Spaceking

Chapter 11: I Do Get My Friends Gifts

"Is it just me or does anyone else want to stroke Zayn's hair?" I asked, posing next to the five wax figures and taking a picture.
"Nope," Five voices answered me at the same time. Jolene's hand reached out and felt the head of waxy Zayn. "I'm not even that big of a fan, and I'll miss him," she sighed. We all quietly nodded. I laughed short after. "We're so pathetic," I said. "Let's go, before we cry." Without thinking I grabbed the two closest hands and proceeded to pull Phil and Dan with me to the next figures.
We were having a lot of fun, at least I was. We had taken a lot of pictures with the statues and were joking around. Phil had dared me to ask a random person for an autograph, while I freaked out and kept calling them famous names. He was terrified I had actually done it.

*************************************************

"Hey," I heard a girl's voice say behind us. I was walking next to Dan. "Is that Dan Howell?" The voice proceeded, and I heard a different girl giggle. "Oh My God, yes, I think it is!"
"Who's that with him though? I don't recognize her." I blushed, fully knowing that everything could explode any minute.
"I don't know, but we have to say hi to Dan!"
I softly poked Dan between his ribs. His head snapped to me. "What?" He asked. I motioned with my head to the girls. "Someone wants to meet you," I said, turning around to face the girls. They stopped walking, looking at me. I smiled as I turned Dan around. "Say something, noob."

"Hey Dan!" The first girl said, grinning. She was tall, they both were, and she had black hair resting on her shoulders. "Hi," the second one waved quietly, but with the same grin. She was even taller than her friend, and her blonde curls flowed down her back. I noticed her necklace, the cat whiskers. When I looked back at the first girl, I saw she wore it too.
"Hey guys!" Dan said excited, pulling them both in a hug. I didn't follow the conversation, staring at the ground, until the blonde asked Dan: "Who's your friend?"
My head snapped up, blushing. I tried to smile casually, but it had to look forced and uneasy. My cheeks hurt.
"This is Joanna. It's her birthday," Dan said, showing off his dimples as he looked down on me. I smiled back, real and warm this time. The things this boy did to me.
"Happy Birthday!" They both yelled, smiling widely. "So you're here for her birthday then? Is that why Phil isn't here?"
"Kind of," Dan answered. "Phil is around here somwhere, you'll eventually walk into him. We're here with two friends of Jo."
"Ooh, nice!"
They got another hug, and a picture. When they walked further, and we turned around to do the same, I heard one last thing: "Did you hear that? He calls her Jo!" "Yeah, and their sweaters match!"

Blush. Blush. Blush.

******************************************************

"This is exactly what I needed," Lisa said, diving in a pile of pancakes. I shook my head. "I can't believe you're eating pancakes as lunch." Lisa shrugged, grinning widely. "Don't tell my parents, Jolene," She said, without even a smuch as a glance at Jolene. Jolene blushed, locking her phone and quickly putting it away. I laughed. So typical. She was eating some kind of pasta with amazing smelling sauce. Phil had asked the same. Dan was eating a burger. My food was the only thing that still had to arrive.

"The caprese salad," the waitress said as she put the large plate down. I was so ready to immediately dive in, but Dan stopped me. "Caprese?" He looked at Phil and they both laughed. I smiled, remembering Dil Howlter. Jolene looked up at me and said: "She makes it too. Amazing."

"Well, it's not that hard. But maybe I'm, deep down, Mia Yang," I said, wiggling my eyebrows. "You'll never know for sure." Dan and Phil both chuckled, but Jolene and Lisa frowned. They didn't even ask for an explanation, they just dived back in their food. I rolled my eyes at my friends. I loved them really, but sometimes they just didn't understand my jokes because they're too geeky to imagine. I was happy I could go and make these jokes for the moment. Dan and Phil got them. And surely if they were from their own videos.

We ate in a kind of silent way, because we were all so hungry. After ten minutes, everyone was done and the waitress had brought the check. Now came the awkward moment in which both me and Dan pulled out money. I shook my head. "Oh hell no, Dan. It's my birthday, it's my treat." Dan also shook his head. "It's your birthday. You're not paying."

I finally won the paying battle, but Dan had promised me to get me a gift if he didn't get to pay. At this statement I had blushed. Then I put the money on the table and stood up. "We done?" Everyone nodded and stood up. I didn't know what we were going to do now. It was around three. Was now the time to say goodbye to Dan and Phil and go back to the hotel? Apparently not, because after a silent convo, Dan took my hand and began pulling in a certain way. "Let's go hang at ours," he said, smiling down on me. Behind me, Phil took Lisa and Jolene with him. But they went in the opposite direction! "Bye guys! See you in a bit!" Phil yelled over his shoulder.

"Why are we going another way than them?" I asked, turning to Dan. I tried ignoring the fact that he was still holding my hand. His hand was big, soft and dry. I felt the shape of his long fingers wrapped around my small hand, which was probably sweating. It felt strong, and his grip was too, but at the same time he held my hand in the softest way possible. Do you understand why I had such a hard time concentrating on something else than our hands locked together?

"They are taking the Tube to our place," Dan said, shrugging. "And we're going on foot, because I still have to get you something." "You do not have to get me something." "Yes I do, it's your birthday." "Like you give every person a gift on their birthday." "Indeed, I do not, but I do get my friends gifts."

The word friends did two things to me: First, it made me smile. But secondly, it made me frown a bit. Friends. But I shrugged it off. I couldn't think of him that way. Dan was one of those guys I would probably like for the rest of my life, but that would never happen. Not only because he is like a (let's face it) international star, and I'm just a Belgian Lit student, but also I'm a BELGIAN girl. And I hate the idea of long distances.