"Can I go over to your house for dinner tonight?" Dan asked over the phone. His parents had gone out to shop for groceries and he knew that his mother was planning on making dinner that night. She wasn't all that great of a chef.
"Even I don't eat dinner at my house Dan. That'd be so awkward. Especially with my brother visiting from college, he hates me even more than my parents do." Dan could practically hear Phil rolling his eyes.
"They don't hate you." Dan said quietly and unhelpfully.
"No, you're right. They don't hate me, they're just really disappointed that I didn't turn out as 'perfect' as my brother." Phil corrected himself.
"Whatever, lets just go to Ruby's. The burgers kind of suck, but the milkshakes are good." Dan offered, leaning against the wall behind him.
"Ok, Ruby's at 6:30. I'll head over to your house and we'll walk from there." Now Dan was rolling his eyes.
Phil's house was closer to Ruby's than Dan's, but Phil would do anything to avoid Dan going over to his house. Ever since he'd moved, they barely hung out at Phil's house. It was also around the time that Phil came out to his family and his brother initially said that he couldn't live in the house anymore. Ever since then it had been a lot of Phil over at the Howell residence.
Dan walked over to Phil's house at 6:20 to make sure that he'd get there before Phil started going over to Dan's. Sometimes awkward encounters had to happen. And Dan loved hating Martyn so blatantly. He knew how much the big brother disapproved of Phil even existing, and as the person who was most thankful for Phil's existence, Dan thought of it as a personal challenge.
The chips of his doorbell weren't as familiar in this house as they were at the old house, but he'd still memorized them by accident.
"Oh, hi Daniel." He was greeted by Martyn, who'd awkwardly gone from a smile to a disapproving glare within the first seconds of opening the door.
"Hi Martyn. You still have the old haircut. I see you didn't take my advice on that."
~~~
"I can't believe you came by my house." Phil was being overdramatic. And that was coming from Dan. Which is really saying something.
"Oh come on, Phil, it wasn't that big of a deal." Dan replied, taking fries off of Phil's plate. Phil had ordered a burger, a mint chocolate chip milkshake, and a plate of fries. Not a side of fries. A plate of fries.
"You insulted his hair again, after the whole scene you made when he visited for Christmas. And then you called him childish for mentioning that you had an afro when you were eight. I've never heard anyone say 'pick on someone your own size' in such a passive aggressive way before, in my life. And I have seen a lot of passive aggression in my days at Lester family dinners." Phil reminded harshly, taking an angry bite from his burger. Yes, an angry bite from a burger. Phil could do anything in an angry way when he was annoyed.
"Sorry, but he's such a dick. And he makes it too easy, with those stupid sweater vests. I mean, what even are those." Dan said, slowly moving the plate of fried closer to his side of the table.
"You can't just come over like that. They already think our whole friendship is just because I'm trying to turn you gay and seduce you." Phil said seriously, pulling his plate of fries back. Angrily.
"Well...." Dan's words had sarcasm all over them.
"Oh shut up, I didn't turn you gay, you were always gay. And I didn't seduce you, you seduced me." Phil said decidedly, sitting back and crossing his arms.
"Excuse me, thirteen year old closeted Dan was not trying to seduce anyone." He defended, drinking from his cookie dough milkshake. It was the only thing he'd ordered. Dan didn't usually eat much (Phil was always worrying about it, but he'd shut up as soon as Dan said he sounded like his mother).
"Well 'thirteen year old closeted Dan' was the one who kissed first." Phil whispered, leaning forward so that no one else would hear.
"That is so not true!" Dan laughed, "You kissed me! Remember, we were watching Star Wars." Dan lowered his voice as well.
"Oh that was barely a kiss! You were the one who actually kissed first." Phil argued back. Dan just rolled his eyes. "All I'm saying is that I only count it as a kiss if someone uses tongue. I did not use tongue the first time I 'kissed' you. You however..." He trailed off, as if it was some sort of big secret. Dan just laughed, again.
"You're in a good mood today." Phil noticed, taking a sip from Dan's milkshake.
"Yeah, I guess. Beating you brother in an argument is always a great way to start the day," He shrugged.
"Well I'm happy that you're happy. We should take advantage of this rarity and actually do something today. Too bad theres nothing to do in this shitty ass town with it's zero attractions and stupi..." Phil trailed off suddenly in the midst of his rant about how sucky their town was, which was weird, since he loved ranting about how sucky their town was. Dan turned in the booth to see what Phil was staring at. Whatever distracted him from bashing the town had to be something worth seeing.
"Who is that," Phil asked as soon as Dan's eyes landed on some guy who'd just entered the diner and was waiting in line for a table. Ruby's always had a line. Usually just of around three people, but a line nonetheless.
Before Dan could even fully turn back around, Phil was standing up and walking over from the back of the dinner to get a closer look.
"Phil, what are you-" Dan reached out to grab Phil's wrist and turn him around, but he was a little too late.
He turned around and blushed feverishly. Phil flirting with straight guys, aside from the fact that it always got them in some sort of danger, annoyed the hell out of Dan. No matter what, it never ended well.
But, of course, only about six minutes later Phil returned with the guy following him to the back.
As soon as he was up close, Dan could instantly tell that he was gay. Yeah yeah, he should know more than anyone that the stereotypes weren't always true, but this guy was definitely gay. Dan isn't sure whether is was the skinny bell bottom jeans, the t-shirt that was not mens, the nail polish, or just the way he walked, but this guy was gay.
