Phil's's POV
After a lot of time thinking over whether it'd be a good idea for all of us to attend Summer in The City 2013, we finally decided we would show up. It was odd to be going as a group of 6 instead of our usual group of 4. PJ and Chris were coming along with us. We actually didn't let anyone other than the event planners know that we were coming.
I'm not trying to sound conceited but madness would probably go down if we went and told people we were showing up before hand. Especially with Dan so recently announcing his engagement to Cat.
We'd decided against attending the first 2 days of festivities which were mainly indoor events. Sunday was the last day where everyone just chilled out and walked around the park near the venue. Fans could just come talk to us or whatever so there wasn't any real structure.
I held Leila's hand as we walked towards the park. There were a bunch of people there. It looked like way more than the year before. I was pretty damn nervous. You never know what to expect during those things.
I looked over at Leila and had to smile because she looked so adorable. She and Cat both decided to represent their men by wearing t-shirts that had Dan and I on them. My guess was that they would end up being asked for photos just as much as us 4 youtube guys would be.
We'd barely been walking into the park for 30 seconds when people started to notice us. It wasn't difficult to notice people stare then turn towards their fans and frantically say something while pointing at you.
The first group of girls to approach us literally skipped over to us with huge smiles on their faces.
"We didn't know you guys were coming! Holy shit!" One of them said excitedly. I was a bit shocked to hear that she had an American accent. It was rare to meet an American at SITC.
"It was a secret," I told her, smiling at her and her friends.
"I can't believe you two came too!" she said, motioning towards Cat and Leila. "We are so Team Can and Phileila," she laughed.
"Hell yeah, girl!" Cat laughed. "That's awesome. Thank you."
Leila looked relieved to hear the girl say that and the girl seemed to have noticed it too, because she started laughing. "Don't worry! I'm not going to shove the large end of a rake in your ass or anything. I'm saving that mess for one of the crazy phans that are lurking around here," she patted Leila's arm.
Leila was laughing, as were the rest of our group and the girl's friends. "That might be one of the best things I've ever heard," she said and instantly started laughing again.
"That was horrifically hilarious," Dan commented. "Funniest thing I've heard all day award goes to-"
"Maria," the girl introduced herself. "I just wanted to tell all of you that you're awesome and-" she trailed off and shifted her eyes, and all of us looked in the same direction to see what had caught her attention.
There was a bird in the middle of the field and that was it.
"Sorry, super A.D.D moment," she laughed. "What was I even saying? Ah fuck, I don't know."
We all laughed as well. "I think you might be related to Cat," I told her.
"Sounds like it," Cat agreed. "Where are you from? It's obvious you're not from around here," she laughed.
"Florida," she smiled. "I had to save for fucking ever to get here but it's been so worth it. This is just the icing on the cake. I adore all of you. I stalk your tumblrs like it's going out of style," she laughed. "That sounded creepy but-"
"We are the queens of tumblr stalkage. No worries," Cat interrupted as she pulled her phone out and did something on her screen. "Whats your url? I'll follow you."
Her eyes got wide and she stared at Cat like she went completely blank before finally snapping out of it. "Mine? Oh! It's professionalgamegirl all one word," she told her.
"Followed," Cat smiled.
I noticed she had a camera in her hand and motioned towards it. At this point there was a circle starting to form around us. People were keeping a few feet away so not to crowd us, thankfully, but it was obvious that people noticed we were here.
"Did you want to take a photo?" I asked her.
"If you guys don't mind?"
"Of course we don't!" Cat answered her.
We took a few photos with her and then more people began coming up to all of us. Some flipped out over the girls more than us which was hilarious because neither of them were expecting it.
People were even wearing Team Phileila, Team Can, Team Pholdemort, and Team Whiskers shirts. What made that even better is no one even know we were coming and they wore those.
Leila and Cat were both asking people who were wearing shirts like those if they could take pictures with them, which caused even more fangirling from them, because they probably didn't expect for our girlfriends - well, my girlfriend and Dan's fiance - to care so much that our fans liked them and shipped them with us.
Lots of girls were asking to see Cat's ring, which caused Cat to keep letting out her rare girly giggles. There were a lot of "Holy SHITs" and "DAMNs" getting thrown around because of it.
We got to meet so many sweet people and we got to see familiar faces of people we'd met the year before.
Once we got through meeting everyone in the circle that had formed around us we were actually able to move further into the park. There were groups of people spread around the grass sitting down, so we all decided to do the same.
"Nooooooooooooooo!" Dan whined, calling a lot of attention to himself. I looked over to see that he was holding a box of Maltesers upside down. "They melted! This cannot be happening to me! What is my life?!"
"Ladies and gentlemen, my future husband," Cat said while holding her hands out towards him.
"You should've known that was going to happen, Dan," I laughed. It had been hotter than Satan's asscrack as my girlfriend so elegantly said earlier.
"Yeah.. it's fucking hot!" Leila fanned her face. "You shouldn't be eating all of that chocolate in the sun anyways. You'll throw up," she told him sounding very motherly.
