(noelle note: I now regret writing the chapter titles in all caps because I feel like I'm screaming and that's just something I don't do really- anyway here is the long awaited chapter thirteen (: enjoy!!)
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Dan's POV
"Phil, wake up! I brought us breakfast."
Phil stirs in his sleep and mumbles grumpily before gradually opening his eyes.
"Good morning," I laugh. I set our plates of food on the nearby coffee table, as it's getting a bit uncomfortable to carry. Phil has brought me breakfast in bed twice this trip, so I thought it was my turn to return the favor.
"What's this you said about bringing us breakfast?" He mutters as he sits up.
"Here you go," I tell him as I hand him his plate of waffles and bowl of cereal. I take my plate to my bed and begin to eat. I decide that it's been awhile since I checked my email, so I open the app on my phone. The most recent email is one from the airline we are flying home on, so I open that first.
I groan as I read through the content of the email. "What?" Phil questions me.
"Bad news, all flights are cancelled for today due to 'unsafe weather conditions'. I just got an email about it. They said flights are resuming tomorrow, so it looks like we get an extra day here," I tell him.
"At least we found out before we made the long trek to the airport," Phil says.
"Yeah, but man I was really looking forward to being reunited with my bed tonight."
"And I was really looking forward to seeing all my houseplants," Phil sighs.
"What do you want to do today then?" I ask Phil.
"Go to the zoo again?" He suggests.
I laugh, "It's probably closed because of all the snow."
"Right," he says, pouting. "Well I'm sure there is some historical exhibit that we haven't seen here. I would rather not be outside all day, though."
"I'm sure we can find something," I say. I reach for my laptop on the floor next to me and begin a search of things to do in Philadelphia. Dozens of posts come up advertising historical monuments. Phil and I have been to only a handful of them. I list off the ones that we haven't been to to Phil.
"I have no idea what any of those things are," he says once I'm done.
"Me either!" I exclaim. "What if I just scroll through a list of places and click a random one for us to go to?" I suggest.
"Sounds like a plan. I mean, I have nothing better," Phil replies.
I click on a website that is titled 'top tourist attractions in Philadelphia'. I then close my eyes and move the cursor up and down the page a few times before opening them.
"The Franklin Institute," I read off to Phil.
"The what?"
"According to the description it's a 'science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.'" I tell him.
"I like science!"
"Well, then this might it be a disaster then," I laugh.
We spend about an hour on our phones and laptops before getting ready to go. We aren't in any rush, as the museum doesn't close until 5pm and we have nowhere else to be today.
"Hey, Dan, can we practice?" Phil asks me after we have both showered, changed, and done our hair. He is holding up the scramble board.
"Sure," I tell him. "No rush, we don't have anywhere to go. I mean, the museum doesn't close until five and we don't have any other plans for the day."
Phil sits across from me on my bed and places the tiles out between us. "I'll try to spell something out and you can tell me if it makes any sense or not?" He suggests.
"Sounds good," I say and watch as he begins to arrange tiles. I get distracted by watching the way he seems to furrow his brow in concentration and frown whenever he seems to realize that he has misplaced a tile. I have no idea why I find this so captivating.
"Done!" Phil exclaims and I see what he has spelled out.
"Goats are cool," I laugh. "Creative."
"Thank you," he smiles. "Your turn."
After a few minutes of searching for the right tiles I am finally satisfied with my sentence. "Done," I tell Phil. He then runs his fingers along the tiles and reads them aloud to me.
"That's an m, then an e, and another- meme?"
"You're on the right track," I tell him.
"Memes, a- r- are, c- is that an o? Yes, that is. You said 'memes are cool', wow Dan," he laughs.
I grin and pass the tiles for him to spell out next.
"You are a giant meme," I read once he is finished. "Gee, thanks," I grin.
"You're welcome," Phil smiles.
We continue to play the game for another half hour until we decide to finally leave. I call an uber and we begin to make our way down to the lobby. Phil takes his cane and I grab on to his arm, but he quickly pulls away.
