Surprise! I was hoping to have this done for Phil's birthday but being the perfectionist (procrastinator) I am, it had to be perfect. You all may be able to tell, this is a spin off of Home, Sweet Home which is Dan/OC. I felt bad for Phil having to be a third wheel so I figured I would give him his own story.
I really hope you enjoy this story as much as you have Home, Sweet Home.
AmazingRrrachel - This may be a stupid question but were the all caps really necessary? But OMFG I'M EXCITE TOO!
Enjoy!
Chapter One
"I've finally realized why you act out and cause trouble all the time." said my oldest sister Jenna.
Of course I just kept walking not wanting the confrontation that was bound to happen.
"It's because you're attention seeking. The first three of us get praise and the only way you can think to get attention is acting out and receiving negative attention." She continued crossing a line.
"I am NOT one of your case studies." I said turning on my heels.
She got the reaction she wanted. She wanted an outburst. She was testing me. Turning me into an experiment. She pissed me off. Thank god I'm moving out in just three agonizingly long days. Just three more days.
My parent's house is far too full at the moment. Three of my four siblings were here and I only got along with one of them. The other two did nothing but get on my nerves.
My oldest sister Jenna is here because she took the semester off she could work on her final thesis paper for her doctorate in Psychology and apparently to mess with me. Messing with me is like her favorite sport. That and I'm the screw up of the family so she likes to test my boundaries. She tried to push me as far as possible. Sometimes I wonder if she chose psychology in order to make my life a living hell.
My second oldest sister Marina is home for a visit as well. She's a big football star and is a starter for a minor league team. She's taking a small break for family time before she starts traveling again. Once again, I have no way of ever living up to her that and I hate running. I would rather pull out all of my hair one strand at a time than go for a run.
Then there was me. I'm only here because my stupid ex-boyfriend kicked me out. Note to future self: Don't move in with a boyfriend. It's taken me a while to finally find an apartment but now I was counting down the days before I could finally get away from some of the people I can't stand the most.
Then lastly there was my little brother Andy or Drew as everyone else calls him. The whole family and most of his friends that he doesn't really count as friends insist on calling him Drew. Only a select few people that he considered his real friends and me, call him Andy. He and I are really close because we both feel like outcasts in the family. The difference is my parent give him just as much attention as my older siblings. He doesn't want their attention. I know he envies me because our parents basically ignore me. He's in his first year of University so he's working away in his room all of the time. He wanted to go and stay in student housing but my parents insisted he stay with them for his first year.
The only one of my siblings not in the house is my older brother Matt. He is literally the middle child. It goes Jenna, Marina, Matt, me and then Andy. He's married and already has two kids, and a master degree. My parents are so proud. They weren't for a while because he got his college girlfriend pregnant in his final year of college.
I made my way to my room and slammed the door for dramatic effect. She wants a reaction? I'll give her a reaction. This room made me thing of college and how much I hated school in general. The walls were still a bright pink color form when I was in twelve and I thought pink was my favorite color. I could see all of the poster I had put on my walls in order to cover up the pink after I turned sixteen. Mostly band posters but there were a few movie posters as well.
I plopped face down on my tiny twin size bed. My faded red hair flopping in my face. I couldn't really call it read anymore. The majority or my hair went orange but I could see the places where it was clearly going back to blond. I'm so sick of the red. Suddenly, an idea popped in my head. I grabbed my wallet, phone, keys and a jacket then made my way out of my parent's house.
On the walk to the nearest Asda, I opened up Pinterest to look for ideas for my hair. I just wanted something different. About half way to the store I found the perfect picture. It wasn't of someone's hair but I figured Andy could turn it into something. A vision of what I expected my hair to look like popped into my head and I got all the more excited. I went in and got all of the products I would need.
By the time I got home, the sky had grown dark. I knew my family will have already eaten. Thank god. I won't have to sit through a family dinner where Jenna patronizes me and Marina just gives me looks of disgust while everyone asks Andy if he had a girlfriend yet. Insert eye roll here. I did feel a little bad for Andy's sake.
I made my way into the house and up to my room then got started. First I got the bleach out. I need to get my hair back to the blond I had it at before. I washed it a couple of times to get it as light of an orange as I could and then started the bleach. When I finally washed the bleach out of my hair I looked in the mirror to see a replica of my two older sisters. The old me. The person I was before I started dying my hair and acting out. Blond hair. Green eyes.
Although mine were a darker green then my sister's, we still got mistaken for each other at first glance. You could definitely tell we were sisters. My resentment towards the resemblance between my sisters and I is one of the reasons I started dying my hair. I wanted to me my own person not a replica.
