The Switch // phan

chapter 9

"s-say that again." Nan stuttered to the confused blue eyed boy.

"The flop?" he said still confused. "What's so big about it?" he asked

"Dan. W-what is your d-dads name?" she asked still stumbling on almost every word leaving her mouth.

"Richard." They both said. His eyes grew.

"wait..." he paused. "don't. Don't tell me." he had a look in his eyes as if he wanted only one answer.

"I switched w-with Richard Howell." She managed to say only stumbling on one word out of the five. Dan's eyes grew wider even though it felt impossible like his eyes couldn't grow any more than they already were. Those wide blue eyes had pools of tears for a while, surprisingly not spilling as soon as he thought.

"I switched with your dad, Dan. You're Dan Howell." She said with her mouth not closing.

"My dad... fell in love with my mom and stopped the switch." He asked words coming out slower and slower as he begins to piece the story together. The older lady nodded.

"He said the reason he started drinking... was cause these crazy dreams he had about switching bodies with some older woman across the world. He thought he was crazy so he had to cope with alcohol." Dan sighed understanding it all and falling into silence with the lady in front of him.

The air around them was tense and felt like it was able to grab their throats and hold them forever as they stared not at each other but at their feet. They felt like everything was closing in on them and every breath they took becoming shorter and shorter, every gulp being pushed back up by the giant lump in their throats.

"T-This i-is b-bad." Dan cried stumbling on every word in that small sentence. Their eyes met after what felt like years. Both pairs of eyes spilling tears of pain and regret. "i'm sorry Nan, I would never mean to make you cry ever in a billion years I-i promise." he said panicking more and more. She shook her head

"It's okay love. Now I know how he is, a horrible, homophobic, alcoholic, lonely, sorry excuse for a dad and now i'm glad my mother didn't let me travel to meet him. Cause then you and Phil would be related instead of future lovers." she added slowly gaining her composure and forcefully swallowing the giant lump down her throat. She gave the young boy a weak smile and he tried to return it but failed bursting into tears again.

"Dan sweetie stop crying, it's okay." she said wrapping her arms around the boy rubbing unfamiliar patterns on his back. The technique she was using surprisingly worked super fast as the boy was breathing normal again. "How'd you do that?" he asked looking up at the woman who had a gentle caring look in her eyes.

"When my daughter passed away Phil always had a hard time coping so he would cry for hours non stop which worried me a lot. The crying would lead to anxiety and panic attacks that were crazy enough to put him in the hospital."

She says still drawing the weird patterns all over Dan's back and continued talking "I learned that when he was crying like crazy and couldn't get himself to breathe normally that I should talk to him about literally anything that'll keep his mind off why he cried. While I talked to him I would draw patterns on his back and the easiest conversation was for him to guess what design I was drawing. It helped and he didn't need to be hospitalized anymore."

she sighed "I didn't know it would work on you, but I guess it makes sense since you are in Phil's body." she giggled contagiously. "Thank you Nan." He said letting out a sigh of relief as he was finally done crying painful tears.

He didn't realize he would fall asleep so soon but with all that crying he didn't have the energy to get up, walk down the hallway and lay in the bed so instead of taking like fifty feet he took ten and laid on the closest couch and drifted into a deep sleep hoping to take a small nap.

Dan woke up and looked out the window seeing no sun. "NAN?" he yelled not wanting to get up from the surprisingly comfy couch. She jumped at the deep voice calling her"Jesus Daniel I'm right here" She said from the table only ten feet away. He giggled.

"Shut up." She tried to hold back a giggle as well. "Nan? What time is it?" he asked still laying down on his back staring at the weird patterns of the ceiling. "umm.. ten" she answered. He jumped up with the answer "TEN? NAN! HOW WILL I SLEEP TONIGHT?" he said pacing back and forth.

"sit down you tall goose, you're blocking the TV not all of us are six feet tall." She said mocking the slightly panicked boy. He stuck his tongue out and rolled his eyes at her walking to the table, his eyes locking on the lion mug he used the other day.

He picked up the mug and drank it "wait. What did I just drink?" he asked pausing in the position of the mug leaving his face. She laughed "What kind of person sees something, drinks it , and then asks what it is?" he rolled his eyes wanting an answer. "It's Tea idiot" she replied to his gesture.

"oh. okay." he smiled placing it down and walking into the kitchen and to the fridge not noticing the bottle of open sleeping medicine on the counter "with like four shots of Nyquil." she mumbled sipping her tea from the pink mug from the morning. "What was that Nan? he asked turning around peeling a banana and raising his eyebrows. "Hmm? Oh, Nothing I was talking to mysel-" she cut herself off by sipping her mug trying to hide a obvious smile.

He shrugged "okay?" he said "crazy old lady" he mumbled to himself walking past the counter again. He stopped in his tracks and backed up looking at the medicine sitting there. He put the bottle down and walked over to the mug on the table he drank out of not long ago. "NAN! NYQUIL?! REALLY?!" he yelled at the old lady who was laughing and making her way to her room down the hall.

"You said you were worried you wouldn't sleep. So i just helped okay?The switch can't happen until you sleep." she said still giggling. "UGH!" He grunted. "See you on Thursday love!" she yelled closing her room door.

Dan shut off all the lights and walked cautiously down the dark hall to Phil's room. He grabbed the white phone off the side table and entering the notes and lying down on the big comfy bed.

"So today was something. I wasn't able to hang out with Chris and PJ like I wanted but oh did I learn something today. Turns out the man Nan used to switch with was MY DAD. Yep, it sucks we spent like an hour crying before she showed me a technique she used on you when you needed to breathe right while crying. I enjoyed it, I also got to learn more about you as a child and early teen years. You're very strong for being able to put up with the death of your mom. My mom ran away for reasons I will never know, so we're the same in a way. Leaving me is pretty much dying right? I never met her. Anyways after crying for hours I wanted to take maybe an hour nap but nope, I woke up at ten! I took an eight hour nap. Sorry but Nan drugged me! She let me drink tea with loads of sleeping medicine which is rude I feel personally attacked. Oh, it's kicking in. Be you soon Phil"

>>

Hey

i have nothing to say but it's 5:20 am and i've been writing since like 3 pm so i'm sorry that it sucks.

- susan