Human - phan

Six

Phil's face popped up on my phone screen and I tried to reach it without getting up, overbalancing and toppling in a tangle of bed sheets onto the carpet. Cursing and blinking at the bright screen, I pressed answer.

"'Lo?"

"Hey, Dan. Are you up?"

"I am now." I grunted.

I could hear his giggle, even distorted and tinny from the phone it still made me smile.

"Sorry. Actually, no I'm not. It's a lovely day, don't waste it!"

I rolled my eyes, but chose not to comment.

"I just wanted to know if you were doing anything today? We're going with Adam and Bryony to look at filming locations in town and I thought you might want to come along."

I nodded happily then remembered he couldn't see me. "Yeah, sure. What time and where and stuff?"

"We'll meet you at the train station in half an hour. Byeee!"

"Wha-? I'm not even dressed yet, wait!" But he'd already hung up on me.

Cursing, I flung open my wardrobe looking for a clean pair of jeans. No luck. I chastised myself silently, turning instead to the floor and kicking bundles of clothes aside with my foot.

I managed to pull on a jacket as I ran down the stairs, glaring at the grey jeans I'd opted for. I never wear anything other than black, but times were desperate. Shovelling cereal into my mouth I sped out the door and into the street.

*

"Cheese!"

We pulled out our awkward photo smiles, Chris somehow managing to weasel his way out of the picture and behind the camera.

PJ pulled at the Polaroid and shook it to develop it before scribbling a date and time on the white boarder with a pencil and shoving it into the folder.

We had been wandering aimlessly around town for half an hour, not paying much attention to scenery and instead trading banter and enjoying the rare burst of sunshine. Chris photographed a couple of residential streets that looked promising, but there was nothing particularly apocalyptic in suburban Reading. Bryony, Adam and Phil were deep in discussion about some anime show they all watched so I hung back to join Chris and PJ, trying not to look too awkward.

"A good location means everything, though. If we don't get the shots perfect, we can spend days editing and then realise we have to reshoot them. It would be a nightmare. I'm just not happy with anything we've seen so far." PJ said seriously.

Chris nodded glumly. "It just all looks so... thriving. We need chaos, rubble, despair. Not little kids playing on scooters."

I walked along silently, in that horrific just-in-front-because-there's-no-room-on-the-pavement spot. I was racking my brain, desperate to win their friendship, when I had an idea.

"How about a building site? I mean a big one. There'll be no one working on a Sunday, and obviously lots of rubble and stuff. There's the site at the end of James Street? They're building a whole estate, I think."

PJ beamed at me like I'd just cured every disease on the planet in one go, and a warmth swelled in my belly.

"Perfect! Why didn't I think of that? HEY guys!" He called ahead, "You're going the wrong way!"

Quickly, we backtracked through town. I was still a little smug over my (admittedly pretty minor) breakthrough, giving me confidence to talk to PJ some more.

"So, how long have you known Chris and Phil?" I asked.

"Phil, about three years, but Chris I've known since forever. We went to the same nursery but I didn't see him for like five years when we moved to 'big school.' Then one day I was filming myself in the living room, just a sonnet thing I was doing for English, and Chris bloody Kendall stuck his head through the window and joined in with the most horrific Jamaican accent I'd ever heard." He smirked, flashing a glance at Chris who returned it with a wink. "We've been together ever since." He shrugged.