I hated what I saw in the mirror so I tore my eyes away and left the bathroom. I grabbed my phone and pulled up the picture that inspired the change in my hair. Once it was up I went out into the hall and to the last door on the left. I knocked. There was only one person I knew that would most likely be able to pull this off and he was behind that door.
The door creaked open and a pair of green eyes that matched mine perfectly peered back at me. I liked that Andy and I had almost identical colored eyes.
"Andy, let me in." I said.
He visibly let out a sigh of relief and swung the door open enough for me to enter his room. I walked in and made myself comfortable on his bed.
"I thought you we Janna coming to ask me to read her thesis for a third time." He said closing the door behind me.
I could almost feel the eye roll he did at the mention of our oldest sister.
He and I have quite a bit in common when it comes to the family although I have to agree that I have it better. Everyone just normally ignores me. What I mean is Andy and I are both outsides in the family. I'm treated like an outside but he feels like one while our parents treat him like Matt and our sisters.
Four years ago, Andy came to me and told me that he doesn't like girls like the rest of the boys in his year. He asked me if there was something wrong with him. I told him that it was fine and maybe he would like a girl later on or that he could even like boys. He didn't know at that point but I had a feeling. Not long after that he came to me again and said he had a crush on someone. It turned out to be a boy. He and I talked it though and he realized he would probably never like girls.
Last year, after much deliberation he decided to come out to the rest of the family. Meaning our other three siblings and out parents. I didn't think it was the best idea but he was ready. He wanted to tell them that he was gay. He didn't want to hide.
I still remember him grabbing my hand under the table before telling everyone that he had some news. He simply said "I'm gay." And the whole table went silent. The first one to speak was our mom. All she said to him was that he would grow out of it. Like it was just a phase or something. My Dad just pretended he didn't' say anything. The whole family now follows his lead.
Every time we have to go to a mandatory family dinner, the topic of relationships always comes up for Andy. One of our siblings or our dad asks if he as a girlfriend yet. Every time I reach under the table and grab his hand. I was his support system. He would squeeze my hand in thanks and then answer with a no. In the beginning he would just say "I'm gay. Remember?" but as time wore on he grew tired of no one listening to him and decided to just go with a simple no.
Andy has been begging me to let him move with me ever since I had to come back. I know how our parent would react to that so I've said no so far. They would be very disappointed in him and while he may not care now, someday he's going to value the relationship he had with our parents even if they refused to accept his sexuality.
Recently though I've been thinking that maybe I should have him move in with me. He needs freedom and our parents won't give him that. I mean you can't exactly bring a boy home when your parents are around. It would be a little weird around your sister too but at least I accepted that the only sister-in-law that I'll ever have is Matt's wife, Bree.
"Hey Liam." I said looking over at the computer screen.
Liam is one of my brother "friends". By friend I mean special friend…if you catch my drift. They talk on skype all the time and I was definitely not surprised to see him on the screen now.
"Hey Em. How are you? Where did the red go?" he asked.
"I'm good and that's actually why I here." I said to Liam before turning to my brother. "I want you to help me with something."
I handed my phone to Andy. When he saw the picture a smirk spread across his face. Andy was the creative one. He really liked art and photography. He can draw and paint and almost anything pertaining to stuff like that. He also makes these really cool, artsy videos. I think he posts them on YouTube but I don't really know. When he finished one, I'm always the first to see it. The picture I showed him was basically me challenging his artistic ability.
"You want me to recreate this with your hair?" he questioned with a smirk.
I nodded in response.
"I wanna see." We heard from the computer causing us to laugh.
Andy walked over and put the phone up to the camera.
"You're going to have galaxy hair?!" said Liam excitedly.
"Well if Andy is as good as I think he is, I will." I said poking fun at my little brother.
I shouldn't really call him little seeing as he's a tall six feet where I'm a measly 5'5". I can't exactly call him little when he is seven inches taller than me.
"Do you have all of the colors?" Andy asked.
"Yeah just came back from the store. So you'll help me?" I asked already knowing he would.
"Hey Li, I'm gonna have to let you go. I'll send you pictures of the finished product." said Andy to the computer.
"Okay, Love. Bye." said Liam with a wave before disconnecting.
I couldn't help but let out a D'awww at Liam calling Andy love. Andy shook his head and shut his computer. I then led the way to my room. Once there I closed and locked the door behind us. Jenna has a bad habit of just walking in to my room. I swear its part of her plan to push me into a killing spree. Is it obvious that we kind of hate each other?
I grabbed the hair products off the bed and joined Andy in the bathroom.
