Disclaimer: I don't own Dan or Phil. I also don't own any other YouTubers you may see in this story (such as KickThePj [PJ Liguori],crabstickz (Chris Kendall) sprinkleofglitter [Louise Pentland], etc.), any real life references you may see, social media (Primarily YouTube, but also Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.), music/song references, as well as artists/bands (such as Muse, MCR, etc.), and whatever you recognize. I am not creative enough to own that stuff :P I do own my OC, Abigail Elizabeth Woods, who I think is creative...?

Chapter 28: Second Best

"Why are you here," Phil grits out. His head was pounding, but his heart was beating faster. It seemed like the only thing Phil could hear was her breathing.

"I'm here to see my boyfriend," Rosa says sweetly. "You have been out all week and it has made me a complete wreck. I am so glad you're okay, Philly."

"A wreck," Phil murmurs incredulously. "You're a wreck?! You're the one who caused this! You were the one who made this happen, and now I want answers."

"Answers," she echoes. "You want answers? I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about, Phil. Are you sure that the drugs aren't getting to your head?"

"Shut up," Phil growls, "and talk."

Rosa leans on the edge of his bed, her back facing him.

"I've always idolized you and Dan, you know that?" Rosa began. "Ever since '09...you guys were the only people I cared about. Maybe it was normal — I was merely a child. It makes sense that I was obsessed with you two."

Phil barely comprehends what she was saying. "What are you trying to tell me? That it was completely normal to stalk us to a dangerous level? By threatening us and the people we love?"

Rosa's eyes twinkle. "Not yet, of course."

Phil's fist is shaking beneath his blankets. Here, in front of him, was the person who seemingly had them by a leash. To make matters worse, it was someone he thought loved him.

He says nothing.

Rosa pushes herself off the edge of the bed and paces in front of him.

"I moved to London thinking I'd finally get the chance to meet you," Rosa continues. "I met you a few times...at some one-sided meet-and-greets, if you catch my drift."

Her laugh echoes in his ears, and Phil loses his words in his throat. She was watching for years...and they never knew about it.

"Of course, it took a while to find out where you have been," Rosa purrs, walking around the corner of Phil's bed in one swift motion. "I had to invest in quite a lot of phones to keep an eye on you guys...I suppose the payment was worth it."

"You have three phones?" Phil echoes. Rosa glares at him.

"I don't see why you're surprised," Rosa answers, "I had one for you, for Dan, and for a fan account."

She pauses and adds, "I've been quite a hit on my fan account lately, which I suppose all of you will find out later in the story."

She's staring somewhere, but Phil couldn't quite put his finger on it. She was smiling at a particular viewpoint in a way that made him shudder.

Rosa faces him again. "I know you have probably met your fair share in fangirls, Philly, but I want you to know that I am different. I am aware."

"I want you to leave," Phil murmurs, "right now. I want you to walk out of my life and walk away from the people in my life. I don't give two fucks about how 'aware' you are, I just want you to leave."

"What will happen if I leave, Phil?" Rosa asks, leaning forward and lifting his chin. Phil flinches at the cold touch. "If I leave, what will you do?"

"Live a little," Phil mutters sarcastically. Rosa smiles.

"No you won't," Rosa says almost giddily. "You're going to crumble. I am aware of my role in your story, Phil. I am aware that I am about to be one of the most important people in your life because I am spinning your career on my pinkie finger."

"Leave, Rosa," Phil grits out.

"See, Phil, I realized that I was what the phandom calls the evil 'dangirls'," Rosa says, ignoring his words. "I mean, I love you dearly — I suppose that's what kept me with you for so long — but it was always Dan that I've had my eye on, and I know that Dan would probably want something...a bit more, don't you think?"

"Dan would probably want to burn in hell than to even touch you," Phil growls. "Stay away from him. Stay away from us."

Rosa laughs. "Why would I ever do that? If I was going to get Dan, I knew I'd have to pull all the strings that I have. I made it my mission to find out where you guys were at every second...it took a while, but I got the hang of it. It made me particularly happy when I found your house though…"

"What are you talking about?" Phil asks.

Rosa smiles. "Your phone was turned off for a reason, hun."

