It was way past mid-day when the door to the Howlter house creaked open and Dan's very exhausted friend walked in, panting from the running and dripping with sweat. He could hear voices talking in another room but he was too tired to concentrate on what they were saying.
He slipped off his shoes, wobbled his way to the kitchen, found a vase (or was it a large glass?) and filled it with water before dropping the bundle of flowers into it, trying his best not to actually drink the plant water.
He took the box of fancy chocolates in his hand and turned around just in time to see Dan standing in front of the art table beside the bathroom door.
"You're late," he said.
Phil's face fell and a feeling of shame washed over him, so he averted his gaze and put his hands behind his back, guiltily.
"Sorry…" he whispered, biting his lip, and heard Dan's footsteps padding toward him, his woollen socks softly brushing against the floorboards.
"I was getting worried about you."
"I… I'm sorry," Phil repeated, but before he could continue, he was being wrapped in what seemed like a tent of warmth from the soft feel of the fabric of the cosy hoodie that enveloped him and the touch of having his friend's face buried in his shoulder.
"I got carried away," he said, swallowing, his mouth dry, "I should have been keeping track of time-"
"It's fine," Dan interrupted, gently patting his back.
Phil opted not to tell him about actually walking in the opposite direction of Willow Creek, but a part of him was still slightly desperate to tell Dan about Erica and how abnormally nice she'd been and how they'd managed to have a proper conversation, but that would have to wait until later.
As Dan pulled away, Phil could step back and gingerly hand over the box in his hands.
"Don't suppose this makes up for it?" He swallowed, but Dan gave a loving smile and a shy laugh.
"What's this for?" He asked, sounding surprised that he had been presented with a gift for seemingly no reason.
"Ah, y'know… uh…" Phil began, trying to think of something specific but eventually settling for 'everything'.
"Thank you..!" Dan breathed, still unreasonably astonished.
Phil would have said something more, but he then realised he could still hear talking from the other room and he looked over Dan's shoulder to Dab's bedroom door to see it slightly open.
"Who's Dab talking to?" He asked, curiously.
"Oh… Yeah… I told him that Evan could come for a sleepover. He looked so excited that I couldn't say no to him," Dan replied, apprehensively, "I was hoping you wouldn't mind, but then I thought you might, but then I couldn't just say I changed my mind…"
He seemed troubled and as if he was expecting some sort of angry argument to spike up out of the blue, for this to be the breaking point that everything was surely leading up to. Phil had done a great job of not actually really snapping too badly so far, and had certainly kept his cool more than Dan had last time, but he definitely couldn't keep it up forever, and a spurt of anger was definitely impending.
Doing something like this – adding stress to the whole thing – without permission… it was just one step over the boarder and Dan regretted it more and more as he went on explaining it.
And the end of it he looked across, on tenterhooks, presuming that he'd suddenly be shoved back, yelled at or both, and he felt it was for a decent reason, too, but to his surprise, Phil only shrugged.
"Ok," he nodded, "I'm sure we can deal with that."
Dan blinked once, twice, thrice, before opening his mouth to speak again,
"You're… fine with that?" He queried, perplexed at the lack of an irate outburst or even an annoyed expression.
Phil nodded again and looked away once more, to the door. He came across as if he was either thinking, deeply, about something, or just completely void of emotion.
"I don't see why I shouldn't be," he said, at length, and Dan breathed a long sigh of relief.
"Oh, thank goodness…" he whispered to himself. He'd been expecting a bit of a fight, but instead received a surprisingly nice shock.
He assumed that it was only OK because the Howlters were finally home, that he had opted to look after Dab to take some weight off Phil's shoulders, and because things were starting to lighten up, and he was mostly right, but it was also partially due to Phil feeling as if he ought to apologise for not asking for or accepting help like he should have done before he inadvertently made himself ill.
He'd never been one to ask for help, show that he was struggling, or seriously talk about how he was feeling. He'd always been the one that people could lean on – a support pillar, if you will – and had to keep up appearing approachable, but in trying to not lose face, he'd done completely the opposite of making himself accessible, to say the least, and now was determined to repair that, no matter how much apologising it took. Agreeing to let people have their fun as long as he had help with looking after responsibilities was the least he could really do.
"Did you think I was going to be mad or something?" He asked, straight-out.
"I wouldn't have been surprised," Dan told him, "I mean, I didn't ask your permission, and it would have been considerate to ask first."
Phil shrugged and gave a short snigger.
"As long as I don't have to do all the work," he warranted, and Dan quickly and earnestly agreed to this.
