Never Told A Lie (Phan fiction)

Chapter 24

On Saturday morning, Dan wakes up to the smell of fried eggs and pancakes coming through the crack of his bedroom door, making his stomach growl in hunger. Confused he sits up in his bed, hand running through his hair as he tries to remember if he has Chris or PJ over, who occasionally surprise Dan by making breakfast in the morning. It can't be them though. Dan hasn't seen them since school yesterday and coming over just to make breakfast for Dan seems completely unlikely.

Intrigued, Dan puts on his sweatpants and taps out of his room, walking down the stairs quietly, the smell of fresh breakfast becoming more and more overwhelming. Reaching the kitchen, Dan peers inside and what he sees almost makes him let out a gasp of surprise: At the oven, dressed in lounge pants and a too big t-shirt, stands Dan's mum, spatula in her hand and cheerily whistling to a song, coming from the radio. Dan almost doesn’t recognize her out of the formal suit she usually wears for work.

“Mum?”

Mrs Howell turns around, smiling when she catches sight of Dan. "Oh, darling. I was just about to wake you up. Breakfast is ready."

“I- um. Okay?” Dan mutters, cocking his eyebrow as he walks over to the table, where his mother has already laid out cutlery for him.

“Do you want some coffee? Tea? Orange juice?” Mrs Howell asks.

“Tea.” Dan replies and gets a mug out of the cupboard over the sink.

“There you go.”

Smiling sweetly, his mother pours him tea into the mug before turning to the fizzing pan again.

Dan just stares, almost letting his mug overflow when he adds milk to it and doesn't pay enough attention.

However, when his mum sets a plate with pancakes and another one with fried eggs and bacon in front of him, Dan can't hold his curiosity in anymore.

“I'm not trying to sound mean, but why are you doing this, Mum?”

Mrs Howell chuckles, ruffling her fingers through Dan's fringe before sitting down on his left, a cup of tea in her hand.

“I thought about what you told me last night and the other day.” She explains. “And I have to admit, you were right, Daniel. I wasn't a good mother to you at all and while I know it'll take a lot more than one lousy breakfast to make it up to you again, I thought it might at least cheer you up a bit.”

Dan's eyes widen in surprise. “Are you serious? Like, with all of this? This isn't just a onetime thing you do to say sorry and then tomorrow you are back to working all the time and neglecting me.”

“I'm being completely serious, dear. From now on I will do anything to show you that I can be a rather decent mother, even if it can't make up for all the lost time together.”

And that's more than enough for Dan.

-

Three weeks later, on Friday afternoon, Dan's mobile suddenly rings, disturbing his attempt at doing homework. With great difficulty Dan pulls it out of his pocket, not feeling like getting up to make it easier, and accepts the call, barely glancing at the ID.

“Hello?”

“Hi Dan.” Phil's cheery voice sounds from the other end. “I was wondering if you wanted to come over and play some video games, maybe? My mum is out until 7, so she won't bother us.”

Dan chuckles. It's rather stupid, really, that Phil still seems to feel the need to tell Dan that his mum isn't at home in order to coax him into coming over.

Dan might have been sort of ... uneasy about Karen Lester when he first met her, two days after what Dan likes to call The Great Shock (capital letters and all because the school still hasn't stop talking about him and Phil, even though Dan tries to meet with him rather in his free time than in school. However, Dan has not once let Phil sit alone during Lunch break ever since because he is still wary about what Brad might be up to.).