Dan rolled his eyes at her then proceeded to stick his finger down into the Maltesers box, scooping the melted chocolate out of it and eating it that way. "Still good," he shrugged. "You want some baby?" Dan asked her, leaning over and putting his chocolate covered fingers in her face.
She raised an eyebrow and looked at him like she was judging him but then suddenly leaned forward and managed to get all of his fingers into her mouth. "Mmmm," she made the noise loudly while sucking the chocolate off of him.
"I feel like I just witnessed something I wasn't supposed to," I said as I scooted closer to Leila.
"Yeah, Cat licking shit off of Dan's fingers," she pointed at them. "That really looks like shit."
"It tastes like chocolatey Dan heaven," Cat laughed as she wiped the corners of her mouth. "Stop being mean to me, gah!"
"Oh no. Don't do that. You'll have Whisker fans coming to beat us up," I replied before taking a sip of my water. It was really entirely too hot out that day. I don't know how either of them would even want chocolate and that says a lot coming from me.
"Whisker fans are Phil and Dan fans, doofus," she laughed.
"I know! You stole them," I poked my bottom lip out and she rolled her eyes before throwing her drink cap at me.
I turned to look at Leila and she had her sunglasses on so I couldn't see her eyes so I would know if she was actually comfortable there or not. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get her to come to this thing. She had her normal paranoia about hater Phans on top of the fact that no one ever caught the crazy person who broke into our flats.
"Are you alright, sweetheart?" I whispered against her ear before kissing it softly.
"I'm fine," she replied as she tilted her head too look at me. "Just hot," she looked over to her right and my eyes followed to see a group of people staring in our direction. "And a little bothered by that," she added without looking away from them. "I can't tell if they're over there judging us or if-"
"They've found your last horcrux and they're waiting to destroy it," Dan filled in. "Or they might be trying to figure out how to attack you so they can steal your organs and sell them on the black market."
That sounded completely ridiculous but I had a feeling that she probably had that actual fear.
She looked over at him and without warning squoze her water bottle in his direction, spraying water all over him and Cat.
"Oh shit! I didn't mean to get you too," Leila covered her mouth while Dan continued sitting there looking at her in disbelief.
"What the fuck!" he squealed in a very unmanly way. "Cat, you better get your friend before I do."
Cat sighed loudly. "Fine." She crawled over to Leila and then situated herself on her lap and proceeded to nuzzle her face against the side of Leila's head. "My Leleeeeeeeeeeee!" she said in a very odd, squealy sort of voice.
"Somehow I don't think that's what he meant," I laughed
"It's not," Dan sighed and pushed himself up off of the ground. It looked as though he was about to sit down beside me, but instead he leaned over me with his arm outstretched. "This is what I meant," he said quickly before pouring an entire bottle of water on top of Cat and Leila's heads.
Leila gasped and whipped her head around to look at Dan but he had already moved a few feet away from us. "I'm wearing white you shithead!"
"You are dead!" Cat squealed as she scrambled to get to her feet and started running towards him. It was amazing how fast her short legs could take her.
"I have another shirt in my bag," I told Leila as I picked it up. "I brought extra clothes just in case someone went crazy and flour bombed me or something horrible and Dan-like."
I held it up for her but snatched it back quickly when she reached for it. "You can have it in exchange for a kiss," I grinned.
She pushed her sunglasses up and smiled at me as she leaned in to kiss me. Of course I loosened my grip on the shirt and she snatched it away from me before she actually kissed me. "Aha, sucker!" she laughed at herself.
I went into pout mode, which I something I know she can't tolerate even when we're playing around. "Awww," she pushed her bottom lip out and leaned in again and kissed me.
Really kissed me.
The kind of kiss that I don't really like sharing in public.
Of course I returned the kiss. How could I not? It'd be impossible to. But I was finding it more and more difficult to keep from creating a tent of denim on the crotch of my pants so I reluctantly pulled back.
I cleared my throat and took a deep breath to steady myself. "Well. That escalated quickly," I grinned at her.
"Piggy back riiiiiiide!" I heard Cat yelling and turned around to see Dan running by with Cat hanging onto his back, people following behind them snapping pictures.
Leila bursted out laughing as she watched the madness that was our best friends acting like a couple of little kids before she sighed. "I don't know what I would do without myself without those two," she shook her head and then pushed herself up off of the ground and glanced around the park. "Umm, do they have a bathroom or something here?" she held up the shirt I had given her while covering her soaked chest with her free arm.
I was about to answer when Dan ran by again. Or galloped by, rather, smacking his own ass, Cat still on his back.
Where the hell did Mr. Lazy-as-fuck get all of that energy to run around with his girlfriend latched onto him?
"Yeah," I said as I looked away from them. "See that little building over there?" I pointed towards the left. "They have bathrooms there. Maybe see if you can stop Cat and get her to go with you. Public bathrooms scare me. I don't want someone to steal you or something."
As if she received a signal that I'd said her name, Cat came running back over to us laughing loudly. "I left Dan in a sea of fangirls," she grinned. "And I gotta rock a monster piss, yo."
"Such a lady," I joked. "I was just telling Leila I'd rather you go with her to the bathroom so she can change shirts anyway."
"Good deal. Let's do the damn thing," she said as she extended her arm for Leila to take.
