back into the lounge, giving him encouragement as he went with them. They said they knew that it was going to be okay and told him what to say to the others. But what Phil wanted to know was what he was supposed to say when tears were streaming down his face in front of everyone he knew? What was he supposed to do when the one who meant the most to him was the one who didn't show? Hurriedly he wiped his eyes with his sleeve and tried to smile as he walked into the room, all the lights apart from the fairy lights had been turned off. His friends began to sit around the table in the center of the room and Phil concentrated on the the table rather than people still asking him about Dan. They motioned towards him to stand in the middle and the rest of his friends sat around him and they all started to sing "Happy birthday". Phil smiled even though he knew that one thing was still missing and he blew out the candles on the cake , pretending that everything was going to be okay.
As the night drew to a close, Phil waved away the last of his friends as they climbed into a taxi. Slowly he climbed back up the stairs back to the apartment, the excitement he had felt at the start of the night had been drained away from him. He made his way into the lounge and fell down on the couch, pulling the nearest cushion towards him , wrapping his arms around it as the tears start to fall from his eyes again. Dan should've been there that night and Phil would have been so happy if he had. Later that night Phil could hear his phone ringing loudly in the kitchen. At the start of the night he would have run but now he just stumbled his way down the hall. He checked the i.d briefly before accepting the call. He took a breath before placing the phone to his ear and hearing Dan's voice say,
"I'm sorry, I didn't make it,"
Phil took a minute to think about what he was going to say and decided on,
"I'm sorry too,"
And that was the moment Phil knew.