"Hey, Dan, this is Anthony. Anthony, this is my best and only friend, Dan." Phil said, introducing them.
"Only friend? With you good looks? Thats impossible" The guy, Anthony, joked, sticking his hand out for Dan to shake it. Definitely gay.
Dan took his hand, but hesitantly.
"Nice to meet you. My family is visiting for the summer. We're from San Fran. Great place up there. I grew up right near the Castro. My mom and brother and I moved there from Sacramento after she divorced my dad, started dating girls instead. Best hometown ever, if you ask me."
Definitely gay.
"Nice to meet you" Dan said stiffly.
Ok, good news, it was not some straight guy that Phil was planning on flirting with.
Bad news, it was a gay guy that Phil had probably already been flirting with.
Bad news for Dan, at least.
Phil invited this Anthony kid to sit down next to him and the conversation continued.
"So what brought you to this tragedy town for the summer?" Phil asked, offering his fries.
"My mom grew up here. She wanted me and my brother to see what it was like, living in a small town so close to such a big city. My guess is that she also just misses it. She's is a super sentimental person, she basically cried when we drove past her old house," Anthony said. Damn it. He was good at socializing. Thats already one point on Dan.
"Well its too bad that you have to miss a summer in San Fransisco for one in this drab place. It kind of sucks here, theres nothing to do. Dan and I are like the only two gay guys here, and Dan isn't even out, so this place is pretty close minded." Phil said, clearly just using an excuse to tell Anthony that he's into guys, if it wasn't obvious already.
"Oh, I don't believe that for a second. I bet this place is crawling with closeted guys just waiting for someone to cheat on their girlfriends with." Anthony commented, taking a handful of fries. "I mean, just in my first week here I made out with some guy who claims that he's 'totally straight, just with one or two exceptions'. I mean, how sad, right? Anyways, he invited me to some party that he's throwing tonight, if you guys wanna come. Apparently he's really popular at the public high school and a ton of people'll go, so I'm sure he won't notice if you crash it."
Ok, this guy clearly didn't understand that that 1. Dan hated parties, and 2. If Phil was crashing a party, he'd make it known.
"Wait, popular at the high school?" Phil instantly locked eyes with Dan. "You couldn't possibly mean"
A lightbulb went off over Dan's head.
"Will Wattfort" Dan and Phil both said the name at the exact same time.
They'd been theorizing about that kid their whole lives. They'd both just had a very slight suspicion he was gay at first, but it grew into this obsession where they were always looking for ways to find out. It had quickly become an inside joke between the two of them. He also happened to be the most popular kid at Lower Marion High School, by far.
"How'd you guys know?" Anthony asked casually, as if he hadn't just unraveled a mystery that they'd been pondering and conspiring about their entire lives.
Phil instantly broke into that loud laughter of his.
"No way! Dan, we called it!" Dan just started chuckling along with Phil, trying to ignore Anthony's presence imposing on this very important discovery.
"Wait, why is this such a big deal?" Anthony asked, confused but smiling with them.
"Oh my god, I could never explain the true amount of happiness that you've just caused Dan and I, but I'll just skip to this part: You can't have him." Phil said jokingly. "Danny here called dibs."
"Don't call me Danny," Dan said to Phil before turning to Anthony. "And that was Freshman year of high school. He's all yours."
After a few moments of Phil explaining the background of them speculating on this kids sexuality and not-so-subtling flirting, Dan was out of his laughing and good mood and was ready for Anthony to leave them to their lunch. He'd lived through enough of Phil liking someone else so much and was sick of it now.
"Phil, we have to talk." He said, interrupting something that Anthony was saying and standing up and walking towards the back of the dinner, near the staff room (it was basically just a broom closet where the waitresses smoked sometimes and aired it out of the window. Dan had worked at Ruby's for two years and knew how to jiggle the handle just right to open it without actually using a key. It was the worlds work working door). He knew that Phil would follow. It was a power move.
"What is it?" Phil asked urgently, sliding through the door, right behind Dan. He flicked on the dim and blinking light in the close quarters.
"Seriously? That guy? You can do so much better Phil."
"What'd you mean? He's so hot!"
Ok, Phil had a point.
"He totally isn't. You're just blinded because he's probably the only openly gay guy you've met in your entire life." Dan said matter-o-factly. Phil just waited a beat before speaking again.
"So what?" He asked. "Who else am I gonna shamelessly flirt with for fun?"
Dan just rolled his eyes.
"You are so stupid sometimes, Phil."
And of course, Phil just looked dumbfounded and confused.
Dan grabbed Phils unbuttoned jean jacket and pushed him back against the wall, their lips crashing together. He caught Phil by surprise, but they'd done this so often that it was second nature to kiss back anyways. They moved expertly together, Dan one step ahead of Phil the whole time - a rarity.
Dan pulled back, leaving Phil wanting more. He knew exactly how to kiss Phil. It was one of his few talents, but it was a useful one.
"What was that for?" Phil asked, smiling. "I mean, I'm not complaining but,"
"You're just really stupid sometimes, thats all." He let go of Phil's jacket, which had been bunched up in his fists, and walked out, flipping the light switch off and heading back to the table. Another power move.
Sure, Dan could be socially anxious and a generally awkward dork most of the times, but he also knew from observation how to be cool.