Leila and Cat marched across the grass and in the distance I could see Dan making his way back towards where I was sitting by myself. I couldn't believe he'd managed to escape the slew of Phans so quickly.
"I need a power nap," he said breathlessly as he plopped down on the grass beside me. After a few seconds he looked around and I could tell that he looked really confused. "Where is my fiance and your girlfriend?" he asked, looking at me with his eyebrows furrowed together.
"I let some Phans take them home with them," I shrugged, trying to sound like I was serious. "I told them to just make sure they fed them and stuff."
The 'not amused' look on Dan's face made me laugh. "They're in the restroom so Leila could change her shirt and your girlfriend could rock a monster piss, yo, as she put it."
"My fiance," Dan corrected me. "And that sounds like something she'd say," he grinned. "When are we having our picnic? I'm starving," he said while pulling his phone out of his pocket to check the time. "Woo! It's almost 5! I'm excited about the firework show later. Because after it's over, we get to go home."
"We can whenever the girls get back, I suppose," I said as I looked over my shoulder to see if they were on their way back yet.
When he said it as almost 5, I felt like my heart fell out of my butt. "Almost 5 already?" I asked, laughing nervously. "Time is going by quite fast."
It was obvious that Dan was judging me, because apparently he could read me as well as I could read him. "Yeah, it is. Why do you look like you're dreading it? Don't you like fireworks? Don't you want to go home?" his eyes got really big because he said the latter part in a very animated dramatic Dan way as he reached out and shook my shoulders. "I do." He let go of me and leaned back onto his elbows. "I want to be in air conditioning and have sex then play Skyrim and have more sex."
"What about sex during Skyrim?" I asked, laughing. "I wonder if someone has done that."
There he was, judging me again. "Ask Leila to try it out with you. I'm sure she'll love you paying attention to the telly instead of her while you're cramming an X-Box controller into her ass."
"Wow, Dan. Wow. You could have kept it as simple as her riding you as you peek over her shoulder and hold the controller behind her back but no. You had to talk about the controller going up her ass. I honestly do not know why I'm shocked," I laughed as I shook my head.
I looked over my shoulder and I could see the girls had been stopped on the way back. They were talking to a pretty big group of people. Leila even looked like she was comfortable. Her and Cat were talking and laughing together. It made me smile to see them getting along with people who were probably our viewers.
"I see the girls hit a road block," I said as I motioned behind us with my head.
Dan glanced over his shoulder and laughed to himself. "I've got a feeling they might be a while," he said, looking back at me again. "Did you think so many people would come around to them? I mean in the beginning there were only a handful of people who," he leaned forward so he could hold up his hands and curve his fingers into quotes, "shipped it."
I laughed. "Actually, I sort of figured people would flock to them. I mean, we probably hold them up on a pedestal. Okay, we do hold them up on a pedestal," I rolled my eyes, chuckling. "We're drawn to them. We spend all of our time with them and want to spend all of our time with them. I don't know about you but it's hard for me to imagine anyone not wanting to be around them except the idiots who sort of mindlessly hate them because they ship Phan."
"That's true," Dan nodded. "Wow, Phil. You actually make sense for once," he laughed. "But that's another reminder that we're both extremely lucky. Those two could probably attract any man who looks at them, yet they want two tall British guys with emo fringes and loud mouths... And what in the actual fuck are they staring at," he blurted out leaning his head forward.
I looked over to see the same group of people that Leila had mentioned earlier were still in the same place, staring at me and Dan.
"Hi," Dan lifted his hand and waved, because that's the kind of person he was.
It took a total of three seconds before they started coming towards us.
I wondered if they were coming to say something to Dan for calling them out, or if they were just nervous viewers who didn't know how to approach us.
"Um.. hi," one of the girls spoke up once she and her group of friends were in front of us. "Uh, so we were on Twitter and we saw something that we thought we should show you guys but we weren't sure if we should because.."
"Because it's none of our business, but we follow you guys on tumblr and we remember the big thing that happened at the beginning of the year with all of those leaked photographs and your addresses getting posted..." another one of the girls filled in.
An instant feeling of dread punched me right in the chest when they brought that up. None of us had really discussed that incident in months. Part of me knew we wouldn't be lucky enough to get out of that whole situation without something else happening but I had hoped.
"What did you see on twitter?" I asked as I reached back to pull my phone out of my pocket.
"Umm, 'following Phan' is trending," the shorter of the two girls cleared her throat. "I went to see what it was about and it's a twitter account with photo after photo of you two and your girlfriends.. from today. There are tweets too," she told us. "We're so sorry to bring it up, but we didn't know if you guys knew or not and uh the whole thing that happened before was just wrong so we thought you should know. So yeah."
"Oh fucking hell," I sighed loudly and looked over at Dan before looking back down at my phone which had finally loaded my twitter app. I found the trend and clicked on it. Of course I was having to go through tons of retweets. "Maybe these are just from people walking around here," I said right before I finally saw the source of all of the photos which was the actual account called 'following phan'.