"Still a shame you missed dinner, though; apparently it was great, as the kids tell me. You should really introduce yourself to Evan," he said, laying a hand on his friend's shoulder blade and leading him forward, slowly, "I don't know what Dab's been saying about you but he might have given him the wrong idea. Best to give off a good first impression, right?"
"Right," Phil concurred, firmly, with a decisive nod. If Dab had been telling his friend things about him that weren't true, it was up to him to set the record straight by being as nice as he could to prove he wasn't whatever it had been said that he was.
Too strict, perhaps? Was that what Dab had been saying? Phil supposed in that case it might be slightly true, but surely what he'd been telling Evan couldn't all be bad, could it?
After all, Phil had given everything to this family. A house, a life, a steady income, a child to Dil and Tabitha, a friend to that child, good, fervent relationships with each other… he'd catered to their every wish just to keep them happy and wasn't about to let being a little bit annoyed shape everything that he was and that he stood for.
Maybe he was over-reacting or over-compensating, but the whole point of being here was to mend friendships and fix problems that he and Dan had left unsolved last time, not to break apart other ones.
Sometimes he sat down and wondered why he'd allowed himself to do this… To himself, to Dan, to everyone else…
Couldn't he have just left everything as it was? Surely it couldn't have been too bad if he'd let everything be after February – maybe he hadn't bonded enough with everyone and perhaps he'd let Summer hold the wrong idea, but that's really all – because this 'fixing up' of things had just seemed to make everything a whole lot worse.
But he brushed these thoughts aside as he remembered his resolve to take everything in his stride from now on and stop all this pining and start doing what he and Dan actually came here for.
Hopefully there would never be a time where 'forget about June' was the new 'forget about February'.
"Hey, guys!" He smiled, softly, pushing open the kid's bedroom door after knocking beforehand.
Dab and Evan both looked up to him from the floor, paper and pens scattered around them, and his heart started beating faster than it should have as he concentrated solely on making a good 'first' impression, not that it was really his first because Dab had probably been giving him a bad name beforehand.
But Evan still smiled up at him, even if Dab didn't.
"So… I'm Phil," Phil continued, stating something extremely obvious, "I don't think we've met before. I'm Dan's housemate."
"Nice to meet you," Evan said, "Dab's told me a lot about you but Mum seems to be your friend so I suppose you can't be that bad."
Phil could see Dab about to open his mouth to say something but Phil cast a discreetly angry glare his way before he could, silencing him without even having to say anything aloud.
"I'll do my best to make your stay really nice," Phil continued, looking back to Dab with a friendly grin, "If you ever want anything, I'll probably just be cleaning so come and just chat if you like," and he turned to leave, "Have fun!" He smiled before leaving the room.
He heard Dab whisper something to Evan as he walked back into the living room, but decided to pretend he didn't hear what he said.
He decided that for his own sake, really.
He let his gaze wander to his best friend, sat cross-legged on the sofa, and heaved a sigh as he trudged over. Still, he didn't feel like his self-introduction was all that bad. He thought he'd come across quite hospitable, actually, and Evan didn't seem to really mind him.
Unfortunately, even though he didn't want it that way around, Dab was the one that he had to worry about.
Cute, innocent, sweet Dab that he'd loved to pieces last time.
Realising how much he'd changed and how it was only directed to him, and how he'd messed up so much, sent a whirlpool of thoughts through Phil's mind and he stopped walking, suddenly, to stare into the middle-distance.
He'd messed up so much; how had he managed that? Dab had adored him before, nothing seemed out-of-the-ordinary and he'd never yelled or snapped at him. It was only now.
Phil remembered how ecstatic the kid had been when he showed up with Dan at the front door that very first day and how his face had lit up, how he'd pulled Phil into a tight hug and how he'd come and interact with him, happily bearing him drawing after drawing after drawing.
Where had everything gone so wrong?
"Phil?" Came Dan's gentle, calm voice as he looked up from his phone screen with a fond, dimpled smile.
He always seemed to know what was up without even having to ask, as if he could read the air like a clearly written, large-print book.
He patted the cushion next to him and waited until his friend sat down before speaking again.
"Don't worry," he assured him with a subtle snicker, "They'll take a lesson from me and love you in the end, so don't you worry about a thing. It'll be easy."
Phil gave a laugh and closed his eyes, calmly.
If he managed to piece things together with Dan back in February, he was certain that he could get everything else back on track, no matter how much he'd messed it up.
And that meant with everyone else, too.