"I- I want to try to get around on my own today. Just with my cane, I mean. O-of course I appreciate your help and all, but you're not going to always be there. I just figured I should get used to doing things on my own," Phil says.
I nod. "Alright. I understand," I tell him. Truthfully, I'm a little let down by his request. I've grown to really like being close to Phil like that. I also think that it has become a comfort for both of us, somehow.
I make a mental note to sign him up to get a seeing eye dog tonight so that he can get one as soon as possible. The drive to the Franklin institute is only a few minutes. The museum is a large stone building with pillars in the front. It looks like most of the buildings back in Washington D.C look.
"There you go," our driver says as she parks out in front. We thank her, pay her, and then exit the car. Despite Phil telling me earlier that he didn't want my help getting around today, I take his hand in mine as we walk across the street. There is no way I'm going to let him cross the street on his own after the incidents in San Antonio and Mount Rushmore. He doesn't protest as we make our way across. I reluctantly let go once we reach the other side, just in case of wandering phans. We reach the steps and I walk next to Phil as he moves his cane on them.
"Do you-" I start to offer my help to him, but Phil waves me away.
"I'm fine, it's just a slow process," he tells me. I continue to walk slowly by his side as he ascends the steps. I instinctively reach my hand out to him every time he stumbles, but he always waves off my help. We finally make it to the top without any traumatic incidents. I notice a few people giving us weird or annoyed looks for walking up the stairs so slowly, so I give them all death glares in response.
Once we walk into the building, I am very thankful for the heat. There is a metal detector right in front of the entrance.
"Please place all items in a box and move through the detectors," an officer instructs us. Phil puts his cane in one of the boxes, along with our phones. Someone comes over to help Phil through and we get to the other side smoothly.
"Everything is going oddly well," I say to Phil.
"Don't jinx it."
The main room once we walk in, has a giant statue of a man sitting on a chair. "Who's that?" Phil asks me.
"Probably the Franklin guy that this place is named after," I guess. I spot an information desk on one of the walls.
"Hey, Phil, there is an information desk over here," I point to the left, "I'm going to go over there to ask for a map," I tell him. This way he knows where I am and doesn't lose me. The last thing we need is a stressful event to end this trip with.
"Okay. Thanks for letting me know. I'll be here," he replies. I walk over to the desk and ask the lady for a map. She replies with a smile and puts a folded piece of paper into my hands.
"Here you go, sir, is there anything else?"
"No, thank you. Have a nice day," I smile and walk back to Phil. He is exactly where I left him in front of the giant statue of that Franklin guy.
"Got it," I tell him once I'm standing in front of him. "Where do you want to go first? There's dozens of exhibits. They have a Pixar one, 'Lost Egypt', 'Robot revolution!'"
"Robot revolution sounds like the next installment of the Hunger Games, but with robots. We should definitely go to that one," Phil says.
I chuckle and continue reading off the lists of exhibits.
"Sports zone-"
Phil scoffs. "Imagine us trying to do that."
"My brain is not capable of imagining such a crazy image," I joke before continuing. "'Your Brain', 'The Giant Heart'-"
"These are starting to sound like evil scientist exhibits," Phil remarks.
"I agree. There is also 'Electricity', The Train Factory, The Franklin Air Show, Amazing Machine-"
"That machine is trying to steal my name," Phil says.
"You better watch out," I laugh. "There's something called Space Command-"
"Dan! We have to go there!" Phil exclaims excitedly.
I chuckle. "Of course. The last few exhibits are Changing Earth, Sir Issac's Loft, and Ob-" I cut myself off on the last one. Phil wouldn't be able to enjoy it, so there isn't any reason to bring it up and make him feel bad. Phil catches this, though.
"What was that last one?" He asks.
"Observatory. But-"
"Right," Phil sharply cuts me off. After an awkward moment of silence Phil cheerfully exclaim, "Let's go to the space one first!"
"Right!" I look down at the map and figure out where we need to go. "Well, what other exhibits do you want to go to? We could try to go to those on the way to the space one."
