A knock on your door wakes you up. You open your eyes, regret doing so, then close them again.
"Come in," you say, hoping it was audible so you don't have to repeat yourself and put further strain on your sore throat.
Phil comes into the room, smiling tiredly at you. "How are you feeling?"
Exhausted. Dead. Terrible, you think to yourself.
"Not great," you reply, toning down the dramatic adjectives you'd been thinking of.
"Do you want any breakfast? We might not have the food you normally eat for breakfast, sorry," Phil apologises anxiously.
"I eat most things," you say reassuringly, laughing slightly but getting cut off by a sore cough.
"As long as you don't eat Dan's cereal, you'll be fine," Phil says with a laugh. "It's the Crunchy Nut one... anyway, we'll probably be in the lounge, call us if you need help, okay?"
"I won't," you assure. "Thank you."
Phil smiles sympathetically at you, leaving the room and shutting the door quietly.
You're left alone with your thoughts again, which mainly consist of your hatred for the invasive sunlight poking at your sore eyelids. You sigh softly and decide to get up - there's no point in staying in bed.
*le time skip*
When you were getting dressed, you discovered that your wrist was also sore to the touch and painful when you tried to move it. Nevertheless, you managed to get dressed and have breakfast.
Now, you're limping across the hallway to the lounge, holding onto the wall with your non-painful hand for support.
Just as you reach the doorway of the lounge, Dan comes out of it, accidentally shoving you lightly and making you lose your balance. In panic, you frantically grab the corner of the wall, as if it might miraculously hold you up. It doesn't.
Instead of succumbing to your fate and falling over, you feel a hand round your waist, and suddenly you're upright again.
You look up to see Dan gazing at you with concern in his eyes. He slowly takes his arm away from your waist, once he's sure you're completely stable. You feel your cheeks flush, and Dan cracks a smile.
"That's the second time I've had to help you up," he teases.
His words make your cheeks hotter. You laugh softly, all the words seeming to be caught in your throat.
"Yep," you manage to say, smiling sheepishly.
He notices you cradling your sore wrist, and looks at you questioningly.
"Sprained," you say, cursing your lack of social skills, which are now apparently removing the ability to form proper sentences. "Maybe."
"Ah... okay," he says, pausing for a moment. "Are you ready to go out? We should probably go to the health centre to check if your injuries are serious or easily relieved," he adds.
"Yeah, I'm ready," you reply.
Dan nods, poking his head into the lounge. "Hey, we're going out to the health centre to check Y/n's injuries. Do you want to come?"
"No, I'd just be a burden. Besides, remember that receptionist who hates me? Don't really want to see her again, to be honest," Phil replies, chuckling lightly at his misfortune.
"You wouldn't be a burden, but yeah, I get you. See you later?" Dan says.
"Yep, I'll be here. Bye!" Phil replies.
Dan pulls his shoes on while you go your room to get some. You only put one shoe on, leaving your sore ankle with only a sock. The swelling has gone down slightly because of the anti-inflammatory cream Phil gave you, but it's still very puffed up. You decide to bring the other shoe with you just in case.
Once you're ready, Dan and you both go down all the stairs (you limping, of course) and get into his car, starting the journey to the health centre.
*le time skip*
You shuffle out of Dan's car and hobble through the large white doors of the health centre, his arm around your waist and yours around his for support.
You arrive at the reception desk, letting go of Dan and leaning on the ledge instead. The receptionist looks up, pushing her glasses further up the bridge of her nose and tucking her brown hair behind her ear.
"Can I help you?" she asks in a nasally, uninterested voice.
"Hello," you say politely. "I have a swollen ankle and possibly a sprained wrist, could I maybe have an examination on it?"
"Yes," the woman replies, typing on her computer. "We're not very busy today, so we can get you seen in about fifteen minutes. Can I get your details, please?"
You give her your name, date of birth and so on, then sit down in the empty waiting area with Dan.
A door opens and a teenage girl comes out with presumably her mother, looking forlorn. She looks up from the floor and immediately sees you two sitting on the chairs. Her face lights up, and she nervously walks over to you both.
"Oh my gosh! Hi, you're Dan, right?" she exclaims excitedly, looking at the handsome brown haired young man next to you.
Dan grins widely, his eyes crinkling up at the edges. "Yep, that's me! How are you?"
You tune out of the conversation, only catching snippets of what the girl is saying. You're suddenly brought out of your thoughts when she addresses you.
"Who are you?" the girl asks, a smile still present on her face.
"I'm Dan's friend, Y/n," you say, leaning across the seats and shaking her hand with your uninjured one. "What's your name?"
"I'm Sasha," she replies, grinning. "You were in the baby food video Dan did, weren't you?"
You smile, albeit slightly uncomfortably. You're not used to being recognised in public. "Yeah. Did you enjoy it?"
She looks at you as if to say 'are you serious?'. "I loved it. You should totally make a channel."
Just then, someone calls out your name. You smile sadly at the girl, both you and Dan apologising to her for having to leave so quickly. She smiles too, says goodbye and then goes back to her disgruntled mother, happily bouncing along.
You both smile at her retreating figure and make your way into the room you were called into.
The woman there smiles politely. "Hello, I heard you have a sore ankle and wrist," she says. "Can I have a look?"
You hold out your wrist to her for her to examine it. She gently presses down on different spots, asking in turn if each one hurts. When she's done, she releases your arm.
