Hold On to the Stars // A Daniel Howell Fanfic

Chapter 1

"Sorry you couldn't see it before you actually moved in, but I think you're going to like it a lot!" Julia is far too cheerful for it being 7 a.m. The coffee she had brought along to the airport when she picked me up has helped (a little bit), but it's 2 in the morning back at home, and my body is only half awake. 

Julia is my "guide to London", as she put it. We've  been internet friends for a while, but the two of us aren't super close. Even so, she's been an amazing friend for the past month. When my parents screamed that I was going to medical school and getting a PhD whether I wanted to or not, she was there to tell me it was my life, not my parents'. When I was considering taking a gap year before going to college like my parents wanted, she was the only one who told me to do what I wanted to do. And when I went behind my parents' back and turned down the colleges I had gotten accepted to, she found me a place in London and a plane ticket for the next Monday. 

So here I am with the money I have saved from high school, a suitcase filled with less than half of the clothes in my closet at home, one friend, and no plane ticket home. Oh, and an flat that I've never seen, but am stuck with for three months. Yay.

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As we walk down the crowded street, Julia keeps up a relentless flood of questions. It actually is really cool to be meeting her in person for the first time, and we keep up a pretty decent conversation. That is, until the topic steers towards our early teenage years. Julia, it seems, was one of the popular girls, and she has a good family. We're laughing about our first boyfriends when she says, "Wait a second, didn't you start your channel because of somebody? Like, a specific somebody?" A sly smile plays on her face. 

Oh god. The memories of a twelve-year old me trying to get my idol's attention are so cringe-worthy that I literally stop walking and almost knock a dozen people over. "JULIA. That was seven years ago, ok? Yes, fine, I was obsessed with somebody, and I made my channel because I wanted them to see it and think I was cool. But I wasn't. So end of story." 

Her smile gets bigger though. "Wasn't that somebody a certain Daniel James Howell?" I start to say, "Yeah, maybe," but suddenly Julia pushes me. Hard. I stumble back, dropping everything, and crash into the person walking next to me. And suddenly Julia is gone, having melted into the crowd along with my suitcase. I would try to find her, but I'm more preoccupied with the fact that my phone has slid 10 feet down the pavement, my purse and its contents have been emptied into the street, and my coffee is now all over my white shirt. Exactly how I wanted to start off my time here. 

My attempt to get up without falling again is interrupted by somebody handing me my phone. A little ways down the sidewalk, someone else is carrying most of what was in my purse towards me. "Oh my god, I think she fell," says the approaching figure. "Way to state the obvious, Phil" says the person bending over me, laughing a little bit. He reaches out a hand to help me up, and as I accept his help, my eyes travel up to his face. Dimples, crooked grin, dark brown eyes, and brown hair. Oh. My. God. I just literally ran into Daniel Howell.