Just Friends (Dan Howell)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

"Wow," I murmured. "That was so incredibly romantic... Jenny, you honestly got so lucky! I can only dream of a relationship like that."

"I know," Jenny sighed. She was staring at the ring on her finger.

"Are you public yet?"

"Yes, he's gonna tweet and then on Friday we're filming a video for his channel. It's gonna be called The Proposal Tag." Again, she sighed dreamily.

"Well, I can't wait to see this video," I smiled. "When's the wedding?"

"We were thinking around November," Jenny said.

"Sounds great," I replied. Then I got to my feet. "Well, let's get the ice cream out! Jenny, this deserves a dance party..." I paused. "In our pants."

Jenny beamed at me, and walked with me to the freezer.

~~

"Hey, Jenny!" I called, stepping back into the apartment. It was one month later; March. She and Phil had taken YouTube by storm. Phenny shippers had stomped out Phan shippers. It was almost spring, but a cold snap had hit London. Even by stepping out to get the mail, I had snow resting on my shoulders.

"What is it?" Jenny called from the lounge. She was sitting at the desk, working on her novel. She'd hit a huge writing spree this last month.

I replied, "Bills, bills, bills," shuffling through the envelopes. Then one caught my eye. It was from Playlist Live staff and accordance.

And it was to Jennifer Mason and Lillette Baker.

Eagerly, I tossed aside the other letters, and tore open this one with gusto. Eagerly, I pulled out the paper and read it hungrily.

To Miss Lillette Baker and Miss Jennifer Mason,

Hello! We have seen your YouTube videos, and would be glad to welcome you to attend this year's PlayList Live as panel speakers. The dates for PlayList Live 2016 are April 22 through the 24 in the Marriott Hotel in Orlando, Florida. Please write us back ASAP whether you will be attending the panel or not. Also, please sign the letter with your signatures for officiality.

Thank you, and we hope to see you in April!

I could hardly believe it. So much was happening so fast, I didn't know which way to turn!

"Jenny...!" I called again.

"What, Lil?" Jenny snapped.

"Jenny, look! Look, read this!" My voice was rising in pitch as I waved the letter in the air.

"Lil, I'm a little busy!" Jenny sighed, exasperated.

"Not too busy to read this," I assured her, rushing to her side and handing her the letter. She glared at me, snatched the letter from my grasp, and scanned over it. Her eyes widened.

"No way," she murmured. Then she got to her feet. "That settles it!" She announced. "I'm getting a YouTube Channel! Just Jenny just became a reality!"

"This is in a month, Jenny!" I squealed. "We're gonna be on a PlayList Live panel in one month!"

"I know!" Jenny smiled in determination. "Which means I better get started!"

Then she sat back down, narrowing her eyes at the computer screen. "Right after I finish this chapter."

I laughed, but before I could walk away, Jenny asked, "Hey, how did you feel when you inspired Seuss at Shelby and Leo's wedding?"

"I dunno," I thought about this. "Happy, I suppose. Proud. I was mostly overjoyed that I had inspired someone to live up to their full potential. Why?"

"Just trying to connect real emotions to the characters," Jenny mumbled, her hands flying over the keys.

I eyed her curiously, but decided not to pry. I took the letter and walked back into my bedroom. I had to call Dan.

~~

Dan, Phil, Jenny, and I were all in the airport. I was super excited. It was April 20, two days before PlayList Live. I was gonna meet some YouTubers! I knew that Joey Graceffa would be there, along with Lilly Singh, Hannah Hart, and Grace Helbig. They were such big names that I had grown up with, I was ecstatic to get to talk to them.

"Would boarding group A please grab their luggage and tickets and report to the loading deck," I mechanic voice said over the terminal.

Dan looked a little sour as he hefted his suitcase and made his way to the line with us. He had forgotten to remove his belt in security, so he'd gotten pulled out of line and been patted down.

It didn't help that Jenny had made an inappropriate joke. As they gave Dan the all-clear she had said conversationally, "No bombs?"

They had then patted down all four of us and gone through our bags.

So after being patted down two times more than he would have liked, Dan was in an understandably bad mood. As we boarded the plane, he grumbled about being cramped up for 9 hours.

"Nine hours and ten minutes!" Phil said brightly.

"Not helping, Phil," Dan grumbled.

"Hey, at least we're sitting next to each other," I said. This plane had rows of four, so we'd be able to sit together. I had called dibs on the window seat, so Dan was sitting next to me, then Jenny, and Phil had reluctantly accepted the aisle seat. It had taken lots of coaxing, one child-like tantrum, and a promise of us buying him American sweets in Orlando before he gave in.

"I suppose," Dan admitted reluctantly.

Then we sat down, and Dan started to regret his choice, as Jenny and I started talking about the tampon ads in the coupon booklet that was attached to the back of the seat in front of us.

I got out my phone and took and artsy photo as we took off. Then I posted it to instagram with the caption, Goodbye, London!

Then, I leaned back. We were leaving in the evening, so we'd get a relatively normal sleep schedule. As we flew out over the ocean, I stared out at the rippling blue surface reflecting the twinkling stars above. How lovely it must be, to be a star. I felt my eyelids growing heavy.

Before I knew it, we had touched down in Orlando and I was sitting up. "What?" I asked. "But we just left London!"

"No," Dan laughed. "You feel asleep practically the moment we were in the air. I don't know how you do it!"

"Yeah, we hit a huge bout of turbulence," Phil yawned, getting up and stretching. "You just kept sleeping, flopping around."

"You left me to entertain these two!" Jenny accused me.

"Sorry," I laughed, taking out my phone and snapping a picture of the pinky clouds on the horizon, glowing with the light of predawn.

I posted this picture and captioned it, Hello, Orlando!