lethal //phan

f o u r t e e n

Dan
Whatever experiment Phil was amusing himself with was something Dan was reluctant to be part of, he may be insane for agreeing to partake.

"Let's go on a walk." Phil stated as he grabbed Dan's arm and starting moving to the other side of the school.

"Why?" Dan answered as he walked alongside Phil.

"Because talking is more enjoyable while you're walking. Plus that rhymes - double the fun."

"What are you? Five?" Dan asked as he rolled his eyes.

"Someone's got to be the joyful one here, haven't they?"

"Or we could both lie on the floor and wallow around in the numerous regrets we have stored up in our heads, and overthink about the existential dread surrounding the inevitability of our deaths." Dan remarked.

"Yeah, sounds great. You know how to have a good time, don't you." he replied sarcastically.

"I'm the life of the party, Lester."

"Why do you call me that?"

"Call you what, Lester?"

"That."

If Dan was honest, he had little idea. Calling people by their last names had become a habit over the years, it made him feel more confident.

"You've only ever called me Phil once. It was that night I was out after dark. You saw me there and actually called my name."

"Yeah, well I was surprised I guess. I didn't have time to think to call you by anything else." Dan hadn't really thought about why that was until now.

"You do know if you have to think it's not second nature to you?"

"And this proves what exactly?"

"It proves you're not some maverick like practically everyone in this place thinks. You're a decent person and we both know it. Just drop the alter ego."

Dan swore he heard Phil utter "the world can barely handle the size of one of your egos. Two of them would squash everyone flat," under his breath. It was probably paranoia - it had to be.

The two of them stopped walking and sat down on a bench in the courtyard, it was far less crowded at this time of day, around four in the afternoon. Everyone was busy with extra-curricular activities and homework, so it was a good place for people watching. As creepy as the idea sounded, it was one of his favourite things, he was more the observing type. As it turned out Phil enjoyed it too, making Dan consider whether they actually did have things in common.

They decided to stand up again as two of Alfie's 'minions' walked closer and closer to where he and Phil were, and they didn't wait long to make their remarks.

"Would you look at that, Shane, Dan's got himself a boyfriend."

"Aww." the smile on his face quickly faded as he looked down at his feet. "I mean, ew." he tried to sound as confident as the other boy, but despite his best efforts the result was the polar opposite of his intentions.

"You're an imbecile, you know that?" the boy next to Shane shook his head in exasperation.

Shane was a good person, Dan was clueless as to why he stuck around with that group - he was nothing like them, far too nice. It was probably the same reason as most of them stayed, the group was a safety net. They all supported each other so no one would fall through.

"Your insults are about as good as Alfie's." Phil piped up. That was certainly out of character.

"Do I know you?" Marcus asked, to which Phil rolled his eyes.

"It's been less than a minute and I've already had enough of you, Marcus." Dan stated as he brought water from his finger, moving it over onto Marcus' lips and then froze it, making him unable to move his mouth. All they could hear was agitated humming.

"Dan, don't do that!" Phil cried out. "Unfreeze him."

"Hey, you started this." Dan was aware of how immature he sounded.

"Who's the five year old now?" Phil retorted back at him "Just undo whatever you did to him. Or I will."

"Fine." he eventually gave in and clicked his fingers to allow the water to melt and quickly drip off Marcus' lips and onto the floor, Dan then heated the wet floor to dry it like the incident never occurred.

He heard Phil yell out, causing him to look back up at the group of them. Ironically, his lack of co-ordination was what saved him from being obliterated by the explosive being shot out from Marcus' hand. Dan stumbled, falling onto Phil and quite literally dodging the bullet, as it crashed on a wall and smashed a large area of the walls bricks as it went off. Phil quickly moved his hand upwards to restore the wall to it's rightful state. Luckily the smashing of bricks was the only thing that could be heard, the explosive itself was practically silent.

"I'll get you back for this." Marcus warned, infuriated. He marched down the corridor with Shane following him from a few feet behind.

"I can't wait, I'm counting down the days." Dan called out to him from where they were both stood.

Dan carried on walking, only stopping when he realized Phil wasn't following him. He was stood there in a state of shock.

"How are you not terrified of those people?"

"The same way you're not terrified of me, Lester." he answered back coolly.

"But you can't fire powerful ammunition out of your fingers can you?"

"We're all equally as dangerous, it all depends on which ways we use what we have."

"Very poetic." He remarked. "But you shouldn't've frozen that guys face. How would you feel if you gave him frostbite or something?"

"It wouldn't be answer you'd like to hear off me."

Phil pulled a face in discontentment.

"Why don't you like Alfie and his friends? They don't seem particularly nice, but you appear to hate them."

"We had a big argument a few years back."

"That's awfully vague." he sounded a little annoyed.

"I'm sorry. I'm trying to get used this, not everyone can just open up to people about things like you do. I have some things that are better off hidden, you probably do as well, everyone does."

"Dan Howell do my ears deceive me or are you apologising to me for the second time today?"

"I guess so,"

"Wonders never cease."

"Shut up," Dan laughed as he playfully pushed him.