Intriguing (phan)

1 - painfully average

(phil)

most people might wonder how they got stuck in the back of a large van wedged between boxes and furniture, but to phil lester, this was a usual occurrence.

he had been moving from flat to flat continuously for the past three weeks. it wasn't his fault that every flatmate he'd had turned out to be extremely strange.

the first flatmate phil had had was oddly close. he'd hovered over phil's shoulder for the entire two days he'd been there. he even wanted to sleep in phil's bed. it took a lot of persuading on phil's part for that plan not to go through.

his second flatmate claimed he was into photography and had taken what seemed like millions of photos of phil.

the third flatmate he'd had seemed normal until phil walked into the lounge in the morning to see him jerking off to porn that he was playing on the flat screen tv, with the volume turned all the way up. he even had the nerve to look annoyed that phil had interrupted. it's safe to say that phil left him immediately.

and the last flatmate he'd had was a girl who seemed to be an obsessive cleaner. when phil came back from a day out, he noticed that she had organised his room. she'd made his bed, put his books in alphabetical order, sorted his papers into piles. she yelled at him when he wore shoes in the apartment and started crying when he left a plate in the sink.

and now here he was, on his fifth try to find someone he could live with for a year or so. he couldn't help but hope that the person was the most painfully average person ever. he closed his eyes and imagined someone with brown hair, brown eyes and a small smile. he would leave phil alone, and spend the whole day in his room, being quiet.

phil sighed as the van came to a stop, and attempted to straighten up in the cramped space, before hitting his head on the ceiling.

the driver gave phil a strange look as soon as he'd opened the back doors and phil wasn't surprised considered he was doubled over, squeezing his head with both hands.

'what floor?' the driver asked, already heaving out one of the boxes.

'4th floor, 2nd door on the left,' phil recalled easily. 'the door should be black.'

phil followed the man, carrying a significantly smaller box. his hands were shaking, from a mixture of nervousness of meeting his new flatmate and the coffee that he couldn't stop downing when he was being thrown around in the back of the van.

after climbing way too many stairs for phil, they'd arrived. immediately phil scanned the flat, trying to deduce clues about his flatmate. it was tidy and organised, but not overly so. there was a gaming console under the flat screen tv, along with a large collection of dvds. phil could see a lot of anime, some horror, some disney movies and--

'hi.'

phil whipped around. there he stood in the middle of the flat, awkwardly holding his hands in front of him. he was wearing a black t-shirt and black jeans along with black shoes. phil almost let out a sigh of relief that there were no rules about wearing shoes inside. the boy had phil's hairstyle and looked to be about the same height. he had the brown eyes and hair that phil had imagined earlier, but he seemed far from average. there was a shy smile playing on his pink lips that slowly grew when phil's eyes remained fixed on him.

'hi,' phil replied, slightly breathless. he wasn't sure if he was still nervous, but something about the boy in front of him made his heart beat faster and his whole body feel tingly. he tried to suppress the feeling. he didn't even know his name.

'phil, is it?' he asked looking like he was holding back a laugh.

'yeah, phil. and you're dan?' phil replied, and he bit the inside of his cheek, cringing at how awkward he sounded.

dan seemed to be thinking the same thing. 'correct,' he said, softly. 'i'll give you a tour. or do you want to get all your stuff first? i don't mind.'

phil let out a little chuckle at how unsure dan seemed. dan frowned and phil realised his mistake too late. he wasn't laughing at him. he quickly shut up. 'yeah, let's do it now.'

dan complied, leading him through the apartment and giving a quick description for each room. phil wasn't exactly paying attention because he was too focused on dan. the way his soft voice stuttered as he carefully picked out his words. the way he kept turning around to check if phil was still following him. the way he moved through the hallways with ease. the way he stopped every minute or so to fix his fringe. it was all too much for phil.

'and that's it,' dan announced when they were back in the living room.

'it's nice,' phil said, at a loss of what to say, which was weird for him. phil always had something to say.

'thank you,' dan blushed, eyes focusing on the floor. 'do you need help, bringing your things up? i mean, i don't really have anything else to do.'

'that would be nice, yes,' phil answered, silently cursing himself for having nothing cool to say. he'd memorised a list of conversation starters when he was an awkward teen, but none of them seemed applicable here. so they walked down the stairs together in silence, dan absentmindedly watching his feet and phil absentmindedly watching dan.

'so phil,' dan said, on their second trip. 'how old are you?'

phil almost mentioned that he'd written his age in the email, but chastised himself silently in his head. dan had obviously forgotten. he'd sent the email around a week ago. 'i'm 26. and you?' he asked, even though he knew dan was 24 and his birthday was the 11th of june.

'24,' dan answered and phil nodded. 'i'm turning 25 soon, my birthday is on--'

'the 11th of june,' phil interrupted, unable to help himself.

'right,' dan said, his voice slightly higher than usual.

'i'm not obsessed with you,' phil quickly defended himself. 'or anything.'

'okay,' dan answered, dragging out the word.

'i have an eidetic memory,' phil reasoned. it wasn't something he liked to boast about, but he decided that it would've come out anyway, so he might as well get it over with. he signed when dan gave him a confused look. 'a photographic memory,' phil clarified and waited for the questions to come.

his most common one was so you can remember everything that's ever happened?, which unfortunately was always answered with no. he could clearly imagine the look of disappointment he always received upon explaining that no, that's not how it works.

but dan did not react that way. he didn't gasp or ask questions or try to make phil remember something. he simply let out a quiet, 'that's cool.'

and suddenly phil was fascinated by this average looking boy, who wasn't very average at all.

**a/n please tell me what you thought by commenting, was this a good first chapter?**

🔮rachel