About five minutes later, you arrive at the supermarket. You're still grinning like an idiot. It's all so surreal. You're very jumpy and smiley, but try to repress your inner fangirl as you go into the supermarket.
You grab a small trolley from outside and push it through the big double doors, making faces at the security camera.
I'm so mature, you think to yourself sarcastically.
You don't have a shopping list with you, as you basically need to buy everything, not just stock up on stuff. You try to refrain from buying too many non-essential items, seeing as you don't want to spend an awful lot of money.
When your trolley is about half full, you start to feel a bit weird. Something isn't right, and it's making you uncomfortable. It feels almost like someone is watching you.
You convince yourself that you're just being paranoid at the start, but the feeling is still there.
You keep turning around to check if there is a person watching you, but only the shop assistants and a few customers are there.
Seeing the aisles practically empty doesn't reassure you or make you feel better, it just makes you more uneasy and slightly scared.
You're in the fruit aisle when you sense someone directly behind you. You pick up a few apples and look behind you suspiciously, but still, no one is there.
Okay, this is creepy, you think, starting to panic.
You calm down and decide to pretend to be oblivious for a bit, then suddenly turn around and hopefully catch whoever is watching you red-handed.
You try not to look suspicious for a few seconds, then whip around when you sense the person behind you. Just your luck; the trolley wheels go over the person's toe, and they fall backwards into the lettuce section.
"Oh gosh, sorry!" you exclaim. You shouldn't really have apologised because they were freaking stalking you, but you can't help it. You're too nice for your own good.
You offer a hand to help the unfortunate man up to his feet, and his brown hair and 'walking funeral' clothes catch your eye. Dan grins cheekily at you, but also looks a bit guilty at the same time. "Ha ha, hey again," he says awkwardly, trying to lean casually against a nearby abandoned trolley and almost falling over.
He regains his balance and picks a bit of limp lettuce leaf off his arm, wrinkling his nose up at it.
You notice that he doesn't have a shopping basket, or even a trolley, for that matter. Is he even shopping here?
Dan notices you looking at his empty hands. "Oh, I just... uh... I left my trolley over there. Yeah." He gestures somewhat uncertainly over to another part of the supermarket.
You raise your eyebrow at him. "You're not even shopping, are you?"
He hesitates. "No, I'm not shopping," he admits. "I just came to um... look around, you know?"
"How did you know I was here?"
"I... uh... I followed you. Oh s***, that sounds creepy, doesn't it?" he asks, cringing at his choice of words.
"Yes, that's creepy! You can't just stalk people, Dan!" you exclaim, moving your hands about to get your point across.
"Hold on- you can't just stalk people. How do you know my name?" he asks, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.
Crap.
You go into panic mode, and you have to really rack your brain to get a reasonably good excuse. "Um, you told me when we met, remember?" you say, crossing your fingers behind your back in the hope that he'll believe you.
He looks sceptical for a moment, but then shrugs it off. "Oh, yeah. I forgot. Speaking of names, you never told me yours."
"It's Y/n," you reply with a small smile.
"I like your shirt, Y/n," he says, gesturing down to your Fall Out Boy tshirt with a smile on his face. "They're a good band. What other music do you like?"
"I like Fall Out Boy, Twenty One Pilots, Panic! At The Disco, My Chemical Romance... all those kind of bands," you reply.
(a/n: if you don't listen to these bands already, i strongly suggest that you do! :D)
"Oh my god, we are so alike," Dan says with a laugh. "I like all of those bands. Have you ever heard of Muse?"
"Yeah, they're brilliant! They're probably one of my favourite bands," you say with a smile.
There's an awkward silence, in which you contemplate what to say next. How about:
"Oh hey, Dan! I watch you and Phil on YouTube and I think you're both really cool guys and I've had a crush on you both for so long! You're my role models, seriously. Uh... hold on, can you sign this please? Oh, and I would love it if you followed my tumblr blog!11!!!"
Um, no.
You feel bad for indirectly lying to him about you being a viewer, but you don't want to make the situation even more awkward by announcing your obsessio- ...uh, liking for him.
Dan smiles back. He opens his mouth to say something, but then closes it again and looks down at the unattractive beige floor of the shop as if it's the most interesting thing in the world.
"What were you going to say?" you ask, your curious side getting the better of you.
"Nothing," he replies hastily, laughing awkwardly and trailing off.
"I don't believe youuu," you tease, nudging his arm with your elbow.
Ugh, was that too forward? Will he be uncomfortable with that?
He doesn't seem to have a negative reaction to your nudging, luckily. "...Okay, okay, can I have your number?" He blushes as he says it, looking from your eyes to the floor and back again. He plays with his fingers, then realises what he's doing and shoves his hands in his jacket pockets.
"Of course," you reply shyly, a blush on your cheeks, too. You swap phones and put your numbers into each other's contacts.
"Nice lockscreen," Dan comments, looking up at you briefly from his typing.
When you're both done, you give each other your phones back. You saved your name on Dan's phone as 'Y/n (strange car person)'. Dan saved his contact on yours as 'Lettuce Man'.
"Well, 'Lettuce Man', you seem to still have a bit of lettuce in your hair," you say with a laugh, reaching up to Dan's hair and pulling a small piece of limp green lettuce from it.