I pulled out all of the colors. One light blue and one dark blue, a green, and two shades of purple. Next to them a placed a box of gloves and a new bottle of makeup remover. Andy may be an artistic genius but even he makes mistakes and colors outside of the lines. I didn't particularly want to walk around with blue on my face.
Once everything was unpacked and I had changed into my hair dying clothes, a pair of black shorts and a white oversized t-shirt that had stains all over it from previously dying my hair, we started in on the dye. It took longer that I would have thought it would but it didn't help that I stole Andy's phone. He had accidently touched his face with purple dye so I took a picture and sent it to Liam. I guess it's a good thing I bought the makeup remover. That and I have trouble sitting still if I have nothing to occupy me.
While we were leaving the dye to set in my hair, Andy went and grabbed his laptop. Something about homework that he needed to finish. I love my little nerd brother. He came back in my room and we sat in the bathroom waiting for the timer on my phone to go off. He did homework while I played the infuriatingly addictive game called flappy bird.
When the timer finally went off, Andy and I got up to wash the dye out of my hair. He got water in my ear and I'm willing to bet my life that it was on purpose. Payback for the picture I sent to Liam. When my hair was properly rinsed, he made me blow dry it so that he could see his master piece in all of its glory. We were both amazed at the results. We ended up using just the darker blue and purple along with the green. It like of looked like my hair was highlighted with the colors so heavily that all of my hair was dyed. It looked cool now and because we used the darker colors, it would still look cool even when it started to fade.
"Andy, you are a genius." I said turning and wrapping him in a hug.
"Well we already knew that." He said with a sarcastic smirk.
"No, I'm serious. I love it." I said letting him go.
I could have sworn that he muttered something along the lines of "amazing as amazing" when I turned my back but I didn't catch it all so I didn't say anything and just pushed it to the back of my mind. He helped me clean up in the bathroom and then helped me get the blue off the back of my neck. I told you he would color outside the lines. We also had to the purple off his face.
"Okay, it's three am. I'm going to go and watch YouTube videos until I fall asleep." said Andy grabbing his laptop after throwing the last of the cotton balls he used to remover the dye in the bin.
"Night. I love you." I said.
He stopped with his hand on the door knob and turned to me. "Love you too, Em."
With that I was left on my own to admire my hair. It really did look cool. I took a picture and sent it to Sam. Who had easily become one of my closest friends since we started talking. I knew she probably wouldn't reply but I was excited and I wanted to tell someone.
To my surprise she texted back within minutes.
"Holy shit Em. Your hair is incredible." She sent.
It brought a smile to my face to see that she liked it.
"Thanks, my brother helped me with it." I said sending her the grinning emoji.
"So tomorrow is the first of October and Kevin told me they aren't going to start decorating for Halloween until the week before." She sent.
"You're kidding me! They don't plan on decorating until the week before Halloween!?"
I was shocked to think that they wouldn't decorate until that late. Especially seeing as they already had the fall drinks out.
"Yeah, I thought Kevin was joking when he told me. We should go and decorate it tomorrow."
"Heck yeah we should. What time do you want to meet at the coffee shop?" I asked.
"How does ten sound?"
"Perfect, see you then."
I was super excited to hang out with Sam in the morning. I was even more excited to know that we were going to have some Halloween fun. Halloween has to be my favorite holiday. That's something that Sam and I have in common. There's just something about the atmosphere that makes me love this time of year. Starting October first I celebrate a month long Halloween. It helps with the anticipation leading up to Halloween day.
I fell asleep not long after I set an alarm n my phone for nine. I usually wake up before my alarm goes off but sometimes I do end up sleeping in until it rings. Normally that only happens when I have to go to work in the morning but anything could happen.
It seemed as if my eyes were only closed for a few minutes before I heard the obnoxious sound of my alarm going off. I groaned and rolled over to press the snooze button but before I did, I remembered why I had set the alarm. I bolted out of bed. I had just enough time to shower and do my hair before I had to leave the house.
I put my hair up in a bun so I didn't get it wet and then proceeded to shower. When I got out, I dressed in a pair of black leggings and a loose black shirt that had a white skeletal ribcage that fell in just the right place. I went back to the bathroom to do my makeup and then I curled my hair. It looked even cooler when it was curled.
With my hair and makeup done, I proceeded to put on a pair of black converse and then I grabbed my leather jacket with the spikes on it. I put my wallet, house keys, and phone in the pockets before racing out the door. I very narrowly missed running into Jenna at the top of the stairs. She tried to say something to me but I just ran past her and out the door. I really did not have time to deal with her shizz today.
I just barely made it to the coffee shop by ten. I was met with an excited squeal when Sam saw my hair.
"It looks even cooler in person. I love it, Em." She said hugging me.
