Fluffy Phan One-Shots

Volunteering isn't as Bad as it Seems

Dan walked through the doors and made his way to the front desk. "Welcome, you must be Daniel Howell." The man who was sitting and typing looked up happily. "You must be our volunteer," The man observed.

"I am." Dan nervously patted down his random curls that seemed to be sticking up everywhere. The man nodded at him and then turned to make a call. Dan waited for a few moments while the man told someone about his arrival.

"You can take a seat, they'll call you in when they are ready," The man announced once off the phone. Dan nodded again and then turned to the hospital waiting area.

There weren't very many people there on the boring Tuesday afternoon. There was a family in the corner, who looked extremely tired, another group that was laughing and happy, and then there were the scattered people and couples sat in the seats. Some sat on their phones, others busied themselves by talking to others.

Dan sighed and made his way over to the chairs and looked through his phone. Although, he didn't get much done. He was too deep in thought about this whole thing he volunteered for. Well, he should really rephrase that, he didn't volunteer for shit. In reality, his mum signed him up for this program.

It was a new thing, apparently, that the hospital was trying. There were sick patients at the hospital that didn't get very many visitors- some not at all. The program they were running was a sort of... buddy system, in a way. Studies prove that social company is good for health, so the hospital made a volunteer program for that exact reason. People signed up to spend some time with sick patients that were lonely.

In Dan's opinion, the whole thing was stupid. He understood how nice it could be for sick patients, and he could see what the program was getting at, but he wanted no part of it. He figured there was potential in the project, but with him there, the potential was dwindling. Dan was a very socially awkward person, so being forced to talk to a random person was going to be awful. He had no choice though, his mum signed him up so he would "get out of the house a little more." The only thing she let him choose was who he would be spending time with.

Dan didn't get to choose the exact person, but he had some rules on who he would hang out with. First rule: no elderly people. He had nothing against elderly people, most were sweet to Dan, in fact. But, he was sort of bad at talking to those he didn't know very well. Talking with his grandma for a few hours? Sure, he could do that no problem. Some random old lady? Hell no. He was too scared to say something rude or offensive. Second rule: no one sixteen or younger. Dan was nineteen himself, so he could deal with people around his age. Too young and he felt old and unrelatable. Plus, any teenager that was seventeen or above would be extremely awkward. What teenager that's sick and in the hospital wants to be forced to talk to some random guy?

So, with being a socially awkward, embarrassed easily, nineteen-year-old boy, Dan was a little nervous to talk to somebody. He wished he would've made a rule to not talk to girls, also. When it came to talking to girls, Dan was just flustered and as if he wasn't awkward enough... was it too late to run back to the car?

"Daniel Howell?" Too late. There was a woman in a white coat and glasses. She walked up to Dan with a smile. Dan got up, wiping his palms on his jeans, and shook her offered hand. "Hello, I'm Dr. Aleah," She introduced herself.

"Hi," Dan said sheepishly.

"Follow me. I'll show you to the patient you'll be spending time with." Dan followed her down a long hallway. "His name is Phil Lester and he's twenty-two. He was in a car crash a few weeks ago. There was no irreversible damage, but there was definitely damage." She stopped outside a door, which Dan figured was his. "He had his collar bone broken in two places, a broken rib, a concussion, he tore his ACL..." She sighed. "He's been through a lot and he and his family are very distant. The truth is," Dr. Aleah got quiet, "he's a lot of talk to cover up a lot of pain," she explained. "You ready?" The doctor asked.