He looks disgusted when you show him the lettuce, patting his hair back into place. "Ew."
There's a short silence, and you realise that you can't just stay in the supermarket forever and not buy your things. Yet again, you have to leave one of your favourite people ever. Dammit.
"I'm so sorry, but I should really go and pay for these things now-"
"I'll wait for you," Dan interrupts with a small smile, making you blush and smile widely.
You look into your trolley and decide you probably have enough food, so you make your way up to the checkouts, Dan following behind you.
Just like the antisocial person you are, you go over to the self-service checkout. Dan stands by the exit, getting out his phone, but sneaking occasional glances at you. You start to scan your items, and the machine promptly says "Please wait for assistance."
You bite back a swear word, seeing as there are children around. Instead, you roll your eyes at Dan, who holds back a laugh at your expression.
You eventually get help from a member of staff and successfully scan the rest of your food. You pay for everything then take your items, struggling slightly with the bags. You didn't think they'd be this heavy. Oops.
"Hey, do you want some help with those?" you hear a familiar voice ask gently.
You look up at Dan gratefully and hand him a bag, keeping one for yourself. He rolls his eyes and takes the other one from you. When you start to protest, he assures you; "It's okay, I can handle it," and smiles at you.
When you get out into the car park, you notice that Dan's car is right next to yours, making you chuckle. You open the boot of your car and Dan puts the shopping bags in, wincing slightly but clearly trying to cover it up.
"What is it? What happened?" you ask, worried.
He laughs quietly and his face reddens. "I cut my hand on the bag," he almost whispers, looking as if he's cringing at himself. He holds up his hand, and sure enough, you see a cut. It's not big, but you know that it's the small cuts that sting the most sometimes.
You suppress the urge to laugh at his clumsiness. "Do you want a plaster or anything?"
He shakes his head. "No, I'll be fine. Thank you."
"No problem," you reply with a smile, shoving your hands into your hoodie pockets.
"Would it be weird if I hugged you before you go?" Dan asks suddenly. "Oh, you don't have to answer that. Sorry. It just... slipped out, you know? Ah, f***, sorry. I'm so awkward."
You laugh quietly at his rambling. "You don't need to apologise for being awkward. I'm awkward too, don't worry..." you say, giving him a quick hug. You try not linger too long, as that would be weird.
He smells so good.
You cringe at yourself and pull back from the hug. Dan looks happy as he gets into his car.
"Goodbye," you say to him before he closes the door, grinning cheesily.
He closes his car door and mouths 'bye', doing a quick two fingered salute at you and smiling.
*le time skip*
You're now only five minutes away from the landlord's place, and you're pretty sure that that's Dan's car in front of you...
It's painted black, and has a dent beside the bottom brake light. You've been staring at it for a long time, trying to work out whether it's Dan's or not.
A while later, you arrive at the house and pull up outside it. Much to your surprise and excitement, the car you were following stops outside a house at the opposite side of the road.
Dan gets out of the car and unlocks the front door of the building to rush inside, but not before noticing you on the other side of the road and waving to you, pleasant surprise on his face. You wave back, grinning.
It suddenly gets really cold again, and you're grateful for your thick hoodie. You pull the sleeves down over your hands and try to get all the groceries inside as quickly as possible. All at once, too, which proves to be harder than you thought it would be.
You bought a few things for your room, including a plug-in heater and some new pretty paintings. After packing the food away, you make some pasta and take it up to your room.
You close the crappy curtains and sit down on the bed with your food. You get your laptop out and watch videos on YouTube.
*le time skip*
Just as you feel your eyelids drooping around 2am, your mobile phone rings. You look at the caller ID sleepily.
It says: 'Lettuce Man'.
Your heart flutters when you remember who that nickname belongs to, and you laugh to yourself and press 'accept'.
"Hello!" Dan says, in his adorable British accent.
"Hey, 'Lettuce Man'," you reply, smiling. "So we live across from each other, huh?"
"Yeah! Like, what are the chances of that?" he replies, laughing.
"I know," you say, chuckling quietly.
Dan yelps suddenly, letting out a string of profanities. You hear a clash in the background.
"Are you okay?" you ask worriedly.
There are a few moments of silence, then you hear Dan pick up the phone again. "Uh, hey. Yeah, I'm fine! I knocked over a mug, and dropped my phone too... both are intact though, luckily."
You chuckle at his clumsiness and hear shuffling in the background, then a door opening and closing.
"Okay," he says. "I'm in my room now, hopefully a bit safer here." He clears his throat. "So, how are you?"
"I'm pretty good, a bit cold though. The window here is really draughty."
"Yeah, no offence, but your house looks like crap," Dan says with a laugh.
"It is crap," you reply. "But it's better than living on the streets. That would be horrible... how is your cut?"
"Huh? ...Oh, from the bag? It's alright. It's very stingy, though... I can't believe that I'm actually clumsy enough to cut my finger on a plastic bag." He sighs.
The conversation continues for what feels like only a few minutes, but, as you discover when you look at your phone clock when you both hung up, you'd actually been talking to Dan for two hours.
I guess time really does fly when you're having fun, you think to yourself, shutting your eyes and going to sleep.