Never Told A Lie (Phan fiction)

Chapter 27

Dan has never thought of himself as anything close to a romantic. He’s never been in a serious relationship before, always just fooling around with girls (and occasionally boys) which in turn means that there has never been any need to act all lovey-dovey and smoochy with someone. In short: Dan has no idea what it actually means to be a romantic. Of course he knows the basics. Making compliments, bringing flowers, eating in candle-light; and just anything else you see in rom-coms. The problem, however, despite Dan’s knowledge of all these things, is that Dan doesn’t really know how much romance is actually acceptable and how much is going to make him look creepy and completely over the top. And with Phil it’s even harder, because Dan can’t really figure out what’s okay with him and what isn’t.

Compliments are alright, Dan has figured out that much, even if he has to make sure they sound casual and incidental, so that Phil doesn’t get all embarrassed about them. The constant texting seems to be more than alright with Phil too, considering his replies hardly take longer than a few minutes. What Dan doesn’t know though, is if Phil thinks candle-light dinners are cheesy, or if he will feel like a joke if Dan brings him flowers. Or if he will think Dan is a moron for coming around his house in the middle of the night just because Phil isn’t feeling too well.

And Dan really hopes he will have time to ask Phil about all these things very soon. Except, for the last one it might be a little bit too late already, because despite his doubts, after reading Phil’s text about missing him, Dan has decided to pay Phil a little late-night visit, not even caring anymore how creepy this could be taken. Phil was glad that Dan visited in the afternoon, so why shouldn’t he be now?

Keeping that in mind, Dan puts on a pair of shoes and his coat at exactly half past eleven, knowing his parents have gone to bed a long time ago. Quietly he opens his bedroom door, holding his breath as he checks that his parents are breathing as evenly as they would if they were asleep. He wouldn’t have needed to bother though. His father is snoring so loudly that neither of his parents could possibly notice if Dan were to smash down a flower pot by accident; it’s just impossible for anyone to hear him when he quietly descends the stairs and leaves through the front door, pulling it shut behind him with a quiet thud.

It’s freezing cold outside, predictably, considering that it’s already December and the sky doesn’t look like it’s opposed to letting a bit of snow fall. Dan just hopes that time won’t be tonight. Going to Phil’s in the middle of a cold winter’s night is one thing but doing it when the whole town is being covered in a thick layer of snow is something completely different. As sappy as Dan is starting to turn out to be, that would be a bit much even for him. Of course he wouldn’t mind staying at Phil’s if it actually starts to snow like mad but there’s always Phil’s mother and Dan doesn’t exactly feel like she would appreciate it if she found out that Dan came over in the middle of the night without her knowing, and on top of that stayed the night.

The way to Phil’s house is eerily quiet and even though Dan is actually rather used to walking around town in the middle of night, keeping all the parties he’s gone home from at three in the morning in mind, he is still feeling rather uneasy. His town isn’t exactly known for being unsafe at night but you never know what might happen, and Dan really hopes he isn’t going to be that unlucky fellow that’s going to get attacked. All things considered though, Dan doesn’t really think that anyone is actually going to be outside under these weather conditions.

He is relieved nevertheless when he arrives at Phil’s house a few minutes later, completely unharmed and without having crossed ways with someone.

Getting a little bit unsure about this whole idea, Dan wonders whether he should text Phil before knocking on his window or if he should just go for it. In the end though he decides to send Phil a text. After all Dan doesn’t want to scare him and just knocking on his window would surely get him a reaction quite like that.