It was 8 o'clock in the morning when suddenly the telephone rang in Dan and Phil's apartment. Both of them stayed up late to edit their videos (and also some procrastinating on YouTube and Tumblr). In one of the bedrooms, Dan was sleeping soundly with a black comforter draped over his head. Phil, on the other hand, had no choice but to jump out from his bed to run to stop the annoying ringing.
"Hello?"
After a few seconds, a man's voice replied, "Hello? There's a package for… Mr. Daniel Howell? Is this Daniel Howell?"
"Uh, yeah, sort of."
"We're downstairs right now so could you please come down to sign the confirmation papers?"
"Yes, I'll uh, be down in a minute, hold on."
Must be one of Dan's random merchandises that he had ordered –again. Phil walked groggily towards Dan's room and knocked. No response, unless you count an unintelligible "Ughhh whattisit" as a proper one. Phil opened the door to see his friend wrapped in his comforter, still in his don't-disturb-me-I'm-sleeping-CAN'T-YOU-SEE mode.
"Dan, there's a package for you! The mail guy wants you to sign to get the package."
Phil got a grumble as a response. Dan stared pointingly at him and Phil knew that Dan has prepared a full speech on why he should get the package.
"Phil," Dan pauses and continues, "I won in the race and you lost. Accept the fact, okay? Aren't you the one that is supposed to get the deliveries for a month?" Dan's voice went high at the word month.
There was a moment of silence before Phil could register what Dan meant.
"Oh no! I've totally forgotten about the lick race. Okay, I'll go sign the papers this time and you can go back to your beauty sleep."
"Yeah okay, thanks." Dan reached for his comforter and places it over his head once again and fell asleep within five seconds. Phil hurried to the lift but unfortunately…
"What?... The lift is temporarily… closed for repairing, please use the stairs, sorry for the inconvenience caused? Why today?" So you're telling me to go down seven flights of stairs? Phil shuddered at the thought. At least they're not living on top of the Mountain Everest, which would have been a nightmare.
Phil rushed downstairs while convincing himself that it is merely another form of exercise. After what seemed like 400 years of sweating and panting for oxygen, he reached the ground floor. He quickly head towards the mail man who seems irritated at the fact that he had to wait for this idiot for almost half an hour. The man with the uniform handed him a black ballpoint pen and a clipboard with a form on it. Phil sloppily signed and received a really heavy box that could almost reach his head.
When Phil reached the base of the stairs, he realized the fact that he has no other choice but to carry the rather heavy package all the way up. Even without the package, he's already getting adequate exercise. Now that he has this package…
After another 400 years (except that it's probably 15 minutes), Phil finally reached the doorstep of their shared apartment –to find out that the door is locked. He doesn't have his cell phone with him, and the keys are inside. He grudgingly placed the box next to him and started buzzing the doorbell.
15 buzzes later, he has come to realize that nobody would open the door. Dan must be in his deep sleep filled with llamas and unicorns again. Shaking his head at the ridiculous image, he started to knock the door really loudly until a neighbor opened the door and yelled at him for "creating a commotion at a resident area". Phil apologized profusely and gave up on the idea of knocking.
After the neighbor, an old lady, went back in, Phil considered the idea of waking Dan up from his "beauty sleep" but decided not to. Dan would have been mad at him if he tries it again without any real reason. In the end, he decided to just sit down and nap in front of the door. He needs to make up for his lost sleep anyway.
It was 1 pm when Dan was heading out to buy some brunch for the both of them. What greeted him at the front of the door shocked him.
Phil's snoring with a box next to him.
Dan stood there and stared at Phil. It almost reminded him of how he himself had almost got in trouble for sleeping during working hours but –waving off the thoughts Dan tries to wake Phil up. "Phil? What the hell are you doing here outside?"
Phil woke up and looked around groggily. "Huh? Who?" He pushed himself off the ground and stood up. "Oh, uh, your package. I tried buzzing the doorbell but you didn't open the door! I didn't want to disturb you from your sleep."
Dan sighed. "Oh, Phil. You could have at least tried harder to buzz or something. I could have woken up if you did."
"I did. I tried buzzing the doorbell for fifteen times."
"… How about knocking then?"
"I tried, but the lady next door stopped me."
"… Okay. I'm sorry! I'm heading out to get some brunch. Since you're already out here, wanna go?"
Phil looks down at his shirt and pants. "Uh, give me a few minutes."
"Sure. While I check this package, you can go and get ready."
Dan carried the heavy box back in and dumped it unceremoniously on the kitchen counter. "Well, well, well… what do we have here?" He questioned in a sing-song like way as he opened the box. To be honest, he couldn't remember what he had actually ordered since there are times where he would just go on an online ordering spree… so yeah.
When he finally sees the contents in the box he grinned.
"Starbucks?"
"Yeah that would be great," Dan agreed.
As they walked into the warm building filled with the aroma of the coffee and an occasional whiff of cheese (probably the ham and cheese sandwiches), Phil turned to Dan and asked, "So what's that package exactly?"
"Nothing special, you know, just some merchandise from this game I've been playing."
"Oh. Must be a really heavy figurine then."
Their conversation was cut short when it's time for them to order.
What is the package exactly?
We'll never know.
But Phil could tell that it could be actually the same thing that he had received on his birthday on the following week.
It's a huge Lion, as in with a capital L.
END