"I don't really remember anything that you just said, so can we just walk through the museum and stop at whatever exhibit seems cool?" Phil suggests.
"Great idea," I say. I fold up the map and slip it into my pocket before instinctively reaching for Phil. I then remember his earlier comments about wanting to get around on his own and I pull my hand back. Phil doesn't comment on it. "The 'Giant Heart' is right over here," I point to Phil and I's right, "I think we should go and look at that," I say.
Phil nods and we begin to walk in that direction. He is doing surprisingly well with only his cane. Obviously he has been able to practice during the trip, but I wasn't expecting him to be this comfortable with it. I'm grateful that he is, though. It means he's making progress and he will have an easier time getting around once he goes fully blind.
"Where is it?" Phil asks once we enter the general area that the heart is in.
"To our left, sort of in the middle- can you tell where I'm pointing?" I try to tell Phil.
He nods, "Yeah, sort of. I think I see it."
He begins to walk towards it. "Yep, that's it," I tell him. He smiles a little bit as we walk over. The heart is crawling mainly with little kids- literally. It's small enough for them to climb through and then go down a slide on the other side.
"Imagine if we tried climbing through that," I chuckle.
"We would most definitely get stuck, and that would not be good. We would clog the heart," Phil laughs.
"That's not something to laugh about," I joke.
Phil laughs and we observe the heart for a few more minutes. We then move on to some of the other exhibits. We go to the electricity one, which is very interesting. It involved using ourselves to complete circuits of electricity and then feel that electricity. Phil and I decided that it was borderline terrifying and possibly extremely dangerous, so we decided to move on. After that we go to the lost Egypt exhibit where we "explored" an Egyptian tomb, and saw an actual mummy.
"Dan are you sure that it's an actual mummy-" Phil says.
"Yes! It says her name is Annie and she was seventeen years old when she died. This is 2,000 years old," I tell him.
"Are you my mummy?"
"Oh my gosh, Phil," I say, laughing at his reference.
We decide that we have had enough of ancient Egypt and instead are ready for lunch. However, we get distracted by the Pixar exhibit on the way there, of course. We then both forget our main destination as we stop by a few other exhibits.
"Dan! We haven't gone to the Robot Revolution thing yet!" Phil exclaims as we are walking. We pass the museum's cafe then, and I remember the whole point of leaving the Egypt exhibit.
"Phil, weren't we going to get lunch like an hour ago?" I chuckle as I stop in front of the cafe.
"Oh yeah!"
Once we are sitting down at a table with our food, I pull out the map from my back pocket to plan our next destinations. "Alright, we are on the third floor-" I begin.
"Third?" Phil questions. "We only went up one flight of stairs."
"We started on the second floor. The first one is underground, I guess. Anyways, the first floor has the planetarium," I tell him.
"Let's go there!"
"Right, we will pass the Robot Revolution on the way there too," I say.
We stand up and begin to walk down the corridor toward the Robot Revolution exhibition hall. "We have to take the lift down to the second floor," I tell Phil. "Or we can take the stairs. But why do that much exercise when we don't have to. Ya know?"
"I agree," Phil laughs. We walk over to the lift and take it down. The exhibit is directly in front of us once we step off of the lift. There is a giant sign hanging above an entryway that says "Robot Revolution" in silver letters.
"This way," I tell Phil and begin to walk straight ahead.
"What is in here?" Phil asks me once we walk in.
"There is an area where you can build your own robot, there are places on the walls with pictures and models of robots, and a large crowd in the back surrounding something that I can't see," I tell him.
"Let's look at the things on the walls first," Phil suggests. We begin to walk over and I read to him some of the facts about different prototypes for robots and theories about when we will be able to use them.
"This says that in about thirty years robots will be in place of most of our jobs," I tell him. "That doesn't make sense, though. Why would people hire robots instead of actual people if the economy is guaranteed to suffer that way?"
"I mean, not everyone is going to be put out of work by them. The big, rich boss will still be there getting payed lots of money. They will be getting payed even more, actually, considering there won't be dozens of other workers to pay," Phil replies.