It started to click in Phil's mind. She found their house, went in their house, stole his hair, probably watched them go into their house, and—

"You didn't," Phil whispers. Rosa smiles.

"I hope you're ready to see your career crumble."

…

"What the hell are we going to do?!" Dan screams when Abi rushes through the front door. "The whole world knows where we live. It could be seconds before 'endtheroomie' becomes, I don't fucking know, an angry mob of people who want to end-the-fucking-roomie!"

"Dan, calm down," Abi says slowly, but her voice is drowned down by Dan's pacing.

"There is literally nothing we can do," Dan continues. "Everyone knows where our house is. I've already seen people walking past our window, peering in."

"Dan, you're exaggerating, you—"

"These are people we don't know, Abi!" Dan snaps. "I was fine with walking the city everyday, having people stare at me because they knew who I was, but now I don't ever want to leave the house."

"You never leave the house," Abi whispers quietly, much to Dan's dismay, who fights the urge to throw a pillow at her.

"Abi that's on the internet forever," Dan says hoarsely. "Even if it was deleted, it's been screenshot thousands of times. Our address is on the biggest social media platform of all time, even more. It's on Tumblr, it's on Twitter; heck, I think it's on Facebook—"

"Can you please just keep still, Dan?" Abi interrupts him. He stops mid-way through his twentieth pace back towards the couch. "Jesus Christ, walking like that might make my brain melt."

"We have to leave, Abi, we can't stay here," Dan says anxiously. "We need to go...move out of England; I heard America was okay, or even fucking Russia—"

"Dan, we are not moving to another country because of one fucking stalker," Abi snaps. "There is no way that you are going to let this drag you down, we can find some other way!"

"Other way?!" Dan yells angrily. "Abi, this isn't a matter of our fanbase, or our fans, or our brand, or anything! This is a matter of our privacy — a privacy that we fought to keep for a long time. I am not letting myself make the same mistakes as we did before, we can't find some other way!"

Abi rubs the bridge of her nose. "Thank fuck that Striker isn't here."

Dan shakes his head, collapsing on the couch. "What are we going to do? We can't just ask this person to delete it — many other people have it."

"Do you know who this person is?" Abi asks. "Who was the source of the photo?"

Dan shakes his head. "No one knows, but it's obviously our dearest stalker. Besides, the original user has been taken down, so there is no way in finding who or where this person is."

Abi presses her thumbs together nervously. "Do you want to speak out on it? You have every right to do so, you know."

Dan squeezes his eyes shut. "I don't know if I want to. I'm going to eventually, but I can't speak out now. With doing so, I'm afraid that if I don't speak up now, I won't be able to."

"Dan, that's not true." Abi sits beside him. Dan sighs.

"Abi, it's not like things have been going well to begin with," Dan whispers. "After this was posted, everything went to hell. People were calling, my Twitter exploded, and I think we broke Tumblr multiple times."

"You guys usually do," Abi says quietly.

"This isn't something to fuck with, Abi," Dan growls. "Our address is there, and I know that people will be kicking this door down."

"Dan, you are underestimating your fan-base," Abi says rationally, looking at him. "I know there are already dozens of people by your side who are telling people to get the hell out of our lives. There are people who are already reporting people and taking them down and spreading the word—"

"Oh my god, Abi," Dan cuts her off. "Abi, this is 2012."

Abi blinks. "Pardon?"

"Everything that has been happening," He runs a hand through his hair in frustration, "this is 2012 all over again. Except...oh god, it's ten times worse, because now the whole world is falling on top of us and we can't stop it this time."

"You got through 2012, you can make it through this bump as well." Abi does her best to sound hopeful, but when she looks at Dan's tears, she realizes that they're helpless, and nothing was going to change that.

…

"You're not getting any closer to Dan than you would've to begin with," Phil grits out, trying his best not to cry. "Do you know what you've done?! You probably just ruined him. You can't do this, Rosa, he was broken enough after—"

He breaks off and loses the words. Rosa flicks her finger carelessly, popping her fucking bubblegum again.

"I know what I caused, Phil; it's what they call a relapse," she says as if it was nothing. "And just like last time, you will be the one to cause your downfall."

