Secrets Not Lies

Chapter Four - a Fan

I was in the bathroom the next morning, the heat from my straightener making me warm, contrasting the slightly chilly air of Phil and I's apartment. I was almost finished straightening my hair, except for one chunk that wasn't cooperating, when I heard a light knock on the bathroom door. I wasn't expecting Phil to be up, since I'd purposely woken up early so I could be out of the bathroom for him in the morning. However, it seemed he woke up earlier than I'd anticipated.

I set my straightener down on the counter before ruffling my fringe and combing my fingers through it. I opened the bathroom door, and there was Phil standing in his bright yellow pajamas.

"Good morning," he greeted. I'd never seen someone look so happy that early in the day.

Despite not being a morning person, I tried my best to replicate his smile. "Morning," I answered. "If you need the bathroom, I'm just about done now."

Phil shook his head. "Actually, I came to tell you that I just got off the phone with Chris. He invited us over around lunchtime to talk about his video. Now that you've agreed to be in it, he seems pretty eager to start working. Do you want to go?"

"Sure," I agreed, having not made any plans for the day.

"I was hoping that's what you would say," Phil said, seeming slightly sheepish, "as I already told him we would be there."

I chuckled as I turned to the outlet beside the door and unplugged my straightener. "I don't usually have plans, so you can pretty much always count me in."

"Alright," he supposed. "I'll be ready to go by eleven if that works for you. We'll walk which shouldn't take too long."

"Okay." After folding up the cord, I stuffed my straightener away in a drawer I'd decided was my own. "Have you eaten yet? I was thinking of making eggs."

***

Even with Phil awkwardly reminding me every ten minutes we had to leave, we still somehow managed to be late. I didn't know why I could never be on time for things and I was hoping maybe Phil—if he truly was as punctual as Pj said he was—would be able to help me be more on time. I realized as we showed up an hour late that probably wasn't going to happen.

We let ourselves into Chris's apartment, knowing him well enough to do so. We wandered into the entryway, slipping our shoes and coats off. As I tossed my jacket to the side, I heard Chris and Pj's voices drifting from further in his apartment.

I poked my head into his kitchen where—as I expected—they were sat at the table talking. Both their gazes moved to me and Phil as we strode into the room. They looked slightly unimpressed, probably because we'd shown up late, but I knew they were used to it. They probably hadn't expected us to be on time.

"Finally!" Chris sighed.

"Sorry, traffic," Phil apologized quickly for me. I glanced at him and noticed he looked slightly embarrassed about being late.

"It's the middle of the day on a Saturday, there's no traffic" Pj reminded him, seeming amused by his obvious excuse. "You guys didn't even drive here anyway."

Phil and I sat down at the table with them as I said, "Come on, you hadn't really expected us to be on time, did you?"

Chris laughed at this, shaking his head before Pj changed the subject.

"Alright," he started in a business-like tone, "we have work to do."

"While you two were dilly-dallying, we took the time to go over our ideas and write them down," Chris explained. "We have most of the ideas for the short film but we wanted to run it by you to see if you had anything to add, Dan. Phil's already given us his input."