I wonder if one day the big political debates will be about the rights of robots. Who knows how far technology will advance in the next thirty years? I mean, thirty years ago was 1986, and they barely had e-mail. Much less smart phones or laptops.
We move around the exhibit and read each wall of information. When we get all the way around we decide to go to the table where you can build your own robot. It looks very complicated, as there are wires and memory boards scattered amongst pieces of metal.
"Let's build one together, I don't think I'd be able to make one on my own even if I couldn't see what I was doing," Phil suggests.
"Good idea. I have no idea what I'm doing either! This should be fun," I say. There are instructions in the middle of the table on how to build it, but it's not very in-depth. It merely says where to put the control panel and a few cords. "Let your creativity build the rest!" It exclaims in "step four".
"What are we going to build? We should decide that first," I say to Phil.
"Let's build a robot hybrid! It can be half lion and have llama," he suggests.
"Sticking with the branding, nice, Phil," I chuckle. I decide that this is the perfect time to vlog, so I pull out the camera to do so. We've sort of been falling behind on vlogging recently. Hopefully there will be enough footage to make a decently long video.
"We'll have to mention later that our plane was delayed because of the snow," I say.
Phil nods as I start filming. "What are we doing, Phil?" I ask and point the camera at him. A few people give us weird looks, but I ignore them. I'm used to it, of course.
"We are making a hybrid robot! It's going to be part llama and part lion. Hopefully this doesn't go horribly," Phil exclaims.
"Wish us luck. We could barely put together our furniture when we moved into the flat, and most of those were supposed to be 'easy assembly'. This probably will end horribly," I joke. Although, I'm serious about this probably ending horribly.
"Dan! Don't be so pessimistic," Phil jokingly chastises me. Ironic I think to myself. I just smile to the camera, though.
"Now, why would I ever be pessimistic," I laugh. Phil just rolls his eyes in response and I flip the camera back to face me.
"We are going to try to build this thing now, wish us luck!" I say and then shut the camera off.
Half an hour later Phil and I have not made any progress. We managed to get the base of the robot in tact, so it's supposed to be able to move once we flip a switch on it. However, that doesn't work out. I flip the switch and nothing happens.
"It's not moving," I bluntly tell Phil.
"Dan, I noticed that. What did we do wrong?" He sighs.
"I have no idea, but let's create the actual llama and lion. Even if it doesn't work we can still make it look nice," I say.
Another half hour later Phil and I have a metal blob with wires sticking out of it. It looks more like a dismantled square than any type of animal.
"Try flipping the switch," Phil suggests. I doubt that that will do anything to help our situation, but I do as he says anyways. I'm shocked when the wheels at the bottom of it actually start spinning.
"Phil! It's working!" I exclaim excitedly. I quickly pull the camera out of my pocket to vlog it going across the table. By the time I do this and begin recording, however, our "robot" has already made it across the table. Suddenly it crashes into the edge of the platform and the pieces break off of it.
"What just happened? Did it crash?" Phil questions.
I go over to the other side of the table to retrieve it. Although, "it" is just a control board, four wheels, and stray wires.
"Yeah."
Phil sighs and I gingerly place it back down. We stare at the destroyed machine and can't help the laugh that escapes me. Phil joins in and we stand laughing at it for a whole minute before catching our breath.
"At least we tried," I finally say.
Phil laughs, "It had a good run."
"Let's go see what that big crowd is looking at over there," I suggest, pointing to the group of people in a cluster at the other side of the store.
"Sounds good."
Phil waits at the back of the crowd as I go around them to see what they're all looking at. I smile when I realize what it is, knowing Phil will be thrilled.
I walk back over to him and say, "It's that Mars rover, and it can take your picture for a ridiculously expensive price."
Phil's face lights up he smiles widely. "Dan! We have to do that!"
I roll my eyes playfully. "It's thirty dollars per picture!"
"It's an actual Mars rover! We will never get another chance for this in our lives. Unless we live on Mars someday, of course, but even then we probably won't be able to get our picture taken by an actual-"
"Fine," I interject, chuckling at his excitement. "You're such a dork."
