Shared Spaces. phan

3

"This is a shitty hiding spot. Come with me." This was definitely the tipsy Dan who was taking over but I don't care. I crawled to the closet with Phil on my tow and surprisingly the two one meter eighty adults fit into my medium sized closet with no problem.

"Wow." Phil whispered, breaking the silence.

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just... no leave it." He said, I could hear nervousness in his voice.

"Now I'm curious." I murmured and Phil exhaled loudly from his nose, trying not to laugh at my response I guess.

"It's not... I'm not serious but-" he was searching for his words, which made me pretty impatient. "Can I ask you a question?"

I nodded, then realized he couldn't see me and said yes.

"Do you hate me?" He changed his whispered voice into a more audible one. My cheeks burned from embarrassment. "Don't get me wrong but the way you glare at me all the time, and refuse to ever speak to me just makes me feel as if you do. Also, remember a week ago, I when you saw me crying and you just ignored me... did I do something wrong?"

Even for my alcohol induced mind this was hard to digest, metaphorically of course. Nonetheless Phil was right, there was never an actual reason for me to dislike him other than his relationship with Sophia and my stupid jealousy.

"Look Phil, it's not that I hate you... to put it simply I'm a really jealous person." I said in one breath. I couldn't see Phil's face but I could imagine he was furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

"Jealous off what exactly?"

I huffed out loudly. Only Beth knew about this little secret of mine. So telling Phil, the person I usually try to avoid, wasn't that easy. I felt a lump forming in my throat but before shutting off completely I mumbled out: "Sophia."

"Sophia? Really?"

"Are you surprised? She's attached to your hip and constantly giving you attention."

Phil was trying to hold in his laugh, I could tell by the noises he was making by pushing out air out of his closed up lips. "Wait, so you're seriously crushing on Sophia?"

"I am and I would like for it to stay between us, in this closet. By the way whoever is the seeker he's doing a terrible job."

We both laughed, the atmosphere between us shifting 180 degrees. Maybe Beth was right in the end, all we needed to do was talk it out, get to know him. It doesn't mean I'm going to be besties with Phil Lester, he's still probably in love with Sophia but just doesn't want to tell me.

"So to some it up, you don't hate me you're just jealous so that's why you're mean to me?"

"Am I mean to you?" I asked, but quickly realized that I really was.

"Doesn't matter. You can like me or not, it's up to you but I can assure you I don't like Sophia."

"Well I cannot be so sure about that, Sophia seems to really like you man."

"Well-" Phil started but was quickly cut off by a loud slam sound beneath us. It was powerful enough to make the ground shake. We both jumped out of the closet and I noticed out of the space between the door and the floor that the lights in the hallway were already on.

We walked out carefully, scared to what might meet us downstairs as we slowly regained the sense of reality. The party, people gave up playing the stupid game twenty minutes ago and were lounging around the living room and talking again.

As we were standing on the balustrade a figure appeared at the front door. He was tall and muscular, his hair looked as if he just walked out of the hairdressers and clothes dark and tight fitted. I know I saw that face somewhere, but couldn't figure out if it was a real person or a poster of a model at work.

When he spoke up, it clicked. "Phil Lester? I know you're here."

It was the guy from a few weeks ago, the one that accosted me at work. It almost made sense, but how the hell did he knew Phil.

Speaking off Phil, he rushed down the stairs at the speed of light. Suddenly he was standing face to face with the chav, they looked straight out of a western movie. All the guests, me and my remaining flatmates included, stood at the outlines and watched what was about to happen.

"Get out Jared, you're not supposed to be here!" Phil shouted and Garret, Beth, Florence and I all gasped in unison. Sophia even let out a small shriek. This was the first time any of us, even Soph saw Phil behaving like this.

"You're not supposed to be here either, Philly! Running off like that wasn't kind of you but I found you now so..." me and probably many other people only now realized how hammered the man was. He was slurring a lot and had a hard time keeping his balance.

"Go home Jared, please just go." Phil's voice cracked as he tried to push the man out the door. The man, despite his very drunken state, had his feet solid on the ground and didn't move an inch.

Garret and I made a quick eye contact, waiting for another sign to help Phil out. We remained calm until the man pushed Phil away hard, making him almost trip over his feet. Automatically, we moved from out spot to get the man out of the apartment as quick as possible.

"Oh I know you pretty boy, you're the barista! You're his next toy, huh? Next fucking pleasure?" I ignored his comments as we both kept on pushing his big body away past the threshold. We succeeded, slamming the door shut and double locking it.

The attention went to Phil, who was now teary eyed (I got flashbacks from the last time I saw him in this state). All the puzzle pieces started to fit together but there was still this big gap I didn't know what to do with.

"Who was this guy?" Sophia, already at Phil's side, stroking his back in a comforting manner asked, taking the words out of my mouth.

"Jared... my ex fiancé."

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