"Let's hope so," Dan said under his breath as he picked up his phone. I could tell he was agitated because I was, and it took a lot more to annoy me than it did to annoy him. "Thanks for letting us know, though. I don't think either of us had any plans of checking our twitters today," he told them then focused his attention back on his phone.
After that the group of girls took it upon themselves to leave us be - because both of us were very invested in the screens on our iphones.
"Fuck," I said under my breath as I began reading over the tweets from this person. It was instantly obvious that it was the person who'd been behind all of the madness we hoped we had put behind us. "I can't believe Dan is marrying that thing," I read aloud to Dan. "I think he needs an intervention."
I looked over at Dan and rubbed my temple. "What the hell? Do they think you're marrying an actual Cat. These photos are fucking creepy. They've been close to us the whole time we've been out today."
"Oh my God," Dan finally looked over at me and turned his phone around so that I could see the screen. There were two new tweets that had just been posted. The first one said 'Where are their girlfriends' with a picture attached that was of me and Dan sitting right where we were at looking at our phones.
Dan scrolled down to the next one just as I'd finished reading the first.
'Maybe I can destroy them like I did their apartments.'
A feeling of complete dread washed over me. I quickly looked over to where the girls had been standing to see that they were standing there posing for pictures. "We need to get them and get the hell out of here, Dan," I told him as I began throwing stuff back into my bag.
Honestly, I didn't want to leave. I had something important I wanted to do and doing it at home wasn't anything I'd planned. But their safety came first. With what the person said in that last text, I knew that I didn't need to take chances.
"Hang on," Dan grabbed my arm, his eyes were still focused on his phone. "They DM'd me," he told me and I leaned over to see what the message said.
'Leaving so soon? That's great. I wanted to see where you guys lived now.'
Dan's hands were shaking and he quickly started typing in a reply to them.
'Who the fuck is this?'
"Phil," he looked up at me when he was finished. "I'm not so sure we should go. If they follow us home..."
"Well what the hell do we do?" I asked, glancing around us like the paranoid person I was. I swear, I felt like my heart was about to explode. I kept glancing over at the girls to make sure they were still there. It was taking every bit of will power I had not to jump up and go get them to come back.
"I don't want to put them through this again," I sighed. "Everything has been so great lately."
"I don't know, but if we leave, this fucking crazy cunt is going to follow us and she or he or they will know where we live. I would suggest going straight to the police but I've got a feeling that as soon as we go there, this account will disappear and we'll be stuck, yet again without any answers." He told me sounding very un-Dan-like.
I heard his phone beep and we both looked down to see that the person had replied.
'Send your fiance to the front gate at dusk and you'll find out. I'm sure she would love to see me.'
Dan and I looked at each other. "We're not leaving," he said sternly. "There is security all over the place, and if they're with us, they'll be safe. I'm not going to let anything happen to Cat and I know you're not going to let anything happen to Leila. I want this to be over," he told me and looked back down at his phone.
'She'll be quite excited to finally be able to introduce her fist to your face. I'll let her know. I hope you're ready. It's more or less your funeral.'
He typed the messaged then slid his phone back into his pocket before moving to stand up.
"What the hell are we going to do?" I asked as I followed him in standing up.
I knew that there was no way in hell that Dan was going to let Cat go meet this person. It was hard to come up with a solution to this issue that made sense other than that one though. If we called the cops then that person would most likely flee as soon as they saw one in the area. It looked like we were completely screwed.
"We're going to go and meet the psycho," Dan said quietly as we slowly made our way towards the group that the girls were still chatting with. I knew he wanted to make it look like he was going over there to tell Cat that she had an appointment to beat someone's ass; even though I also knew he had no intentions of telling her.
"We'll be fine, and I don't think we should even tell them anything about the twitter account or the messages. They will start freaking out and we both know that Cat will jump at the opportunity to bash this girl's face in."
I nodded in response because we were too close to the group at that point for me to say anything to him without being heard. Leila spotted us first. Cat was looking down at something someone was giving to her. I raised my hand and waved at Leila hoping that I didn't look as petrified as I actually was.
"Having fun?" I asked when a few people spotted Dan and I and allowed us to step in next to the girls. I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed the side of her head which was something I wouldn't normally do in front of a bunch of fans but I was feeling very protective.
"Yes!" she said excitedly, which was very surprising because I knew how uncomfortable being our fans made her sometimes. "These are the coolest people I've ever met! Look at what they made for us," she lifted her arm and went on to show me a very large picture of fanart that one of the people in the group had drawn for her. It was a really amazing and detailed picture of she and I with Dan and Cat.
I could hear Cat squeal and I'm pretty sure my heart rate picked up because I was already so nervous, but when I glanced up I saw that she had probably been scared by something that Dan had done to her - because he was standing behind her with his arms wrapped around her waist, being as protective as I was while looking over her shoulder at whatever she was holding.
"Can we go eat now?" Dan asked, and I had to hand it to him, he looked as natural and normal as he had before we found out that the stalker was after us again.
"Awww, do we have to?" she turned her head so that she could see his face and she grinned before kissing his cheek. Just about everyone around us said 'aaaaw' which made Cat start laughing. "I like these people," she said as she gestured towards them.
"Well, they're more than welcome to join us for our picnic," I suggested. Whoever this was hopefully wouldn't be stupid enough to try anything with people all around us.
