99 | Phan

Introduction- Part Two

That day, Dan Howell was found in a pool of his ownblood, lying on the cold, hard tile floor in a hidden alcove in the school. He had a bump on his forehead the size of a tennis ball and his face was gaunt and fallow, pale because of the blood loss. An ambulance was summoned to the school and Dan was whisked away to a hospital nearby, and hooked up to at least a half dozen beeping machines, dripping fluid into his arm, checking this or that level, or regulating his heart rate. The trauma to his head had broken an amount of bones in his nose, rupturing blood vessels in the nasal cavity and causing him to bleed uncontrollably until he was found. He also suffered a concussion, which he took weeks in the hospital to recover from. He was unable to return to school for three months following the incident, so he was removed from the school show choir.

Though Phil Lester had run away from that alcove, he knew in his head that he should have stayed. He wanted to be the one there for Dan. He knew Dan was his 99, and he wanted to show Dan that he was there for him when he needed it. But if the wrong person stumbled across them, namely Brianna, then the wrong idea would get out and his reputation would be ruined. So Phil Lester had fled from the sight of his best friend crumpled on the linoleum floor, a decision he would forever regret. Although he wanted to, he never once visited Dan in the hospital for fear of what Dan would think, what Dan knew, and what assumptions Dan might have made. Phil hid in his room for hours, shutting himself out from his parents. HIs Mum and Dad were worried by this, and often tried to reach out to their only son, but he built a wall up around himself and kept his guard high. He grew darker and gloomier, only having Lise to confide in. But he still couldn't tell her the full extent. He couldn't tell her that Dan was his 99. He couldn't tell her everything, and didn't want to tell her everything in fear of losing her as a friend.

Lise cried herself to sleep that night, knowing that her friend group was scarred for eternity. It could possibly be somewhat repaired, but like a cracked vase that is glued back together, the crevices would be there until the end of time, reminding them all of the horrific incident. Phil called her that night and hearing the panic in his voice, she talked to him for three hours until she was sure that he was in no danger of himself and that he could sleep that night. She would see him the next day in school, and Lise let Phil talk to her and use her as a net to fall back on, because she knew he needed it. Their friendship grew ever stronger, but she always had a lurking feeling that Phil was hiding something from her.

Jess went home sick from school that day, and she stayed home for a week, not caring about missing her studies. Lise had been right all along, and she hated herself for not listening to her best friend. She hadn't loved Dan. She had just made decisions off on a limb and now she was paying for her stupidity. So was Dan's health, and Dan did not deserve it one bit. She hoped she could eventually repair her friendship with Dan, but she knew it would be difficult. Lise stayed best friends with Jess, because Lise knew Jess would need her support and she knew she couldn't ditch her friend. They were, after all, best friends, and best friends are there for each other in hard times.

Lise did visit Dan in the hospital every week over the three months he stayed there to bring him his schoolwork from the classes he was missing and to give him company. It was unimaginably lonely for Dan, and he felt that he had been abandoned by people who had been keeping secrets. He trusted Lise deeply and knew, since she constantly talked about cute boys, that he didn't have to worry about her having secrets about her sexuality.

The seventh grade school year came and went, with Jess enjoying a spot in the show choir but having the element of a friend missing. Lise, for a while, didn't have anyone to talk to in honors piano but made small talk with her classmates until Dan came back. Phil, who got increasingly worse as time passed, began falling behind in his classes. He didn't speak much with Jess as things were extremely awkward. Lise tutored him for a small profit from his parents but his grades only improved a little bit, and Lise could see that her friend desperately needed help that was beyond her. One day, she went to the school counselor. The counselor, later that day, called Phil Lester down to the office to speak with him. He had Phil wash his hands, and the counselor observed, when Phil rolled up his sleeves, that he had new, white, scratched scars on his wrists. Phil began going to therapy, but Lise noticed only slight improvements. Phil always seemed to be lost. Lise could see in his eyes, he was never all there. His mind was somewhere else, thinking of something else, wanting someone else, but she never knew what and he never told her.

On the last day of school, Lise insisted on her, Jess, and Phil walking to the bus stop on the corner together for old times' sake, and the two other reluctantly agreed. It was incredibly awkward, but they got a cordial conversation rolling, and for a small moment, it seemed just like it had that first week of school, before The Incident, as they had come to call it, happened.

They were waiting to cross the street at a stoplight when a car familiar to Lise pulled up to the white stop line, not more than ten feet from them. The trio looked, though they shouldn't have, because they all knew who it was in the car. In the driver's seat, there was a friendly woman who Lise had come to know well and always had cookies or cupcakes for Lise when she came to visit her son in the hospital, with dark brown chocolatey eyes similar to those of her son, and characteristic wavy brown hair. Lise often wondered how Dan had gotten straight hair genes, but she quickly realized, after visiting him in the hospital, that Dan used to put in the effort to straighten his hair everyday. Jess felt a knot coil in her stomach. Terrible memories came pouring back. Phil, trying to hide all his emotions that he all too often displayed on his face, put in his earbuds and turned on his favorite album. But 99 came on and he began panicking. Lise noticed, and subtly grabbed Phil's hand, giving it the gentlest of squeezes. She yanked one of the earbuds out of Phil's ears and gave him a soft smile, and when he looked up, making eye contact with Lise, she was a small sparkle of trust and appreciation his his normally sad grey blue eyes.

The boy in the passenger seat, Dan Howell, made the unknowing mistake of looking out the window, and his face became a display of an unfathomable array of emotions before he quickly rolled the tinted window of his car up. The light finally changed, and they crossed the street as the Howell automobile sped away.

Jess, Phil, and Lise never spoke of it after that, not to mention Dan to Lise.

Phil's parents took him on a trip to America over the summer to try and improve his spirits. They took him to New York and he saw ten broadway shows, the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty, They took him to Illinois to see Chicago, the Windy City. They took him to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore, and they took him to California to see Los Angeles and famous Hollywood. They were able to share more special moments with their son, and their spirits improved as the trust between them and Phil grew and Phil began opening up to them a little more. Phil seemed to be returning to himself, and the color began to return to his face. But there was always still a part of him that was missing.

Jess's summer was filled with various auditions, concerts, and theatre shows, where she starred in various roles and even went for an audition for the West End. She didn't make the production, but needless to say, she gained innumerable experience and got her mind off of difficult subjects for the duration of summer.

Dan and his parents and siblings spent their summer remodeling their house and yard, and Lise became a frequent visitor, helping his sister, Lavender, decorate her room, or helping Dan paint the walls of the various rooms of their house. They spent time outside planting flowers and drinking lemonade, and Dan had one of the best summers of his life with his best friend, Lise.

Even though Lise still had all her friends, it was difficult. They weren't together, and she felt so connected yet disconnected at the same time. It was a hard feeling for her to describe or even think about.

It wasn't until the last day of summer that things began changing.