Longest chapter so far! Yaaaay! *throws confetti* I hope you guys like it. Leave a review if you do!
Phil's expression was what could only be described as the awkward meeting of confused and impressed. "... Wow."
Dan gave the tv remote an absentminded kick. "Yeah. I may or may not have too much time on my hands."
"No, I meant wow as in 'wow, you've put an awful lot of thought into this'."
A smile tugged at the corners of Dan's lips. "I try, although I make no guarantees that anything I say can be held as valuable or or helpful in real-life circumstances. Disclaimer disclaimer and all that crud."
Phil shook his head, and spoke with a playfulness that one would usually associate with flirting. Which he couldn't have been. Right?
"Whatever you say, Daniel."
Shuddering, Dan retorted "Don't call me that, Philip,".
"That's not fair." Phil protested, jutting his bottom lip forward into a pout.
"All is fair in love and war," Dan's signature smirk returned. Phil threw a Gengar at him, which served little purpose but to make Dan giggle like a schoolgirl.
Straightening up, (he had leaned away when the toy was thrown) Dan fixed his hair and looked Phil directly in the eye. "Happy?"
"I suppose so..." Phil trailed off, voice sounding a lot more unsure than it had just a few seconds before. Not because of anything Dan had said or of every living human being on earth, there was no one he would rather be throwing stuffed Pokémon toys at on a Thursday night. It wasn't his 'right now' that was the problem. It was the argument he'd had an hour ago, or maybe not, maybe the words hadn't changed anything.
Her tone of voice, perhaps?
No, the slow, gentle tone just numbed him to an uncomfortable state, like an ice pack you left on a bruise just a few seconds too long.
The look on her face was probably the worst part, actually; no redness to show frustration or streaming tears of guilt, just confusion, characterized by rapid blinking and a slightly open jaw. Eyes glassy as they stared into space.
It was as if they could just stroll back into the theater and pretend it never happened. As if her nonchalant "I'm sorry?" and shrugging shoulders would stop the twisting sensation in Phil's gut. Almost as if she had done nothing wrong.
Which, of course, made it that much more painful.
The twisting sensation from earlier returned.
"Phil?" Something registered in Phil's brain. Movement close to his face, and a sharp sound at about the same distance. Dan, snapping his fingers, repeating his friend's name. "Phil?"
"AAAAHHH!"
"AAAHHHH!"
"WHY ARE WE YELLING!?"
"YOU STARTED IT!"
Phil blinked. "... I did?"
Dan's hand made a comically loud smacking sound as it hit his forehead. "Yes."
"Oh. How so?"
"You really have no recollection of the past thirty seconds?"
"I was preoccupied. Kinda lost in thought." Phil admitted, absentmindedly relaxing further into the couch.
"Ahh, I see." Dan grinned harder, his dimples getting more defined as his smile widened. "Unfamiliar territory, eh?"
Phil felt an urge to get up and grab the Gengar again. "Since when did you become a Canadian?"
"Since when did you become a racist?"
"Since when is Canadian a race?"
Dan lowered his head in shame. "... Touché..."
"Indeed."
"Okay, now that you're done making me feel like a brainless turnip-"
"-That wasn't my doing."
"It most definitely was; more importantly though, I was about to ask what you were thinking about."
Nose scrunching up, Phil's head shook responsively. "Not important."
"Really? People don't just stare at nothingness for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I'm guessing it was important and you're lying; either that or you just set eyes on a particularly arousing patch of carpet."
"Dan, it's stupid. I would feel really odd having to explain it to you."
Dan's eyes immediately traveled up to the ceiling again. "Well, I will continue to bother you until the end of time if you don't tell me now. Plus, no offense, but you're mildly terribly at lying anyways."
Only to you, Phil thought to himself, but instead said, "Well, fudgeballs..."
He took a deep breath and glanced at a suddenly-attentive Dan, whose brown eyes were far too open to be ignored. He returned his gaze to that particularly arousing patch of carpet (as Dan had called it) in hopes of continuing with semi-coherent speech.
"See, I know how odd and dumb this may sound, but sometimes I DO actually get worried that the universe hates me or fate is working against me or maybe I just have really crappy luck. But that doesn't really scare me. The ending is the scary part. The final result. The being-alone-with-fourty-two-cats or whatever. I mean, dating is so much fun! But I want to settle down just as much as the next guy. And I'm nearly twenty-six and haven't got a hold on anyone yet and I don't think I ever will which is scary and I mean, if I can't have a good ending to my relationships I should get a good ending to my life but dying alone doesn't sound fun to me-"
Dan held up a hand to interject. "Whoa, whoa, whoa Phil. Calm your tits for a second and listen to me. Why the hell would you die alone?"
"... I'm not certain, come to think of it. I guess I just think too much some days."
"Either way, Phil, you're a perfectly worthwhile person. You're not a likely candidate to die alone." Dan smiled at him for added reassurance, and Phil tried to smile back, but there was something flimsy in it. Dan paused and lightened his tone to a more jokey voice.
"Although if you did, instead of telling everyone at your funeral how wonderful you were, I could go into great detail about your extraordinary fortune-telling abilities."
"Ha ha, hilarious, Daniel."
"What? You're smiling, aren't you?"
"Clearly my face has a mind of its own."
"Yes. It's called your brain."
Phil finally gave in, releasing a chuckle, small but genuine. "How do you do that?"
"What?"
"Distracting me from my own thoughts. It's weird, really."
"You're not particularly hard to distract, in case you never realized."
Phil's smile remained, and he turned to gently elbow Dan. "Well, lucky me, then."
I realize how annoying I am about this, but please let me know what you thought of this chapter! Whether you do that by leaving a review, favoriting or adding this to your alerts is up to you, but I would really appreciate any one of those. Even if you absolutely hated it, (which I hope you didn't but hey! literature is subjective) tell me why! I would love to hear from you. It only takes a minute :)
Thank you all so much for reading.
Til next time,
- Madi
P.S- New chapter next week!