"Really?" one of the girls turned and looked up at me. She had a look on her face that sort of said 'this is the best day of my life'. I selfishly wished I could enjoy making someone that happy instead of worrying about a psychotic person stalking us. "Of course!"
"Yay that'd be fun!" Cat said as she turned around in Dan's arms to face him. "Are you okay?" she tilted her head as she looked up at him and I think my heart stopped beating for a second. Dan was a damn good actor and even I probably wouldn't have been able to see through the performance he had going so how the hell could she?
"No, I'm starving to death!" he said dramatically, moving his hands to his stomach.
Nice save, Dan.
"I'm so glad you're having fun, sweetheart," I told Leila, trying to keep up with Dan in the acting normal department. I grabbed her hand and lifted it so that I could kiss her knuckles.
"Me too," she laced her fingers through mine. "But I am also starving," she laughed and glanced around before literally just collapsing onto her bum, tugging me down beside her. "This looks like a mighty fine place for our picnic."
"I don't care what they say about you, Pholdy, but I like you," Dan laughed, and the girls around us joined in on the giggling.
Dan pretty much did the same thing as Leila, fell to his bum and sat just where he had been standing, Cat sitting down beside him.
The girls and the guys who were there with us did the same and we made a little circle with the food spread out in the middle.
We were about to start eating when we heard someone screaming. Dan and I both looked at each other before looking for the source of the noise.
It was PJ.
PJ was running across the field screaming "NOOOOOOO,", Chris chasing him. "LET ME LOVE YOU PJ!"
"Just let it happen, PJ!" Cat yelled towards them and everyone around us was laughing quite hard at the little show we were getting.
Everyone was sitting around talking and eating their snacks. I was in paranoia mode. If any of them could've heard my heartbeat they would have known something was going on. I couldn't keep myself from looking around us every few seconds and I wanted to check twitter so badly. But I also wanted everyone around us to have their attention pulled away from their phones. It would only take one of them hopping on twitter to see what would happen and the girls would find out.
This was not how I saw this day playing out. I smoothed my hand over the small object in my pocket and felt hugely disappointed that my plans were being ruined by whoever this asshole was.
Leila took notice to the fact that I was zoned out. I felt her hand on my thigh and jumped a bit because it was closer to my pocket than I wanted it to be at that particular moment.
"Are you okay?" she laughed. I slid my hand down my leg and curled my fingers through hers so her hand couldn't move up any further.
"He can't handle you touching him in public," Dan commented as he put his arm around Cat's shoulder.
We'd all finished eating and now we were just hanging out, waiting for time to pass until the firework show started at nightfall.
And from the looks of the tainted lavender sky, it would be upon us within the next little while.
I had been nervous about the bloody firework show all day, but now I was nervous for a completely different reason.
Cat's POV
The day had been going so perfectly. I was honestly nervous when Dan and Phil asked us to go to Summer In The City with them because I knew we had a lot of people on our sides but we also had a lot of people who were not at all. Plus, Dan had very recently announced the engagement so I didn't know if that would sway opinions. I was just a big ball of 'what ifs' until we got there and met some of the sweetest people ever.
It was so awesome to hear all the stories of how Dan and Phil's fans first discovered them and how they felt when they first saw us. I knew for a fact that Leila and I had enough little awesome things people had given us to cover a full shelf in our apartments.
I'm not sure how long Lele and I had been standing there talking to the group of girls we were with when Dan and Phil came over wanting to get some food. I don't know why but I instantly got this weird vibe from Dan. Something didn't feel right. I couldn't put my finger on it. His body language was the same and everything but somehow, something was off.
I ignored it though. I didn't want to nag him after asking him and him not offering the information if something had been bothering him. We were all sitting around enjoying the biggest picnic I'd ever been to. Tons of us were just chilling in this big circle talking.
By the time the sun had nearly set, all of those people already knew about how Dan proposed to me and the story of our hilarious Thanksgiving together.
"What time are they doing the fireworks, almost husband?" I asked as I leaned my head over on Dan's shoulder.
"Dusk," he grinned down at me, wrapping his arms around my waist. "So it should be soon," he said then kissed the top of my head.
"Another new experience," I heard Leila say and I looked over at her to see that she was smiling at me. "You know, the whole kissing someone under fireworks thing. I've never done that before. You haven't either, right?" she asked me.
"Unless you count me grabbing you and kissing you after we did those 800 shots of vodka on New Year's eve and Lorcan decided to nearly blow up the entire complex with roman candles kissing under fireworks then no," I laughed hard remembering that night.
Phil was laughing too but at the same time looked horrified. "I feel like you two had such a dangerous life before you came here. My Lord, all of these insane stories."
"I can't believe I actually forgot about that!" Leila said through her laughter as she shook her head. "Well, actually I can, with all of that Vodka we drank."
Meanwhile, everyone sitting around us was still cackling, making comments about how insane we are and how hilarious we are, and I'm pretty sure I heard a lone 'make out with each other now' but I pretended like I didn't.
