VOICE ON THE RADIO | PHAN [✓]

e p i l o g u e

*a few years later*

Dan was sitting in the middle of his room, packing boxes surrounding him as he looked through a box that he had forgotten was hidden under his bed. It was a memory box of all things Vegas and it was sending him down a rabbit hole of memories. All of the albums that got him through his roughest times, a photo album full of photos of him, Anna, Victoria, and Phil in various locations they had gone to for adventures, the very first picture that he taken of him and Anna sitting on the same floor he was sat on now, and the concert ticket that had gotten him into his very first Vegas show. At the very bottom, he saw sheets of paper that he had forgot even existed.

He smiled down at the paper before closing the box and placing it within another box that would eventually be stored into the back of a moving van. Dan was feeling extremely nostalgic these days, from both moving and finding little memories stored around his room that brought back both positives and negatives. For the first time in his life, he could say he was without a doubt happy with who he was.

When he had returned home from spending the week with Phil on tour, he had applied for a job at a local music store. He spent the majority of his time unpacking new shipments of CDs and records and sorting them onto the shelves. This job gave Dan easy access to finding new bands and artists he had never heard of and he bought a new CD every time he got a paycheque. On his spare time, he found himself writing small reviews of the bands and artists on his Tumblr and one day he found that he had blown up considerably. People would flood his inbox asking for him to review the newest album of a certain band and soon he had more requests than time to listen to the actual albums.

One fateful day, he received an email from a company that had a magazine that focused on music. He was asked to come in for a job interview as someone who could write a monthly column as a professional music critic. Dan thought he was dreaming and he went into the interview with nothing but a pen and paper so he could converse with them. He explained that he had started the blog for fun and that he hadn't done any schooling in music or journalism. Despite that fact, they wanted him anyway. He had gotten a job purely by accident and he was elated. He had a job, he had an idea of where his life was going, and he was moving in with Phil.

-

Dan had settled into Phil's flat and was currently curled up into Phil's side as they watched The Great British Bake Off. He smiled to himself as he realized that this was something that was going to happen nearly every night. He would be able to spend every bit of free time with Phil and have him be the last thing he saw before he fell asleep and the first thing he saw when he woke up.

"What are you smiling at?" Phil asks. Dan only shrugs and leans his head on Phil's shoulder. He had a lot of things to smile at recently, but the number one reason would always be Phil.

That's when he remembers the sheets of paper he had seen in his memory box earlier that morning. He gets up and walks into their bedroom, leaving Phil sitting on the couch in confusion. He grabs the box from inside the closet and brings it out into the lounge to share with Phil. Dan hands him the box and watches him open the lid and grin when he sees the contents inside.

He looks at everything, reminiscing at all the memories, and pausing at the paper that Dan brought the box out for in the first place. He looks up and Dan, who only points back to the paper, urging him to read it. He looks back down and the puzzle pieces fall into place when he realizes that he's holding Dan's turning point essay.

Everything started with me being too lazy to pick up my fallen headphones off the floor. I turned on a local radio station and sat down to try and write the very essay you're reading now. I was uninspired, therefore, unmotivated. There was nothing in my life that was worth calling a turning point. My life was a routine of waking up and going to school and doing homework without being able to voice how I felt about anything. I was at the point of giving up without even starting when I heard it. The one song that turned my world upside down and shook it like a snow globe. I had discovered Vegas.