"Okay. Well, from what I can see, your wrist is sprained, not broken thankfully. I'll give you this bandage to support it," she says, walking to a drawer, getting a long piece of fabric and wrapping it around your wrist. "It's not too badly swollen at the moment, but if it gets worse or feels swollen then you can soak it in ice cold water for a few minutes, until it feels a bit better."
She continues to give you advice on how to look after your wrist, which you doubt you're going to remember, so you're glad Dan is there to hear it too.
"You just have to give it time, really," she concludes. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened?"
"Fell down the stairs," you say quickly, not really thinking.
The nurse doesn't look like she believes you, but drops the subject and repeats the examining and advising process on your ankle, which she says is badly bruised and also will take time to heal.
You're glad nothing's broken, but at the same time you're disheartened by your injuries. Dan must have seen the look on your face, because he takes your good hand and squeezes it in reassurance.
"As for your split lip," the nurse continues, "That's also - surprise - going to have to heal itself. It's not really serious enough to give any medication."
You nod at her, catching a look of concern in her eyes. You're confused, and this feeling heightens even more when she asks to have a private word with you, away from Dan.
"If anyone's purposefully injuring you on a daily basis, you need to tell me," she says gently. "Is he hurting you? Is your relationship difficult?"
You're quite startled. The thought of Dan hurting anybody seems a foreign concept. "No, I promise. He's just my friend," you assure her. "I fell down the stairs," you lie again, laughing it off.
As you leave the health centre, Dan looks at you strangely. "What was that all about?" he asks.
You hesitate, but decide to tell him anyway. "She thought we were in a relationship - an abusive one."
"Oh," he says shortly. "Do I look like that sort of person?"
"No!" you say, a bit too loudly, surprising him. "I think she was just suspecting you because you were with me. Don't take it to heart, okay?"
Dan nods, a small smile gracing his face.
*le time skip*
You arrive back at Dan and Phil's apartment building, feeling slightly better - especially as Dan promised to let you have a few of his "very special" cookies to compensate.
Phil is still in the lounge when you get upstairs, munching on some Doritos and scrolling through a website on his laptop.
"Hey!" he says cheerfully. "What did they say?"
"My ankle is just bruised, and my wrist is sprained. The nurse said time will heal it, there isn't much they can do really," you reply.
"We also met a viewer," Dan adds in. "She said she loved the baby food challenge video, which is good."
Phil hums in agreement, leaving a comfortable silence between the three of you.
Dan turns to you. "Hey... seeing as you don't really know your way around here or where the different rooms are, would you like a tour?" he asks.
You smile at him. Although you know the layout of the place already (totally not creepy), you still want to be shown around. "That would be lovely."
Dan grins at you. "Okay, well this is the lounge - obviously," he says, properly taking you into the room and pointing out different objects, like their brightly coloured chairs and collection of DVDs.
"The kitchen!" he says, gesturing to a doorway. He walks into the room (or tries to), banging straight into the glass door and letting out a string of curse words as he rubs his red nose.
"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?!" you ask, trying not to laugh at him but failing.
"Pfff, yeah. I'm fine! Totally didn't just get a free of charge nose job or anything," he replies sarcastically, making you laugh.
Gradually, you're acquainted with most of the rooms in the house, along with the ominous cracks in the ceiling and splotches of paint on the floor. You finally reach the last two rooms.
"This is the spare room..." you say, pointing to the door of the spare room. "So, this one must be your room, right?" you ask, pointing to the one on the left.
"Yeah, well done," he replies with a soft laugh. "Do you want to come in and relax for a bit? Maybe we could think up some more video ideas, if you would like to."
You nod with a smile, and he walks into his room with you following behind. Feeling suddenly out of place, you stand awkwardly at the side while Dan sits down on his bed. He notices your uncomfortableness and pats the spot beside him for you to sit down.
Feeling pretty exhausted from all the limping you've done today, you accept his invitation and sit down beside him, resting your sore ankle.
You yawn noisily, feeling instantly embarrassed afterwards. You put your hands up to cover your face in shame as you feel it flushing. Dan looks at you fondly, then laughs.
"Sorry!" you exclaim from underneath your hand, then taking it away. "I was probably getting too comfortable. All this limping is hard work, too."
He laughs again. "That's okay. You're going to have to be comfortable if you're living here. Luckily the limping will go away soon."
"About that..." you say slowly. "Do you want me to pay rent while I'm staying here? I'm just being a burden to you both, and I should probably find somewhere new to live soon. I have a bit of money, and if-"
All of a sudden, Dan's finger is against your lips, cutting you off in the middle of your sentence.
"We don't want you to pay anything," he says, looking into your eyes firmly. "It's good enough just having your company, and it's not your fault that you had to leave that place. We're happy to let you stay."
You smile at him as best you can with his finger pressed against your mouth, and lick his finger to make him get off.
He pulls his finger away quickly, a disgusted look on his face. "Bluegh!" he says jokily, his face scrunched up. He wipes your spit on his leg, dramatically complaining.
You laugh at his disgust, the silence following it immersing you in a daydream. You're not sure how you feel about him or how he feels about you. Surely he sees the jokes you're both sharing as an act of friendship... right?
Overcome by the rush of thoughts and the exhaustion from all the limping you've been doing, you feel your eyelids drooping.
a/n: okay i know you might be like "is this girl drugged???" or something because she constantly falls asleep, but 13 year old me made this part of the plot and i can't think of another ending so iM SORRY :(