"So, if you two wouldn't have met us, do you think you would have just started dating each other?" Dan asked with a laugh. "I mean, I've heard so many stories about you two making out, and seeing each other naked," he shrugged. "I ship it."
"Of course you do," I laughed, rolling my eyes. "If we didn't end up with y'all I know we would've continued to live with each other. I'm not so sure about dating. We both like penis, deep voices, man smells and man hair and whatnot too much." I leaned over and sniffed the front of his shirt. "Mmmm. Man smell."
"But you guys do have a lot of making out stories," Phil added. "Like, a lot."
"Oh yeah," I laughed. "I know we do. She's my bff. I can kiss her if I wanna," I shrugged. "I love her, she's sexy and she's a good kisser. That's all it is."
"Well, I can't argue with that," Phil grinned as he looked down at Leila.
She grinned back at him and scooted a little closer to him so that she was cuddled up against his side. "Same for Cat. I remember the first time we kissed," she started laughing. "It was when we first moved to LA and she snuck me into a bar because I was only 17... Lots of really creepy guys were hitting on us. We told them that we were lesbians but they weren't buying it, so Cat just grabs my face and starts making out with me in front of them, of course she also groped me in the process of it all.. Oh, what a wonderful night that was," she sighed. "I don't think I had even kissed a guy that aggressively at that point."
"Phil put your boner away," Dan teased. We all knew what stories of Leila and I doing things like that did to him. "I should probably work on putting mine away too."
"I'm sure that none of our picnic guests have issues with either of you having boners," I joked and heard a few of them agree with me. "But I think it'd be very illegal for most of you to see that," I laughed.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" We all turned to where a guy was standing in the middle of the part with a megaphone. "We're 10 minutes away from dusk and the fireworks show will begin soon after that!"
"Yay! Fireworks!" I clapped my hands like the child I apparently am.
Everyone began gathering their things to stand up so we could walk over to an area where we'd all be standing to watch the fireworks. Phil stood up and held his hand out for Leila but instead of just helping her up, he pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her.
He was feeling extra lovey tonight. I was starting to wonder if he and Dan had snuck in some Pimm's without telling us.
I stood up as well and brushed the grass off of my ass.
I felt hands on me and looked up only to have my face smashed against Dan's chest because he had forced me into a hug. A really, really tight one. He kissed the top of my head before pulling away to kiss my lips. He looked down at me for a few seconds without speaking. "I've got to, what is it... Oh, rock a monster piss," he laughed. "If you see Chris and PJ make them stay with you. I don't want to have to search high and low for them when we're trying to leave."
There it was again. That uneasy feeling was hitting me. This time it was evident in his eyes. Something wasn't right. For some reason I had an overwhelming urge to ask him not to go. But it'd be a bit crazy to ask someone not to go to the bathroom.
"I need to do the same," Phil spoke up and I looked over to see he was still holding Leila. He looked away from us and said something to her I couldn't hear before kissing her lips.
"You'll be right back?" I asked, looking up at Dan again. I reached up and rubbed my thumb over his cheek right where one of his dimples was.
"Of course," he grinned, which caused his dimples to faintly show. "We'll only be gone for a few minutes," he told me before kissing my forehead and pulling away from me.
He looked over at Phil who seemed to look at him at the same time and within a few seconds they were both walking away from us.
Leila watched them just as closely as I did before she looked over at me and moved towards me. "I... have a weird feeling," he said slowly. "They were being.." she shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Well they weren't being anything but," she shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I'm just feeling weird because of where we're at," she gestured towards some people who were standing in front of us wearing Dan and Phil shirts.
"Maybe so," I replied as I ran my fingers through my hair. "We're definitely out of our element."
"Ladies!" I looked over to see PJ and Chris approaching us with their own little group of ladies along with them. "May we escort you beautiful women to the firework show?" Chris asked trying to sound all fancy which did succeed in making me laugh.
He held his arm out for me and PJ held his out for Leila. I remembered what Dan said about finding them and decided I'd go along with it. The area we were in was getting crowded. "Yes sir," I nodded at him and grabbed Leila's free hand for us to walk together.
"Hey, where's Maria?" I asked Leila as we walked. I was trying to peek over people's heads to spot her. "I liked her. She said she'd watch the fireworks with us."
"Marriiiaaaa, MARRIIIAAAA," Leila called out sounding like the guy in A West Side Story as she looked around, standing on her tiptoes so she could see over the crowd. She ended up making her self laugh like she always did then shook her head. "I don't see her!" she glanced over at me. "Maybe she's further into the crowd?"
We 'excuse-us'd our way through the crowd a bit more, PJ, Chris, and their group of friends following behind us as we looked around and called out for her, but we still didn't have any luck with finding her.
The first firework explosion went off and Leila squealed. "SO pretty! Where is my boyfriend? I need Phil kisses," she said as she glanced around where we were standing.
"I'll give you some kisses, baby!" I said before leaning towards her and pecking her cheek.
Honestly I was wondering where they were too. Dan was fucking tall and I figured I'd be able to see his head above all of those people's when I stood on my tiptoes. I never saw them come out of the bathrooms.
The fireworks became more frequent though and pulled my attention away for a few moments. I pulled my phone out and was making a video of them in case the boys weren't getting to see it for any reason.