Phil beams. "I know."
The line goes quickly, thankfully. I begin to wonder why all these people are agreeing to this. I mean, it's literally just a picture. When we get to the front a worker directs motions for us to stand against the wall. It's decorated to look like space, with paintings of stars and planets adorning the wall.
"Smile!" The worker tells us. I hold up a peace sign and do as she says. It's sort of uncomfortable, actually, as we are standing in our positions for almost a full minute before the rover snaps the picture.
"Thank you!" The worker says to us as she hands me a sticker with a three digit number on it. "Just wait for your number to be called, and your picture will be ready," she instructs. She points us to a counter which seems to be selling everyone's pictures.
"See! That was cool," Phil says as we stand and wait for our number to be called. I refrain from making another comment about how it was literally just another picture.
Instead, I smile and say, "I mean, yeah."
Phil beams in response. A few minutes later out number is called and we walk up to the counter. "Here you go," The man at the counter says as he hands us our picture. It's on a small, glossy sheet of paper. At the bottom there is a small white space that says "from Rover Roger". "That will be thirty two dollars and forty-eight cents," he informs us blandly. I pull my wallet out and manage to find the correct amount of money. "Thank you, have a nice day," he says as we walk away.
"Now to the planetarium?" Phil asks.
"Yep! We have to take the stairs this time, though, there's the Foucault's Pendulum in the staircase," I tell him.
"The what?"
"I have no idea, but it sounds really cool!" I reply.
We reach the stairs and Phil hesitatingly steps down. "Do you need help?" I ask him. He seems to think about my offer for a minute before replying.
"N-no. I think I can do it," he says, but he doesn't sound very confident. "Could you just stand there, though?" He adds.
"Of course," I reply.
Phil feels his cane down the next step and gently moves down. He repeats this process slowly, and it's going surprisingly well. He is gripping tightly to the railing as we walk. Every time he stumbles a little bit I instinctively reach my hand out to help him, but I pull it back every time as I remember his request.
"This is the last step, right?" Phil asks me once we reach the bottom.
"There isn't-" I begin to say, but it's too late. Phil goes toppling forward, expecting a step where there wasn't one. I try to reach out to catch him with my good hand, but I'm not quick enough. Phil crashes to the ground, and the entire staircase casts their judging eyes in our direction. I offer Phil my hand and he stands up.
"Well, it could have gone worse," I say optimistically.
Phil sighs. "I guess so."
After a tense moment where neither of us say anything, Phil perks up and points towards our destination. "Is that the Folk- whatever-his-name pendulum thing?"
"Yep," I say and we walk over to it. It's a large circle with what looks like a compass with lots of points on it. In the middle of the circle is an image of the Earth. Around the Earth are little pins, and some of them have been knocked over, most likely by the pendulum that is swinging in the middle of it all. A worker is standing in front of it.
"Welcome to Foucault's Pendulum," she begins. "The pendulum moves along with the Earth. The pendulum changes direction throughout the day, which is due to the Earth's rotation. At 9:30am the pendulum is swinging in a North-South direction. During the day, it knocks down one of the pegs surrounding the mini Earth in the center every 20-25 minutes. By 5:00pm, half of these pegs will be knocked down. A peg should be knocked down in the next minute," she informs us. All small crowd had gathered around the pendulum and we all watch as a minute late one of the nearby pegs is knocked down. I make sure to get this on vlog.
"That's so cool!" Phil says as we walk away. "Now, is there a lift around here? I'm not sure I'm up to going down another flight of stairs."
"We're sort of in the middle of this staircase, so unless you want to go back up.." I tell him. I feel bad about it, of course.
"No, that would defeat the purpose. It's fine, I'll be okay," Phil replies. We get to the start of the stairs and Phil stops to move his cane around. He nervously feels for the drop off of the step. He then grips tightly to the railing and slowly moves himself down.
