Shared Spaces. phan

4

Throughout my life, I've been in a handful of awkward situations. Did I mention being bullied for most of my preteen years? I've had an entire bin thrown at me in class, obnoxious things written in my handbooks and my pants pulled down as I was walking down the stairs, resulting in me falling over with my whole undeveloped penis out in front of a girl I used to have a crush on.
A jolly time it was.

But in this situation, I wasn't the one being thrown under the bus. I should have been happy it wasn't me, and laughing at poor Phil who had to endure such terror... but I wasn't. I knew how he felt - embarrassed in front of strangers and friends.

It's been only five minutes since his supposed ex-fiancé waltzed into our apartment , three sheets to the wind , demanding for Phil to 'come back to him'. We were all perplexed - especially Sophia who knew, or at least thought she knew Phil for decades and only now found out he was (and maybe still is) engaged. I was curious though. Did he lie about anything else? Perhaps this man, Jared -or whatever his name was- was the reason why Phil was crying in the toilet the other day. The more I thought about it the less I seemed to know.

Also, how did I never notice that he was gay?

"Wow mate, you alright?" Garrett asked. We both stood at the front door with our backs pressed to it as if the mysterious man was still trying to get himself in. Phil looked up from the ground. He was beet red and his eyes showed a mixture of sadness and embarrassment, yet he nodded.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to head to my room. Sorry for ruining the party, hope you guys still have fun." We all watched as Phil slowly went over to the kitchen to get the keys from the cupboard and disappeared into his room in dead silence.

I looked over at Sophia. She was staring intensely at the ground whilst biting her lips, licking her dark lipstick in the process: it was her thinking face. She soon muttered a quiet 'fuck' and followed Phil to his room. Only after she left the party carried on. Someone turned up the volume on the speakers and the group of strangers went back to having fun as if nothing happened. Well, to them nothing really did happen but we were all still in a bit of a shock.

I was so caught up that I completely forgot about something.

"Dan?" Garrett, who was still at the same spot, whispered in my ear.

"Yeah?" I responded.

"Where's your shirt?"

-

Beth and Florence approached me in the kitchen whilst I was downing beer number four of the evening. I couldn't remember why I decided to drink it to be quite honest.

It was getting late - almost half three - and people started to finally leave. I went up to get my shirt I initially wanted to put on before the whole 'weird flatmate's ex-fiancé drama' started and ended up in the kitchen, alcohol automatically in my hand.

Florence, dressed in her witch costume, was half passing out and half mumbling incoherent words whilst being nudged by Beth's shoulder. I chuckled at the sight. Usually, she was the most responsible one out of the group, but she also had a very low alcohol tolerance. That was the reason why she wasn't fond of parties these days. For the most part, she chose to stay sober, but I couldn't blame her. It had been a weird night.

"I'm taking this one to her room. Do you mind?" Beth pointed to the kitchen cupboard behind me. I got out of her way so she could take the three remaining keys.

"What a night huh? You're probably celebrating, aren't you?" she commented and leaned against the opposite side of the breakfast bar the same way I did. I didn't understand her question so I hummed confusedly.