The entire fireworks show lasted nearly half an hour and I felt like I was almost deaf by the time it ended. I looked over at Leila and she looked at me. We were both wondering the same thing.
Had a Phan kidnapped our boys?
No, but seriously, we were wondering where they were.
"PJ?" I said as I approached him. "Have you seen Dan and Phil?"
"Uh. Nope. I haven't seen them since they were with you earlier."
"Come on. Let's go find them," I said to Leila as I grabbed her hand to make our way through the crowds of people walking away from where we'd been standing.
Over all of the talking I could hear sirens which wasn't abnormal at all for London but they did seem rather close.
"Cat!"
Someone screamed my name and I looked around but I couldn't see where the voice was coming from.
"Leila! Cat!" Whoever it was they sounded frantic.
"Who the fu-" I was interrupted by someone literally running into my chest. I grabbed the person's arms to steady myself and realized it was Maria.
She had tears streaming down her face and a look of complete terror on her face. "You guys have to come with me!" she told me, grabbing my free hand and trying to pull me away.
"Whoa, whoa! Calm down, what happened?" I asked, trying to keep her from pulling me. I didn't know what the hell was going on.
Suddenly I heard not one but a few very loud, horror movie sounding screams echo through the park. It seemed like everyone stopped and looked in the direction of where the noise came from.
My eyes focused on blue and red lights flashing through the trees and people running towards them.
"What the fuck is going on?"
"It's Dan and Phil!" she finally blurted out and I swear it felt like my blood went ice cold.
"What? What happened?" I asked, already sounding frantic.
"You have to come with me," she practically begged, losing her shit more and more by the second.
I didn't say anything else and everything after that felt sort of like a blur. I held Leila's hand so tightly as we ran, I don't know how I didn't break her fingers. We ran into people and probably knocked a few down on our way towards those lights.
I didn't know what I was about to see. I couldn't even gather my thoughts in the few seconds it took for me to get there.
There was a crowd of people gathered around the area and I couldn't see anything at first. A few people turned and saw Leila and I and the people helped to push us ahead. Most of them were sobbing and I didn't know why. I think I was in denial, not wanting to believe something could actually happen to either of them.
We finally got up to the edge of the road and a police officer stepped in front of me but I peeked over his shoulder and that's when I saw what I'll probably never ever be able to erase from my mind.
The man I loved was lying on the ground in the middle of the road, face down and motionless. A few feet away from him I could see Phil lying there as well but on his side.
"No, no!" I started screaming and I let go of Leila's hand to try to push the cop's arms off of me. "That's my fiance'!" I screamed at him. "Dan!" I screamed his name hoping that his eyes would open but nothing happened.
Paramedics were only then starting to rush towards them, and turn them onto their backs to start checking on them. I could see blood on the ground around both of them when the blue lights flashed. Everything was happening in slow motion and I couldn't hear anything but the sound of my heart pounding in my ears.
"You need to step back," the cop said again, pushing me backwards. Another joined him and started to do the same and it was then that I was alert enough to my surroundings to notice what they were saying. I was still crying, pleading with them to let me through, but they weren't having it.
I glanced to my right to see that Leila was standing in silence with her hands over her mouth, tears visibly falling from her eyes. It was obvious that she was in shock.
"This one doesn't have a pulse!" I heard someone yell from the road and I immediately looked back towards it. I couldn't tell who they were talking about but I could feel my knees starting to go weak as I continued to force myself around the police officer.
"No! No! No!" I heard Leila scream. I could see her pushing against the second cop, who was holding his hands out, forcing her back onto the sidewalk. "You need to step BACK, Ms," he told her sternly.
"That's my- that's my-" every time she moved and tried to speak he pushed her further away from him. I saw her arm shoot up and her fist fly forward into the cop's face.
I felt my body being pulled forward and I realized that it was Leila dragging me across the road.
"This is a crime scene!" someone tried telling us but neither of us were listening to anyone or anything.
Leila grabbed ahold of me and started crying as she looked at what was happening in front of us.
Both Phil and Dan had someone on top of them pumping on their chests giving them CPR, other people were wrapping their necks up in braces, and all the while, no matter how many times we screamed their names, their eyes never opened.
"He's fading fast! We need to get him to the hospital STAT!"
I think I was going into shock or already in shock that that point. Nothing felt real. It felt like my whole body had gone numb except this really bizarre empty feeling in my chest and stomach.
"Are you two with them?" I snapped out of it when one of the EMTs approached us.
"I'm his fiance'," I pointed at Dan as they were putting him into the ambulance. "She's his girlfriend," I pointed towards Phil who they'd just gotten onto a stretcher. I noticed how badly my hand was shaking when I pointed.
She sighed and looked around us before raising her arm to wave someone over. One of the officers who I'd not seen yet approached. "Can you take these two to the hospital please?"
"Of course," he nodded.
The woman quickly walked away and hopped into the ambulance Dan had been in. The back doors slammed on both of the vehicles before they each sped away.
I wanted to run after them. I wanted to scream. I wanted to throw up. So many horrible feelings were running through me at once.