"Phil, let me help you," I tell him. He looks extremely nervous and on-edge about this situation. I don't think I can handle the second-hand nerves any longer.
"Dan-" He begins to protest, but I take his hand before he can finish. He doesn't say anything or try to pull away, so I declare victory. It seems easier with me helping him. He seems less nervous too.
"Step," I instruct each time. We get down the stairs much faster than we would have if Phil had tried to go on his own.
"See? That wasn't too bad," I say to Phil at the end of the staircase. He's about to reply, but a high-pitched voice cuts him off.
"Dan! Phil!" We both turn around to see a teenage girl walking towards us, phone in hand. She looks about sixteen, with dark black hair and brown eyes. "Hi! I'm a huge fan, could I get a picture with youse?" She asks excitedly.
Suddenly I'm very aware of my hand holding onto Phil's, and I quickly release it before the girl notices. I'm not quick enough, however, my sudden movements probably making the gesture more noticeable. The girl smirks at our hands. "I knew it. I won't tell anyone," she says.
I blush a deep red and both Phil and I begin to stutter our protests to that statement. "Would you like a picture?" I blurt. I try my best to relax my face and allow my blush to disappear.
"Yeah!" She exclaims. I then remember that that's what she asked in the first place, and I mentally smack myself for being so awkward.
The girl chuckles. "Yeah, thanks," she says.
I take her phone from her outstretched hand and quickly take a picture of the three of us. Both Phil and my cheeks are still a shade pinker than usual, but it would be easy to dismiss as poor lighting.
"Thank you so much!" The girl says as I hand her back her phone.
"No problem! Have a nice day- what was your name again?" Phil asks, finally speaking up.
"Christina! Enjoy your date!" She calls as she walks away. Phil and I both blush a crimson red and walk in the opposite directions of Christina. Sure, we've met obnoxious Phan shippers in the past, but they never had any real evidence to go off of until now. Phil and I don't speak to each other until we get to the planetarium. After admiring all the exhibits and practically having to drag Phil out, we begin to make our way out of the museum.
"That was cool! I feel like being here as a child would've been much more amazing, though. This place is basically a giant playground with science lessons inside of it," Phil says.
"I agree! It was still cool, though." We walk out of the museum and are met with a sharp gust of cold wind.
"Dan, did you call and uber yet?" Phil asks me.
"I'm doing that right now," I tell him.
"Can we go back inside and wait? It's cold," Phil complains.
"Security is right when we walk in. I don't think they would appreciate two men lingering by the doors," I tell him. I would rather not awkwardly stand there and be judged by officers.
"Plus, our uber is going to be here in five minutes. We should film an explanation as to why we are still here while we're waiting," I suggest. Phil begrudgingly nods in agreement and I pull out the camera.
"Hey guys!" Phil says once I press record. "Unfortunately this morning our plane ride was cancelled due to snow!" I flip the camera around to show the streets covered in snow.
"So, we are spending an extra day here and Dan found this cool museum," Phil says.
"Great! I'll put that before the museum, and they'll never know it was filmed out of order," I say.
My phone dings, signaling that our uber is here. He is in a bright green Mazda on the other side of the road. I link Phil and my arms and we make our way across the street. I open the door for Phil and I slide into the back seat next to him. Our driver greets us with a smile and her and Phil strike up some small talk about the weather.
We get back to our hotel and Phil and I immediately change into more comfortable clothes once we reach our room before opening our respective social media browsers and wasting the next bit of our lives looking at memes and small turtles eating strawberries.
••
"Our flight is a go for tomorrow so far. Unless another freak snow storm comes in overnight, I'll be able to sleep in my own bed again and you'll be able to be reunited with your houseplants," I say. All the lights are off in the room, and Phil and I are about to go to sleep. He is checking Twitter one last time and I'm checking my email to make sure our flight isn't cancelled again.
"It leaves around six I think, so we should probably leave around noon just to be safe," I tell Phil.
"Alright. I'm going to miss America," Phil says as he sets his phone on the table next to him. "It's been fun. Thank you, again, Dan."