We made our way into the shop and up to the counter where Kevin was making a drink.
"Hey, we were wondering if we could decorate the shop today." I asked sweetly.
"No." he said without looking up.
Sam and I exchanged a devious look and at the same time said "Please" holding out the "e". I knew that if I were to look over at Sam she would have the same big eyed pout on her face that I did.
Kevin looked up at us and sighed. "Fine."
I could have jumped up and down a squealed but there were a lot of people around and even I have a threshold when it comes to embarrassing myself. Instead of making myself look like an idiot, I grabbed Sam's elbow and dragged her to the storage room where decorations and stuff are kept.
We quickly got to work first putting the sticky gel things on one of the windows. Then we hung fake spider webs. Sam managed to get herself caught in one and she subsequently freaked out when she realized there was a spider in the web. Of course it was a plastic one but she swore up and down that it looked real. I had no choice but to laugh at her. She pouted but soon she was laughing along with me.
She then launched into a story about how spiders were okay as long as they kept their distance and the one place she freaks out about the most is in the shower. Apparently her roommates saw her naked once because they thought she was being murdered when in reality it was just a spider. I laughed at her expense while she just turned bright red. Honestly that sounds like the kind of thing that would happen to me.
I on the other hand have no problem with spiders at all. When I was little I used to let them crawl on me. When I told her this I saw her outwardly shudder at the thought of a creature with eight tiny legs crawling on her. Once again, I laughed at her expense.
We were putting up the last of the cobwebs when we got on the topic of Halloween movies and which ones were our favorites.
"Tim Burton movies are probably my favorite when it comes to Halloween movies." She said trying to get the cobweb to stay in place.
"I my goodness. I love his movies. We should totally have a Tim Burton Movie marathon." I said excitedly.
"Oh my god yes. We can go to mine and it'll be the best thing ever." She said her excitement equaling mine.
"It's a plan then. Could we do it tonight?" I asked.
"Let me just see when is a good time for my roommates." She said walking off and pulling her phone out of her pocket.
Not long after she came back and told me that they didn't mind. We didn't do much more talking while we finished up decorating unless it was discussing where things should go. We ended up having a small argument about the placement of the paper jack-o-lanterns but in the end she gave up and let me win. When we were done, Sam led me to her flat.
When she opened the door the first thing I noticed were the stairs. So many stairs. I was thankful to finally be outside the front door. She opened it and led me though the door. To my horror, I was faced with another set of stairs. When we finally made it to the top, I couldn't help the words that came out of my mouth.
"Holy Shizz…Stairs…" I said attempting to breathe in between.
"This is the reason I'm not fat. They force me to exercise." She said with a smile.
I let out a strangled laugh that sounded like something between a wheeze and a laugh. I didn't even know I could make that should. Soon we were both laughing at my weird laugh slash wheeze thing.
"Sammie? Is that you?" we heard come from inside one of the rooms.
Sam motioned for me to follow her. I followed along letting my eyes wander the unfamiliar settings around me.
"Hello Daniel." said Sam in what I assumed to be a terrible imitation of a British accent before switching back to her normal one. "This is my friend Emily."
I looked at who she was talking to and I recognized him from the coffee shop. I had only seen him from afar but he was very attractive. More so now that I could properly see him. It made me wonder if the other one would be more attractive up close as well.
"Hello Emily, It's nice to meet you." He said putting his hand out for me to shake.
"Is Phil out?" Sam asked from beside me.
Phil must be her other roommate. The hot one.
"Yeah. Cool hair by the way." He said answering her question and then turning to me.
I could feel my face go red and I gave a small thanks.
There was a small silence while I looked around the room. It was broken by Sam while I continued to look around the room. There were so many things that made the nerd within me squeal. Then out of nowhere Sam grabbed my hand and pulled me from the room. I was yet again faced with another set of stairs. I inwardly groaned. I stayed quiet until we were in her room and the door was closed behind us.
"Holy. How do you live with him? I mean he was cute for far away but heck." I said with a smirk.
He face flushed with blush.
"Barely. I can barely manage being in the same room as him. I've liked him for forever but guess what? He's my best friend. Therefore I am fucked." She said flopping down on her bed.
"Well technically not…" I said before I was cut off at a pillow being thrown at my face.
When I looked at her, her face had gone tomato red and I couldn't help but laugh at her reaction.
We then got in the bed and she pulled her laptop on to her lap. While she set it up I looked around her room. I noticed that she seemed to have a black theme to her room. The rug, the duvet. Even most of the pillows in the corner were in monochromatic shades. I looked to the open closet and even inside there seemed to be a lack of color. Except for a bright blue dress that for some reason I could never imagine her actually wearing.
