Just Friends (Dan Howell)

Chapter Twenty-One

"Here's the game plan. We have exactly one week until Halloween. I haven't gotten rid of those Halloween costumes yet, so we are going to get you and Dan to make up before Halloween. Otherwise, our Halloween plans are ruined. So, we're gonna buckle down and put all of our energy into repairing this broken friendship! Now, are we gonna be friendly? Or are we gonna be friendly!?"

Jenny slammed her fist into her palm to add intensity as she finished her speech.

I blinked at her. "Are you serious?"

Jenny looked startled. She pursed her lips and dropped her arms to her sides. "Idea scrapped, instantly."

I giggled. "Listen, Jenny, I really appreciate the effort, but I've got a plan. I actually got it from one of my subscribers. I'm gonna write down exactly how I feel, what I want Dan to know, then I will somehow get that to him."

Jenny looked a little disheartened. "Oh. Alright. That's a good plan."

I smiled at her. "Thanks, though."

"Yeah," Jenny shrugged. Then she met my eyes and forced a brave grin. "Well, you better get started, then."

~~

"And so, I just wanna say, I may not upload for a while. I just don't know. I'm finding it incredibly hard to speak to anyone right now, including Phil. Whenever I see anyone in person, I just lose my tongue and can't speak straight. So this is the only way I can communicate. If you're a friend, I'm sorry. If you're a subscriber, I'm sorry. If you're the cause of this... well, I hope you're happy. I'll see you guys at some point. Bye, Internet."

Dan signed off, and the screen went dark.

He had just uploaded a new video titled "Communication". He explained that something had happened recently and that the effect of this was his failure to communicate. He couldn't properly explain what he meant whenever he tried to speak in person.

As for who he called the cause of this... that was me. No one would know it was me. They wouldn't even know it's someone they could recognize. No matter how much Dan's video had stung, however, it had given me an idea.

I got out my camera. I set up the lights, and prepared my laptop. Then, I got to work.

I started typing on a Google doc.

Hey, Dan. This is a response video to your video you just uploaded, which you called "Communication". I know that it's absurd for me to ask forgiveness, but I just want to apologize. I don't know what came over me, but for some reason I just snapped, and...

~~

"Lillette! Have you seen? Have you seen?"

"Huh?" I looked up. I'd uploaded that video four hours ago. After I finished typing up what to say to Dan, I'd read it word for word, speaking into the camera. Then I edited it and uploaded, making sure to tag Dan.

Jenny came running into my room, holding her phone. She shoved it into my face, revealing that she'd been on Twitter.

"What am I looking at?" I asked, pushing myself into an upright position and taking my laptop off of my stomach.

"The hash tag that's trending worldwide right now!" Jenny persisted, pointing at her screen.

"Which is...?" I asked, too confused to look.

Jenny huffed in exasperation, then pulled her phone back so that she could look at it. Then she read aloud, "Hash tag Dan forgive Lillette."

I stared at Jenny, my eyes wide. "Are you serious?" I asked quietly. "Show me!"

Jenny handed me her phone.

Sure enough, in the hashtag search bar, the very first option was #DanforgiveLillette.

"That's crazy," I gasped.

"I know," Jenny grinned. "I haven't seen your video yet, but you must have said the right stuff!"

"Apparently," I found myself smiling in spite of myself. Could this video be enough? Was Dan going to forgive me?

Just then, Jenny's phone buzzed. Dan had tweeted.

The tweet read: I can hardly believe that my name is in the number one trending hash tag right now! That's crazy.

I felt a little hurt that all he said was how impressive it was, and didn't comment on how people wanted him to forgive me. Of course he wouldn't say that on social media. That was his private business. That was between us.

I couldn't help but smile, though. Four million people couldn't be wrong! This couldn't mean nothing. Maybe Dan was coming around. I knew that it was too soon, but maybe someday... eventually... Dan would come around.

(Sorry for the super short chapter, I have writers block, I promise the next chapter will be longer and better.)