I smile. "You're welcome. Now, goodnight dork."
----
"Ready?"
Phil nods and I open the door for him. We walk out, pulling our suitcases along with us.
"I'm going to miss America," Phil says.
"Me too. It's been a very-" I try to search for the right word.
"Interesting?" Phil suggests.
"Sure. It has been a very interesting trip. But it was good," I say.
Phil nods in agreement and we make our way across the parking lot towards the car.
"We should have wawa for dinner. It was one of the first things we had here, so we should make it out last too. First and last meal, you know?" Phil suggests.
"That makes us sound like we're regenerating like The Doctor. You know, how fish fingers and custard were his first and last meal?"
Phil laughs. "Believe me, I am not regenerating. Although I think we would both benefit immensely from it," he says, glancing at my broken wrist.
We continue driving. The snow isn't as heavy as it was yesterday or the day we came in. There is only a few centimeters sticking to the trees, cars, and rooftops. I'm thankful it decided to let up, as I don't think I would be able to handle another day extra away.
"Jet lag is going to be awful," I groan to Phil, hoping to spark a conversation with him. Not that I mind sitting in silence, of course, but it feels like a waste to have your best friend next to you without speaking to them.
(brin:*insert banter about arrive times and jet lag and crap because SOMEONE just HAD to sleep @noelle*)
"Here we are," I announce as we arrive at the building where we rented the car from. We climb out of the car and get all of our belongings out. I realize that we probably should have vacuumed if out before returning it, but it's too late now. I'll just have to live with random strangers judging us for our extensive amount of crumbs. We do clean out the trash from the car, which turns out to be way more than I thought.
"Is that everything?" I ask, glancing around the interior of the car. I search under and in between the seats in order to make sure we didn't miss anything.
"Well, to me everything is a giant blur of black, so, yeah, looks good to me," Phil jokes. Thankfully his tone is lighthearted, so I know that he didn't actually take offense to what I just said.
"Sorry," I mutter, even though I know it's not necessary.
Phil laughs. "I was joking, Dan, it's alright," he assures me. I smile at him as I get out of the car after one last inspection. We go into the building in order to turn the keys in, and then catch a bus to the airport.
The bus is awkward and way too crowded. People move out of the way and make room for Phil and I on one of the seats, thankfully. Phil doesn't meet any of their pitying glances, and I hope that's simply because he doesn't notice them. No one says much on the bus, and, honestly, everyone there looks miserable. Except for a young woman and her husband, who are smiling and making noises at the baby that she has cradled in her arms in the seat across from us.
Our stop is announced and I'm glad to escape the tense atmosphere. Phil clings to my arm as we walk inside.
"Alright, we have an hour until our plane starts boarding," I tell Phil as we begin walking in the direction of security.
He nods, but I can tell his thoughts are far from the time.
"What's wrong?" I ask him.
He shakes his head and plasters a smile to his face. "Nothing. It's just.. crowded. But it's fine.
What were you saying?" He says quickly.
"We have an hour until our plane starts boarding," I repeat.
Phil nods. "Alright. What does the line for security look like?"
"Long."
"Great," Phil mumbles sarcastically.
Half an hour later we've made it through security.
"Maybe we can take one of those car things like we did on the way here," Phil says.
"Maybe, but I'm not really sure how we get to them."
Phil just shrugs and we continue to walk.
I'm not very tired, considering Phil and I did close to nothing today. We both woke up late and decided to spend the day editing videos and practicing for Radio 1 on Phil's board. It was a much needed calm day.
"Our gate is here," I tell Phil, and point to our right. He hasn't insisted on not letting me help him around, but our hands are full holding the suitcases so he isn't clinging to me.
Twenty five minutes later we are walking down the terminal and on to the plane. We didn't get first class seats, but I made sure our seats were reserved far away from the engine. I plan on sleeping during the plane ride, not getting a massive headache.
A flight attendant helps Phil put his carry on suitcase in the overhead, and we settle into our seats.