I noticed on her dresser were pictures. There was one of her with a very good looking boy who looked a lot like her. I could only assume that was her brother. They looked so happy. You could tell it was a candid shot of them. That picture made me only slightly envious about the relationship she shared with her sibling but only slightly.
Then there was another of Sam and a girl with dirty blond hair. That girl could have been a model. Both of them could. I can only assume that was her best friend that I've heard quite a bit about. They looked like they were having fun at what seemed to be the beach. Once again I felt envy at the fact that she has a best friend. I've always wondered what it would be like to have a best friend. Of course I have close friends but best friends are the people that you tell all of your secrets to.
Then the picture that stuck out the most was one of her and Dan. It was the biggest of all the pictures. They were both laying on their backs like the cover of The Fault in Our Stars and looking each other in the eyes. They both had small smiles on their lips. Just by the look in their eyes, you could tell that they really liked each other. I don't think Sam really realized just how much it looked like he liked her. Once again, it looked as if it was a candid picture just because of the amount of love I saw in their eyes. It couldn't have been posed.
"Okay, you ready?" said Sam pulling me out of my thoughts.
I nodded and we started in on The Nightmare before Christmas. When the movie was over I really needed to pee so I had her show me where it was. As if all of the gods were against me, it was located down the two flights of stairs. I then had to go back up those bloody stairs to get back to her room. How in the heck does she live like this?
When I did manage to win the battle of the stairs and make it back to Sam's room, the movie all ready to be played and Sam was just waiting on me. I got comfortable and we started in on movie two. The Corpse Bride, one of my all-time favorite movies.
After that movie ended, we continued on to watch more. There was ParaNorman, Ghostbusters one and two, then we finished off our marathon with Sleepy Hallow. Sam hid her face for most of the last movie and I couldn't help but laugh. I loved scary movies. I like to be a little scared sometimes but it was clear that Sam did not share my view on that. When the last movie was over, we noticed it was almost midnight.
"So you're staying the night and I'm starving." She said turning to me saying it more as a command than a request.
"I'm okay with that. I don't get to move into my new flat for two more days and I hate being in my parent's house." I said shrugging my shoulders to show that I wasn't bother to be staying.
Sam climbed off the bed and I followed suit. I let her lead the way down a stupid fudging flight of stairs and into the kitchen. She rummaged around in the fridge for a few minutes before pulling out a box of blueberries.
"Do you have any cheese?" I asked.
"Um not much." She said pulling out what she had.
Cheese is one of my favorite foods. If you put cheese on anything, I'd probably eat it…within reason. Cheese, ice cream, cream cheese. You name it and if it's made of dairy I'll probably like it. Except for milk. I don't really like milk. Once we had our snacks, Sam sat up on the counter and I stood in front of her. We were chatting away when she looked past me.
"Marry me." said someone under their breath from behind me.
I turned to make a witty remark about how I'm not one for marriage when I was frozen in place. My green eyes met with a pair of ice blue ones and it was as if time had stopped. I took in his dark hair. You could see where it was growing out at the sides and it had started to go red. There was a look of shock on his face that probably mirrored my own. He was wearing a white shirt with a very realistic looking stack of pancakes and a pair of black skinny jeans. I bet his butt looked amazing in them. Then I took in his socks. They had candy wrappers all over them. I was broken out of my frozen state when he spoke again.
"I mean your hair, it's so cool. I would marry it."
I watched as his eyes shifted from me to Sam who was still behind me.
"Phil, you're being weird. Stop it." said Sam with a laugh.
This is when I finally spoke.
"No, it's not weird. I would marry my hair too. I'm pretty sure that my brother said it was amazing." I said looking at Sam and then back to the beautiful man in from of me and then to Sam again.
I could see the traces of a smile that was crossing her face and I just looked at her wondering what in the world could have been so funny. She shook her head and I shrugged my shoulder as if to say whatever.
"Your hair is definitely amazing. It reminds me of a galaxy." said Phil, his deep voice making butterflies erupt in my stomach.
"That's what we were going for." I replied feeling my face grow hot.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, Phil proceeded to get a glass of water and then he went back to where he came from without saying another word. I looked over at Sam. I could see a knowing smirk on her face.
"What?" I said trying to sound annoyed.
"Nothing." She said her smile growing wider.
I glared at her. She just hopped off the counter and her smirk widened.
"He's single by the way." She said walking out of the kitchen and towards where the stairs were located.
I stood there in a state of shock. Not only did Sam clearly know about my attraction to the man but also the fact he was single. There is no way in hell he isn't seeing someone. He's too perfect to be single.