He couldn't be dead. It wasn't possible. Neither of them could be. No. I couldn't even begin to wrap my head around the thought of that.
I barely remember walking to the car with Leila and the officer. I definitely remember Leila and I sitting in the back seat sobbing uncontrollably in each other's arms. I'd never heard her cry like that and I was pretty sure I'd never cried that hard either.
It felt like it took an hour for us to get there but we finally arrived at the hospital.
We were taken straight to the emergency room and the officer who had brought us there, left us there and went straight back to check their statuses.
We had been instructed to notify their families. I couldn't remember ever making a more horrible phone call.
The hospital wouldn't tell Leila and I anything. We still didn't know what had happened, or if they were going to be okay. Or if they were even alive.
Since both of their families were hours away, we had no choice but to wait for them to get there so we would know what was going on.
Leila and I sat together in the corner of the crowded emergency room. Or A&E as they call it. I kept checking my phone and I'm not sure why because I wouldn't be getting anything from the one person I wanted to talk to.
I couldn't remember the last time Leila and I had spoken a word to each other. There were no words that could be said. We couldn't comfort each other. We could only sit next to each other knowing that we both were feeling the most intense fear we'd ever felt in our lives.
My thumb toyed at the band of my engagement ring but I couldn't bring myself to look down at it. I don't know why but I knew if I looked at it that I was going to fully lose my shit.
My mind kept going back to having those weird feelings before the fireworks show. I knew something was off. I should've trusted my instincts. What the hell had happened? Why were they even in the road?
Those were the thoughts racing through my mind when Dan's parents showed up. I thought I'd puke before they came back from wherever a nurse had taken them.
I just needed to know he was okay and that he would be okay. We could get through anything as long as he was going to be okay.
I finally saw Dan's Mom walk out from the back. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying. I was on my feet and walking towards her as soon as I saw her.
She didn't say anything. She just wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly. Her body shook as she cried hard and a horrible feeling of dread made my knees nearly give out on me.
"He's alive," I heard his dad speak up. "And stable. They're taking him back for surgery right now. He had a little bit of swelling around his brain." I felt his hand touch my shoulder as he spoke to me. "They don't know anything from this point on, but all that matters is that right now, he is okay."
I couldn't even speak. I just gripped tighter onto Dan's Mom and cried along with her for a few seconds. "Phil," I spoke up as I pulled back. "Did you see if they would tell you anything about him?"
His mom shook her head at me as she wiped the tears away from her face. "They wouldn't tell us anything about him," she told me, looking over my shoulder at Leila. "I'm sorry, I tried to get them to. He's like a son to us but-" she started crying again and her husband pulled her up against his chest, holding her as she sobbed against it.
Leila hung her head again and buried her face against her palms.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a familiar face and I gasped. It was Phil's brother walking out from the same direction Dan's mom had come from. I didn't even know he was here, and I hadn't even thought about him coming at all. But how could I with so many other things going through my mind?
"Do you know anything?" he asked, looking and sounding terrified as he approached me and Dan's parents.
"They won't tell us anything," I shook my head as I wiped my cheeks.
"I'll take you back here with me and you can tell them who you are," Dan's Mom offered and led him to the back.
I quickly made my way over to Leila and kneeled down in front of her. "Phil's brother is here, babe. He's going to see if he can find anything out. Okay?" I said as I pulled her hands away from her face and pulled her towards me so I could hug her. "He'll be okay," I nodded, letting a fresh flow of tears start to fall. "You know they're both too damn stubborn to die so soon."
She nodded and started to laugh but it was quickly replaced with a loud sob that cause a few eyes to linger our way. She wiped her eyes and sighed before finally looking at me. "I've never been this scared before in my life," she finally spoke, sniffling. "I'm so glad Dan's okay," she grabbed my hands. "Maybe he'll come out of surgery less lazy," she laughed weakly but again, more tears started to fall from her eyes.
I actually laughed a little bit too. "He'd have to have a full brain transplant for that to ever happen, babe." I took a deep breath and moved to sit next to her but turned to face her. "I've never been this scared either," I shook my head and swallowed hard. "I just wish we could see them."
"Girls?" Dan's Mom walked up to us and we both stood up at the same time.
"Phil is okay," she said and I could hear a very loud sigh of relief from Leila. "He had a couple of injuries but the worst one was a collapsed lung. He was without breath for a little while, and he's unconcious but he is still alive. They got him in intensive care right now, his brother's gone back to see him."
"Oh thank God," Leila grabbed Dan's Mom and forced her into a hug. She was crying again, but I knew it was because she was relieved to hear the news that he was okay.
We all sat down together to wait for any updates on their conditions. I was so exhausted because of how overwhelming the situation had been and then feeling the relief of knowing that my worst fear hadn't come true.
We'd been sitting there for about 30 minutes when I saw Maria walk in and standing next to her were Detective Brams and Curtis.
"What the hell?" I said as I nudged Leila for her to look as well.
"Ms. Radley, Ms. Faust," they greeted us. Maria was standing there with her arms wrapped around herself looking like she was completely scarred for life.
"What's going on?" I asked, looking at all of them.
Detective Brams sighed loudly. "We've got a lot to talk about."