----
I'm awoken by a scream. It's high pitched and coming from behind me. I jerk awake and quickly turn around to the source of the horrible noise. It's a small, blonde toddler who is sitting in her mum's lap and crying about what seems like nothing in particular. Other passengers have been woken up by the screaming, and none of them look happy about it. One middle-aged man in particular taps the woman holding the toddler on the shoulder and rudely tells her to "shut her baby up."
"Rude," Phil scoffs from next to me. I turn back around to face him and nod in agreement.
Phil has his practice board out, even though he really doesn't need to practice anymore.
"How long have I been asleep for?" I ask Phil.
He shrugs. "I haven't looked at the time in awhile."
I realize that that was a dumb question for me to ask and I pull my phone out. I had only been sleeping for a little over an hour. I sigh and try to ignore the still screaming child as I fall back asleep.
----
"Dan! Wake up!"
I groan and force my eyes open. I immediately snap them shut again at the sudden increase in light. "Dan! We're here!" I hear Phil whisper again as he shakes me awake.
It takes me a minute to comprehend his words fully. When I do I force my eyes open and glance at the line of people waiting for Phil and I to exit out seats. I blush and stumble up to collect our bags. Phil hands me mine before I can make a fool of myself by searching the overhead. I'm still half-asleep as we exit the plane.
"Home sweet home. I can smell the tea and crumpets," Phil sighs as we walk out into the open.
I smile, but I really just want to go to sleep.
"Baggage claim," I mutter, searching for a sign that will point us in the correct direction. I find it and point Phil in that direction. We walk there in silence. I'm still waking up from my nap and trying to get a good grasp of my surroundings.
"So what did you do for the entire plane ride?" I ask Phil.
"Well I practiced some, then I fell asleep. Thankfully I woke up before we landed, unlike you," Phil replies as we are waiting for our suitcases to appear. "Oh and I filled out that sheet that asks us what we purchases and stuff. I hope I remembered everything right," he adds.
I spot suitcases that look the same color as ours and I go to retrieve them. As I get closer I'm relieved to see that they /are/, in fact, ours.
"Well, that was easy. Now to customs and then home," I say once I return to the spot that Phil was standing in.
Customs has always scared me. It's an interrogation, but it's not supposed to be harsh or stressful. Neither Phil nor I have anything to hide, obviously, but I find myself nervous nonetheless as we approach the desk.
"Good morning," the cop says.
"Good morning," I reply politely as I hand him my passport.
"So, what did you do on your trip to America?" The officer asks.
"My friend and I," I motion back to Phil, "went road tripping. We went all over the country sightseeing and things like that," I tell him. I probably look suspicious, as I'm nervously moving back and forth awkwardly. The officer asks me a few more questions about my job and my purchases in America before stamping my passport and motioning for me to go ahead.
Phil gets past quickly.
"That's always unnecessarily stressful," I mutter as we walk out to the parking lot. I've already called an uber, and it should be waiting for us by the time we get out. Phil nods in agreement.
----
"We're home!" I exclaim to the camera.
As soon as we walked in Phil went to go check on his houseplants.
"Dan?" Phil calls to me.
I come to where he is standing in front of one of his many plants. "How do they look? I can't really tell-" he asks me.
"They all look green."
Phil rolls his eyes. "Do they look dead?" He asks.
I inspect the plant for a moment before shaking my head. "Nope. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go sleep for twelve hours," I say.
Phil yawns. "Goodnight. Even though it's not exactly night."
"Goodnight," I chuckle.
~~
WC: 6,958
Noelle Note (June 7th, 2017 @ 2:38am): okay idk what was up with the formatting, but I had to go and click enter after basically every other sentence and it was quite annoying- I also learned that Brin never finished fully editing this (hence the *insert banter here*)
Whatever, it's here now so I hope you guys enjoy it!! Please be sure to favorite this chapter if you did enjoy it and feel free to leave comments!!
Youse should also totally check out my other stories One Sick Fic (which is complete) and Hear For You (which I uploaded 30 chapters of in the last fourteen hours)
OKAYY BYES FOR NOW
~noelle
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