You were reclined against your grey futon, a laptop in your hands as you skimmed through the anomaly known as 'Twitter', a site consisting of an allowed number of characters. The little blue bird rested in the top left corner of your screen, beckoning you to click it for some more random moments on the website's homepage. You weren't really interested in it right now as you continued your voyage downwards.
In order to see what the website was about, you were forced to create an account if you wanted to venture past the login screen. This annoyed you slightly, causing you to spend countless minutes trying to figure out what your username should be. Everything seemed to be taken, their recommendations no better than the actual one you wanted. You huffed angrily with each new attempt, hoping you would eventually find an available label.
After several painstaking minutes, you finally secured your name, claiming it as your own as you created your account. The layout of Twitter was odd, confusing to someone like yourself. You scrunched your face in annoyance, the unfamiliar site a jumble of new information that made your head hurt. You sighed, so much effort for one page you needed to follow.
Your University; it had a Twitter page.
The page was student run, each day brought new news about the campus, their courses, events and more. It was recommended that you follow the site to keep up to date with all things centered around your school. Unfortunately, you weren't exactly the most tech savvy person around. You would've much preferred a simple email or perhaps a physical newsletter.
You let out a breathy gust of air, feeling a little drained with all this new information. You decided to stop scrolling through the University's page and bend to the little bird's will, clicking the icon that transported you to the home page. God, this was even worse.
All these articles of 'so-called-news' filled your laptop's screen, a jumble of pound signs littering the site as they attached themselves to words of importance. Oh wait, they were called Hashtags now. That's a little different from when I was a kid
It seemed like this was Twitter's staple of success; the hashtag symbol. It was used to tag words, presumably to categorize them into sections, thus making them easily accessible to someone looking for that exact thing. Handy, but a little odd in your mind.
You explored the tags but only the ones that looked remotely interesting; #cutecats was something you couldn't help but click. Thankfully it held true to it's words as a barrage of adorable kittens was thrown onto your screen, the little fluff balls warming your previously weary heart. Next came #cutepuppers. Again, you were not disappointed.
You were caught in Twitter's trap, quickly learning how to favourite things, follow and even leave a little comment. Your eyes were essentially glued to the website, your mind beginning to open to new discoveries across the internet's blue bird platform. You also learned was a Tweet was; quite a fitting name for Twitter.
Throughout your digital travels, a familiar face appeared in your suggestions. No way... There in the corner was Dan's face, a rather blank stare enclosed in his Twitter profile picture. Coincidentally, just above him was Phil's face, a slightly more energetic atmosphere surrounded his image; he was sporting a quiff as well. They have a Twitter page? There was no hesitation as you clicked on both, opening separate tabs for the two of them.
First off was Phil's page
Immediately you saw that he had retweeted countless videos and images of corgis. There were also some pictures he had taken himself, sometimes with captions or just without an explanation. His tweets were also quite Phil aesthetic, happy, positive and generally silly. More often than not an occasional piece of artwork was retweeted by him; art by his devoted fans.
A lot of it was really good, while some was... questionable. Sometimes it would just be his head photoshopped onto something odd, like money, a koala, etc. However, it all seemed in good humor, otherwise Phil wouldn't have retweeted it in the first place.
He also posted a lot of picture of him and Dan together on their travels, the two grown men acting like children in all of them. You stifled a small giggle when you saw some of them, admiring their unbreakable friendship. Suddenly, your face fell as a tiny pain went through your heart while you remembered Hailey, a sudden sadness filling you as you longed to see your friend. Unfortunately she was halfway across the world, unable to visit for quite some time. You vowed to give her a call tonight, hoping to catch her before the time difference was too much. You had attempted to call her this morning, but she must've been fast asleep where she was. Man, long distance relationships are hard...
After assuring yourself that you would give her a ring tonight, you pressed forward and continued your adventures through Twitter.
Up next was Dan's page
Punctuation. That was the first thing you noticed.
When tweeting, it looked like he was someone with no regards towards proper sentence structure, his words lacking punctuation signs as they flashed their all lowercase designs. You could feel your eye twitching in discomfort as you willed yourself to ignore his unexplained ways. For the most part, you found yourself laughing at his tweets, short, gruff and straight to their passive aggressive points. Yet at the same time, you felt yourself drawn into some of his other tweets; he was somebody with a lot of consideration and care when it came to serious issues.