"You don't know anything about that," Phil says lowly, but deep down he knows otherwise. Rosa shakes her head with a sick smile.

"I realized on our date that there are two things that need to go if I am to get Daniel to myself," Rosa says animatedly, "and Abi will be easy because I know she is just as broken as I am."

"Leave her out of this," Phil nearly screams. "If you touch Abi, I swear to God, I am going to...just going to…"

"Speechless? I figured as much." Rosa's laugh kept echoing in his ears, and he didn't even think she was laughing.

"Since Abi is a target to be eliminated afterwards, I figured that I should just get you first. Of course, I didn't want to kill you — I wouldn't want a broken shell of a man in my arms. I just needed to break you guys to a point where you weren't coming up with each other."

"You aren't getting anything out of this, you know," Phil growls.

"Like every villain, I suppose," Rosa says, her accent ringing in his ears.

"You're a fucking sociopath or something. You have no conscience whatsoever, and the little bit that you have left is fucking crazy!"

"Now, Phil, don't be like that," Rosa slurs. "You were the only thing in my way, Phil. I'll admit it was fun at first, but we both know that it could never happen."

Phil's fist was shaking under the sheets. "When I get out of here, you aren't going to be in my life ever again. This is over."

"No, Phil, this will never be over until I get what I want," Rosa says with a sudden anger. "If I wanted Dan, I would have to get rid of Roomie. If I wanted Dan, I would have to get rid of you — Phan is bullshit anyway, because who the hell would want to love you?"

Phil nearly stops breathing, and if his life was a dead end, the flatline would be the only thing that could be heard in the room.

"You're second best, Phil Lester," Rosa says, backing out of the room. "You may have came first, but you're always going to come last."

And she walks out of the room at the same time Dan and Abi walk in.

He tries to block out their murmured greetings; tries to block out the thought of Rosa touching him and staring at her, and—

"Phil? Are you feeling any better?" That was Dan. He couldn't see him through the blurs created by tears.

"Phil, are you crying?" Abi, fucking Abi.

He breaks down right there, and the only thing he could feel is their hands and their tears too.

"Things have been crazy, has it?"

Abi forces a dry laugh, her breath forming clouds in the cold, dark sky. "It has been. I mean, I don't know why it seems so...funny."

"Abigail, you know I don't mean it that way. I promise you that we'll find out what's happening. It'll be over soon, I swear."

"I really appreciate our talks nowadays, Harry," Abi admits, leaning on the concrete flower pot outside the hospital. "It makes things a lot more tolerable, and I really loved catching up with you."

She pauses and adds, "Don't make promises you can't keep."

"Is Dan there? Do you want me to get you guys some coffee or something?"

"He's with Phil; I think they're both sleeping. We might be staying overnight, so don't bother coming all this way for us—"

"Too late."

Abi feels someone's breath on her lips, and she realizes that in her daze, Harry was now standing right in front of her. His green eyes drill into hers, and he's holding two cups of coffee.

"Caramel macchiato?" Abi asks, and reaches for it at the same time as Harry holds it out. This results in the cup toppling over, and both of them jumping back before it could spill all over them.

They look at it for a while, and Harry mutters, "How bloody convenient."

Now Abi is laughing — for real this time, she hopes — and she smiles at him.

"I'll give the other one to Dan," she says, and Harry shakes his head.

"No, no, that was my fault — I can run and get another one?"

Abi's lips curve into a small smile. "Or we can both get another one on tomorrow . Better yet, I can finally use that gift card to a steakhouse near Seven Dials."

Silence creeps into the atmosphere. Harry smirks.

"Was that your way of asking me out?"

"That's pretty much it, yes."

"I don't want to have coffee," Harry says, grabbing her hand and squeezing it. He feebly adds, "Or steak."

Abi's smile falls a bit, holding him a bit closer.

"Then it isn't a date," Abi promises, "just two friends hanging out on a Sunday evening"

Harry frowns. "You're making a big mistake."

"Is that a yes?"

A sigh and a smile is all it takes to get Abi smiling again.

"Two friends at a steakhouse," Harry says with a small smile, "sounds fun."

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