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introductions 1

"alex i got you your favorite, how about you put down those heavy bags and eat?" phil reasons slowly as her eyes stay planted on dan's.

she complies. as she slips the suitcases from her hands, she takes careful steps over to the kitchen where dan was standing. "dad-"

"eat or it's going to get cold."

finally, her eyes snap from dan's and his shoulders slump in relief but his body was still frozen in shock. dan looks at phil but he was walking over from where the girl, alex dropped her bags. he picks them up and when he steps on the first step is when he finally catches his eye and motions his head towards the stairs for dan to follow him.

dan grabs his small brown bag from the floor and he sees the girl cut her eyes to it before digging back in to her noodles. phil lets him go first up the steps. dan didn't dare speak until they were completely in privacy.

"she has my old room now, so make a left." phil speaks in a even voice as dan makes a start to his old room.

dan goes left and pushes open the door. he notices phil didn't follow him in and had went right to deposit her bags in her room. he looks around phil's room. it looked about the same. just the countless posters were gone and there was no clothes scattered across the floor. the only thing that was still the same was his messy sheets and how he always kept his closet and dresser drawers open.

his back was turned to the door so when he heard it close all of a sudden he jumps and spins around.

"i'm sorry i scared you. i should've made my presence known."

his whole demenor changed. it was like they were meeting for the first time. this was a totally diffrent phil than dan had ever seen.

"it's fine.....um so..." dan didn't know if he should just jump right in or wait until phil said something first.

"go ahead and say it. i have a teenage daughter." phil says looking him straight in the eye.

the whole situation made dan feel uncomfortable. he looks away and goes over to sit on his bed. there. this felt a little better. he kicks his shoes lightly and looks at them as he answers. "when...how... why didn't you tell me?"

phil shuffles and sticks his hands in his pockets. "dan this is going to sound harsh but i really believed we wouldn't see each other again."

dan's mouth widens a little but he quickly closes it and nods. "so you moved on in the first two years of us being apart?"

"dan please i know it sounds bad but i was a wreck for like the first  seven months without you. everytime we hung up the phone i would cry because i couldn't hold you or hold your hand. i would look across the street and the light in your room wouldn't be on. i couldn't pick you up for school anymore. i was empty."

his lip quivers but the tears don't flow. "phil.."

"i had shut myself in my room and didn't come out until my dad told me i had to get out the house and stop being sad because you moved away."
"did he know?"
"no but he found out later. but that's another story."

phil clears his throat. "so, two years later i met someone else. and he had a ten year old daughter that he had adopted not to long ago. i had agreed to help father alex and you..."

"got pushed aside. was forgotten." dan states.

"dan please don't be like that."

"no i understand." dan says quickly. "you had other matters to attend to then."

phil sighs and rubs his temples. "i thought you had moved on too at that point, we were barely talking anyway. so i just thought maybe i should move on too."

dan stops swinging his feet. it hurt but it was the truth. "so where is he now? the man."

"he hurt alex when he was mad at me. so we left to my dad's house together. in all the craziness i ended up saying 'he did this, he thought i cheated' and so then the secret was out. my dad moved out a week later, telling me the house was mine. i was grateful he didn't kick me out."

phil has definitley had a harder time than him in the past years and he suddenly felt bad. "i'm sorry, i shuldn't have been rude when-"

"no it's fine." he coughs, "alex is 18 now, we've both decided to leave the past behind us."

"including me?"

phil smiles. "no dan, you're my present and my future."

warm spreads through his body and he grins.

"i love that smile." phil whispers. "now i think it's time to meet alex. she is very sweet when you actually get to know her, both of you have the same personalities in my eyes."

"we'll see." dan mumbles.

update will come sometime this weekend also :)

~ alivia