He would retweet issues surrounding mental health, his thoughts and genuine comments loud and out to the world. While his goofy side seemed to dominate him, there was also a watchfulness to his character as well. What a sweet person he is.
There were a few photographs of him that you had to scroll past quickly, otherwise you found it hard to look away from him. This feeling plagued you, twisting your stomach into a knot whenever you were faced with this dilemma. You could feel a sweat and crooked smile coming on anytime Dan's model pictures would come into view. Damnit, what that fuck is that all about? It was at this time you decided to stop looking at their profiles, you had already spent enough time lurking around.
Of course, you wouldn't leave without following them of course. You'd be one of the... 8 million people following them?! Your eyes bulged at the number of people who supported them, your mouth suddenly dry with how overwhelmed you felt. That amount was absolutely insane, outrageous! Unbelievable!
Now you were beyond curious at what these people would tag Dan and Phil in. You couldn't help your racing fingers as your hastily typed in their tags; #Danielhowell and #Phillester. You were excited yet also terrified. What would this treasure trove reveil to you, the naive person who had just discovered Twitter?
Art, art, so much art.
Memes, memes, so many memes!
The community was crazy active, a new post happening almost every second. A lot of people posting about their excitement to see them live on tour; Interactive Introverts? That was probably the second tour Dan had talked about. The demographic looked mostly female, yet there was the occasional fanboy hiding amongst the crowd.
People were also posting about the merchandise they had bought from Dan's store. Dan has his own line of merchandise?! What the fuck! I couldn't even sell chocolate during my time at public school! This was unreal, these guys were practically celebrities! It was... so daunting.
Your head was spinning once you realized just how popular these two brits were. You almost felt bad for hanging out with them. Maybe they secretly thought you weren't good enough to be around them? There was no way you were on the same level, they were famous and you were just a university student! It began to settle in just how out of reach you guys truly were; it was like you were on a different planet from the two.
You felt insecurity, confusion and a little disappointment creep into your chest, clinging onto your emotions with a burning heat. Maybe you shouldn't have gotten your hopes up, maybe it was a little too soon for you to make friends in your new home? Was there even a chance that they would think of you as an equal?
With the sharp thoughts of negativity coursing through you, the sudden brightness of the past days engulfed you as you remembered first meeting the two internet stars.
Phil, he hadn't even known you for a second yet he didn't hesitate to help you on your first day out. His kind, caring and genuine attitude was so strong that it filled you with a comforting warmth; there was no sense of him looking down on you at all.
Dan, your first official meeting was nerve racking, full of awkwardness when the two of you stumbled out hasty apologize from that week at the convention. Yet once you broke past the shell of hesitation, he was such a joy to be around. Charismatic, hilarious and all around charming. Oh, not to mention painstakingly gorgeous, with his curly chestnut locks, deep brown eyes, alluring voice, heavenly laugh...
(Y/N), get back on track. Stop with these random thoughts...
Despide the difference between the two of you, he treated you like an equal, a friend.
Friends... Is that what they could be? Is that what they were? Could you be friends with two famous people?
Speaking of the two brits, as you were scrolling through the tagged page an eerily familiar picture came into view. You blinked once, then twice, surprised to see the developed image from yesterday.
It was that group of excited fans you had taken on one of the girls' phones, all smiles and giddiness in their eyes. The one girl you had taken the photo for was smiling brightly, no doubt ecstatic that she was able to be featured in the photo thanks to you. You giggled to yourself when you saw the slight shimmer of the one girl's tears, her excitement getting the better of her as she cried happily beside her idols.
You couldn't help but give a content sigh, a little glow of happiness bubbling up inside you; it felt good to be able to make a few kids' dream come true. Not only that, but you were relieved that the photo came out clear. More often than not you would've taken a blurry picture or accidentally have your thumb on the camera lens, creating a useless memory. Because of your poor skills, Hailey had vowed to never give you her camera if she ever met famous people.
You smiled to yourself, bringing your eyes downwards to read the message she had posted along with the picture;
'Met @danielhowell and @amazingphil today! OMG!!! CANNOT EVEN RIGHT NOW!! They were so nice too. Ignore my crying friend lmao. Also shoutout to their friend who took the pic youre awesome and really nice girl!! :D'
You felt a humble blush sweep across your features, subconsciously putting your hand to your heated cheeks. You gave a crooked smile as you tried to contain your delight, wiggling slightly in effort to calm yourself. This was... so cute! You had made someone's day extra special and it felt really awesome! You hoped in the future that you could help out another fan sometime.
