"Summer! Hey!" Dan smiled, as happily as he could. He didn't much like Summer, either, but it was only human to be nice to her.
He didn't know why he didn't like her, exactly, but maybe it was because she was always all over his best friend. In any case, Summer soon bounded over, looking extremely excited to see them both again.
"Phil!" She chirruped first, practically leaping at Phil, who stood in absolute shock, having the breath knocked out of him almost instantaneously.
He was able to regain his footing once Summer let go of him and turned her head to Dan now,
"And Dan…" she said, quite a bit less enthusiastically, "I thought you two were out of town? What brings you back over here, then?"
"Ah, you know, just thought we'd come to stay for a while and hang about a bit more, y'know?" Dan replied, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
"Right…" Summer nodded, not really smiling at all now. It seemed she didn't much like Dan, either, "Are you staying with the Howelters again?" She asked, looking back to Phil and getting her grin back.
"We certainly are," Phil affirmed, "I tell him we'll stay for at least a week and they heartily say they hope some occasion will detain us longer," he explained, letting his eyes drift off to look behind Summer and to the trees in the middle distance, "I dare say they're serious, too…"
"Well, I certainly welcome you back, too!" Summer giggled, "It's so lovely to have you back again! Maybe you can hold another house party sometime; that would be brilliant!" And she cast a gaze over her shoulder, "I really should be going now, though: my housemates are waiting for me, but I'll see you around!" And she blew a kiss to Phil before hurrying off to two Sims at the other end of the park: one blonde man wearing a maroon, argyle sweater, and one brunette woman wearing a green flat-cap on her head.
Phil was very glad that Summer left before things got even more awkward. He was also very glad that it wasn't Erica who they had run into as their first interaction.
To say Summer was still acting a bit weird, their encounter didn't go too badly in the end – it was short and sweet and not too creepy – though the frown that Summer gave to Dan for a few seconds was rather concerning…
Maybe it was because Dan was over-protective, but still, it was plain to see that Summer held something against him, and didn't mind him knowing it.
"You alright?" Dan asked, smiling at his friend, who still looked a tad shaken.
"I'm fine," Phil nodded, meeting his gaze and slowly forming his mouth into a smile: that slightly wonky, smirk of a smile that he always seemed to have.
"Should we sit down somewhere and try to cool off?" Dan suggested, turning away and eyeing a bench in front of some bushes to his left.
"Yeah, that'd be great – I'm way too hot."
"Summer would agree with you."
It took Phil a while to get the joke.
The bench in front of the bushes was wooden but the sunny yellow cushions were still strangely hot and there were two bumble-bees buzzing around the flowers behind, collecting bits of pollen to spread to other plants.
Not being bothered by the insects, both Phil and Dan practically collapsed onto the seat, falling onto each other in exhaustion. Usually walking that far wouldn't be too bad, but in this heat, it felt like a super long trek.
Dan looked about the sun-drenched park.
Even here, where many funny little things had happened, held a few bad memories.
This blissful, bright park was where he had come the night that he and Phil had had their disagreement. It had looked different at night when it was all quiet and nobody was around.
He had wandered down the farthest path and to the picnic area that looked out over a large river. There he had sat down on the ground and looked over the water at how it sparkled in the moonlight, but he couldn't focus on the pretty sights because he was still livid with his friend.
He stayed and camped out under trees for that night until, the night after, when of course he couldn't sleep, he realised his giant mistake and eventually plucked up enough courage to head back to Potters Splay. He'd knocked on the door of the house, but seeing as it was 1AM, there was no answer, so he trudged back to Magnolia Blossom Park and fell into a slumber on a bench beside the water.
It was later on that morning that he'd started to wander back to the main part of the park to sulk and look onto the road when he saw Phil again, half-asleep at a chess table, looking drained and bruised and with a nasty gouge on the side of his face.
They'd made up, of course, but the guilt and a sense of distrust hung around afterwards for days.
Dan decided to put these thoughts out of his head and instead chose to focus on the good aspects of February. There had been a good many of them, too.
Naturally, the house party was the best of them.
Dan gave a wide grin and averted his eyes from the long path in the distance – of which he'd probably start to deem 'memory lane' – and instead turned back to Phil.
This week he was determined to ensure that everybody stayed right as rain.