I drag my suitcase behind me and descend the stairs, pushing my black hair out of my face. I'll have to head home right away, shower, change, and then go and visit Dan and Phil. I promised them I'd see them right when I got back. When I reach the bottom of the steps, I see the two most amazing people standing tall, waiting for me.
As soon as I can, I run into Dan's arms and hug him tight. He's wearing his black winter coat and fuzzy hat. I must have been gone long, because Dan feels taller. He's not, though.
"Dan, I told you you didn't have to come pick me up," I say, squirming out of his grip. He's grinning wildly, like he's so happy. And I know I'm happy. I've returned, finally seeing my best friends after a week and half apart. I then give Phil a hug.
"I know," Dan says, taking my suitcase from me and leading me outside so we can take a cab. "We wanted to come. I'm lonely without you, remember?" He gives me a lopsided grin, which I return.
We took a cab to Dan and Phil's flat, the ride filled with laughter and jokes from the three of us.
"Have you seen our Gamingmas videos yet?" he asks. We're lying on the bed side by side, his computer on his lap and my phone in my hand. Phil has gone shopping for dinner, so it's just Dan and me again.
"Of course. You and Phil played Yasuhati last. You played Tattletail, Charades twice," I say. "It was all I could do to survive there."
"It couldn't have been that bad," Dan says, letting out a chuckle. "You got to see your niece. That's nice. You excited for the New Year's Party?"
I stare down at my phone's empty screen. "Yeah. Do I have to go?"
"Why do you do that?" Dan gives me a look. "You say you don't want to go every year, and every year, you come. You enjoy it. But don't you ever want to go?"
"Dan . . ." I trail off, trying to find the right words. "The parties are fun. But everyone there is a YouTuber. There are two problems. Firstly, I know very few of them, and I'll just end up standing on the side and watching everyone else have fun.
"Second thing, I'm you and Phil's friend. I love the two of you. But vloggers will be there and who knows if I'll be seen in a video vlog, some random girl at Dan and Phil's party. And I know that it's okay to you, but you know how much those Phangirls ship Phan and are willing to destroy anyone who gets in the way of Phan, emotionally or physically. And I don't want to be caught up in that as Dan or Phil's potential girlfriend that Phangirls are willing to kill."
Dan looked at me. "I'll make sure that that doesn't happen, and if it does, everything will be fine. But you have to come, okay?"
I let out a heavy sigh. "Maybe. I'll think about it."
We hear the front door swing open suddenly, making me jump a bit.
"Hey guys!" It's Phil. I get off of the bed to go greet him, but Dan stays in his room.
The three of us end up lying on the couch again, eating spaghetti while watching Home Alone for the Christmas spirit. After that, Dan, Phil and I stop the movie and start our gift exchange. We do this every year. We buy each other presents and then sit in a circle and give them to each other and just chat. Some might say it's boring, but I don't think so. I remember doing it with Phil and my brother, ten years ago. And when I met Dan, we started doing it with him.
"Who wants to start this time?" Dan asks. He and Phil both had already ran to grab their gift bags from their respective rooms. My bag was in my suitcase because I bought things from Minnesota. The three of us sat in a circle, legs crossed, dressing Christmas jumpers, with our bags in our laps.
"I can," Phil says, patting his blue bag that is the size of his head. "I got this for you, Dan." It's an almost life-sized Shiba Inu stuffed animal. When Phil pulls it out of the bag, Dan's eyes widen in surprise.
"Woah," Dan says as he grabs it from Phil and places it in his lap. He pets it and does that high pitched voice he has whenever he speaks to cute things like babies, puppies or even that koala he met in Australia. "Hello! Hello there."
"What'll you name it?" I ask him, grinning as he hugs it affectionately.
"Your mum," he fires back automatically, making both Phil and I laugh.
"And for you, Charlotte, I've got . . ." Phil reaches into the bag and pulls out a large box of chocolates the size of his head. "Chocolate!"
"Holy God, that's a lot of chocolate," Dan says from next to me as I take it.
"Thanks Phil," I say, peering at the box and comparing the size of the box to various things in arms reach. "I'll have to enlist both you and Dan to help me finish it all."
"Alright, my turn," Dan says, taking out his bag. It's quite smaller than the bag Phil had, but I expect the value to be no less. "Phil, this is for you. Funny how it's basically the same as what you got Charlotte," he continues, grinning, as he pulls out another box of chocolates, slightly smaller than the one Phil got me.
Phil smiles and puts his arms up. "Yay!" he says in his high pitched voice before taking the box from Dan and placing it beside him.
"Charlotte, I got you this because I know you love cats!" Dan says. He hands me the most adorable stuffed black cat in the world. It's the size of a baby kitten, with the ears sticking up and bright orange eyes.
"Oh my God!" I take it and cuddle it. I can hear Dan chuckling, watching me hug this gift from him. "It's so cute! I love it, Dan, thank you so much!"
"Look at the collar," Dan says. I look, and the cat does indeed have a collar. A little pouch hangs from it and curiously, I open it. There, inside of the pouch, is a slip that says, in Dan's messy handwriting that I can somehow always read, 'Charlotte, I got you VIP, front row tickets to Interactive Introverts'.
"Dan?" I say, staring at it. "Does this say . . . ?" Dan nods at me. "How much did this cost you?"
"Well, they wouldn't let us get you a free ticket, but Phil and I both paid for it for you together. But you can also come with us during the tour in the bus, you know, and travel the world with us."
"Daniel James Howell, you silly turnip. I told you already that you didn't have to," I scold him, but I still can not contain my smile. "But thank you so much. Okay, my turn to give gifts. I'm sorry my gifts aren't as grand as you guys gave me, but Phil, I got you a booklet of stickers to stick around the flat and a stuffed lion." I hold up the lion for him to take. It's about as big as the cat Dan gave me. The mane is super fluffy and soft .Phil takes it eagerly.
"Oh my God, this lion is so big and cute and soft and fluffy!" It is indeed. "Dan, I'm going to start putting stickers on everything!" Dan groans and laughs.
"And Dan," I say. "I got you a bag of Maltesers and a stuffed llama. Sorry, I know you rebranded, but I know you still like these." I hand him the Maltesers and the llama, which is about as big as Phil's lion, maybe a bit bigger.
"Now I have a small amount of candy and two stuffed animals," Dan says placing the Shibe on one leg and the llama on the other. "Oh, Maltesers. Memories. What should I name the llama? I'll ask the fans during my next liveshow."
"Yeah," I say.
I take out my phone and check the time. It's ten thirty-seven. Some might say that that's not that late, but Dan, Phil and I have many other fun things planned for the night, like a few karaoke battles. Luckily, Phil is thinking the same thing as me.
"Do you want to stay over tonight?" he asks. "We can celebrate late, and we know how you hate traveling after midnight."
"Sure," I reply. Indeed I do dislike traveling between eleven at night and five in the morning. There are some creepy people out there, and as a young girl in her early twenties, it's reasonable to be afraid to go out at dark.
"I can sleep on the sofa if you want my bed," Dan kindly suggests. I shake my head.
"No, Dan, that's your bed. I'll take the sofa."
"Are you sure?" Dan asks. I nod. "Fine by me. Now, shall we start with some karaoke?"