An immediate like was given to this girl's post, your mouse hovering over the filled in heart. You instantly thought of showing this to Phil, closing your laptop and moving to your phone so you could text him a screenshot. When you opened your device, an unknown number had texted you about an hour ago, the sequence of symbols unrecognized. However, the person introducing themselves was very recognized.
MSG From Unknown
Hey. it's Daniel from yesterday. How are you?
//video unavailable//
It was Dan, at least you were pretty sure. Comparing his texting style to his tweeting style was a little different, but yeah, this was the same boy. Phil must've given him your number sometime yesterday. You quickly changed his contact name in your phone so you would recognize him in the future. A slight shake was plaguing your hands as you registered Dan into your phone, but you just shook your limbs in effort to rid yourself of this nervous feeling.
MSG to Dan
Hey Dan. I'm pretty good, you?
You noticed that he had sent a video in the text but it wouldn't load for some reason.
MSG to Dan
Also you sent a video? I didn't get it, did you want to send it again?
The speed at which he replied was insane, an immediate answer followed. It was almost like he had been glued to his phone before you texted him back.
MSG from Dan
No, that's okay. It wasn't really that important anyway. I just wanted to make sure I had the right (Y/N)
MSG to Dan
Yep, I'm (Y/N). The one and only from yesterday. Oh also, you should check this out!
You quickly opened up Twitter on your phone, finding the post from before and screenshotting it. With a quick tap you sent it Dan's way. Once again, a quick response followed.
MSG from Dan
That's from yesterday afternoon right? How did you find this picture so quick?
MSG to Dan
Oh, I made a Twitter account this morning. I didn't really know how to use it at first but I got the hang of it eventually. The picture kind of showed up in my recommendations randomly-
Don't tell him you were looking at their tags, don't you fucking dare tell him that, (Y/N)!
MSG to Dan
-when I started following you guys on Twitter. I didn't know you had one.
(Y/N), you idiot! He'll think you're a stalker! Why would you text that?!
You held your breath as you painfully waited for his response, preparing yourself for an immediate block; a farewell to your newly acquired friend. Instead you were greeted with the soft 'ping' of your phone's notifications; the Twitter icon popped up in the dash.
MSG from Dan
This is your username right? I didn't follow some random account hopefully
Your gaze bore into your phone, a new notification present. You had somebody following you; '@danielhowell followed you!'. You let a little smile slip from your lips.
MSG to Dan
Yep, it is! Lol, thanks for following, but I don't think I'll be posting very much. It's mostly for school updates and such
MSG from Dan
Lmao, don't worry about it. I'll get Phil to follow you too in case you ever decide to use it. Gotta keep tabs on our friends. And thanks for the photo, Phil always loves seeing fan pictures
MSG to Dan
No problem, tell me what he says okay?
You had expected yourself to be a little more apprehensive and timid when texting him, but it almost felt natural the way the two of you were speaking with each other. It also made you relax when he had referred to you as a 'friend', the previous doubt from a few minutes ago melting away. It seemed like you weren't a burden, that was good. You really wanted to become closer with hi- them. Both of them.
MSG from Dan
Oh hey if you're not busy today, Phil and I were going to do a few things around town. Wanna join?
There was no use hiding how excited you were with the offer. Your fingers hastily typed across your phone's keyboard, a quick message you tried to make sound calm and collected.
MSG to Dan
Totally free. What we doing and what time?
MSG from Dan
Our flat, an hour? We'll tell you on the way cause we honestly have no idea what we're doing, lol
You nodded to yourself, already thinking of what you should wear today. If it was anything like yesterday, you were going to have to bring a coat. Maybe the three of you could stop off at a cafe again as well
MSG to Dan
Sounds good. And bring a coat this time you doofus!
A/N: Hey hey hey, little butterflies! Hope you're all doing swell. Thanks so much for the views, it means a lot to me! I'm going to try and update more often once my classes are done; the summer break is almost here, so that should give me more time to type.
Also, I got a ranking! Whoa! I had no idea what they were until now, so thanks for your continued support! It means the world to me.
That's all for now, see you later honeybees~