a messy canvas

Just Let Me Take You Home [Phan]

As much as it pained him to admit it, he seemed to step back in the game called love fairly quickly. Although in hindsight, maybe this wasn't a proper count for such.

If he was being truthful, Dan thought Phil would've tried to place more time between their break up and seeking a new relationship. It just wasn't in his nature to jump from such a drastic point in his life to a new endeavor. Then again, the split had come to Dan as a slap to the face.

Now here he was at Chris's house party as a final get together before spring break was over, sat in the corner fiddling with the empty solo cup that ironically never had alcohol in it to begin with. He had debated just driving home for the past thirty minutes, yet when he had seen Phil drunkenly share saliva with some girl he couldn't recall the name of Dan went against the idea.

When his ex and this girl had gone upstairs, Dan couldn't hold back on simply letting them be. This wasn't the jealousy bubbling within his stomach making the decision. What really made him take action was how the last thing he wanted either of them to do was take part in acts that they not only would not likely remember tomorrow, but come to regret intensely.

As awkward as this was about to come across, Dan still cared about Phil and he wanted to at least keep his best interest at heart when he wasn't in the state of mind to do such for himself.

"Phil?" he uttered meekly as the boy turned to face him in disbelief.

"You have to be kidding me Dan, you choose now to come and talk to me?"

"Yes I did because I don't want you doing something stupid that could ultimately ruin your life!" Dan admitted, not in the mood to go back to their ever too familiar arguments.

"Thank you for your concern but Olivia and I.."

"You're not serious right?" the girl beside him spoke up, anger obvious in her tone. "My name's Ava you lousy piece of shit."

With it too late for Phil to cover his mistake, Ava went on to literally slapping him in rage and storming out of the room faster than Dan could've ever imagined.

"Why am I such a screw up?" Phil groaned as he rubbed his cheek for the sting from the slap was beginning to bother him. "Are you just going to laugh in my face now or what?"

"No, I wasn't planning on that." Dan admitted.

"Then what in the hell do you want from me, we're not together anymore remember?"

"I'm well aware of that Phil, you're the one who broke things off between us." Dan stated. "I was going to offer you a ride home, seeing as you had some drinks."

"Why would you wanna do that?"

"Because I care about you, regardless of whether or not we're together."

"Alright I guess, but you can't say a word to anyone."

"I know, just let me take you home okay?"

Maybe it was for the better that he and Phil weren't an item anymore, because looking back on how the boy he grew to love so deeply acted towards him that night, Dan knew he wasn't the same person.

They both needed to grow, because life wasn't going to make things easy and they would be much more successful tackling their own troubles first before going into a huge shift together.

What Dan ended up leaving with was knowing that even though their relationship wasn't the same as it once was they could hopefully come back to each other someday, whether that be simply as friends or something more.