Dan POV

"No, I can't go!" Liz complains, dumping the DVD cover directly on Eliza's head by accident. Eliza grumbles but doesn't mention it, something I've seen her do to us far too often in the past.

Ellie shakes her head, "Lee, come on, can you not go to tomorrow's show?"

"I can't! She won't be there!" Liz explains, shaking her head, "She's the best dancer...."

I grit my teeth as Florence walks in with a smug smirk, "Oh, what a shame."

Realisation dawns on our faces as she moseys past, joining Mum because she knows we won't argue with her. Liz fumes on the spot, "The downright lacklustre swine! I'm going to kill her."

"I recommend exsanguination."

Eliza stares at me, "How the hell do you even know what that is?"

I shrug, a small smile playing at my lips while Ellie collapses into fits of giggles at Eliza's reaction. Liz grins despite her malice towards and Florence but Ellie eventually recovers and shakes her head in confusion, "What is it?"

"Death by blood drainage." I reply, smiling at her.

Her eyebrows furrow as she ponders this, "You want to drain Florence of her blood? Where would you keep it?"

"Don't be so literal!" Eliza laughs, nudging her, "We can donate it to a blood bank."

"Hypocrite." Liz mumbles, calming down slightly, with an alarmingly cheeky smile littered on her face, "You've got to catch me."

And that's all the warning we get before her eyelids flutter, she sways and topples to the ground in just less than a perfect faint. Eliza shrieks, I dive forward to try and 'break her fall' and Ellie yells as loud as she can despite Mum being a few meters away, "Lee! Mum! Mum, Lee's fainted!"

Mum runs in and gasps in fright, carefully sitting Lee up as I let her go and pass her over. Lee moans, her face actually looking paler than before. I don't know what her crazy drama courses involve but they're definitely paying off. Mum fretfully checks her forehead and pulse, frowning, "Liz, what's wrong?"

"Mum..." Liz groans softly, shivering.

Mum sighs and glances at our convincingly worried faces before shaking her head, "You're going to have to stay home then."

Liz winks at me, and obviously Florence, before nodding glumly, "Sorry, Mum. I know how much this meant to you; I can try to..." she trails off, 'weakly' sitting up and falling back down.

Mum shakes her head, "No, young lady, you're on bed rest. I don't want to see you out of bed until you're fully better, you understand me?"

Liz nods, just smug enough for us to notice, for Mum to believe her, and for Florence to realise her plan failed, before she leans on Eliza, who shrugs, "I'll tuck her in; you can get ready?"

Mum smiles, "Alright, thanks."

Florence throws her hands up and sulks out of the living room as I quietly high-five Ellie, Liz and Eliza going upstairs, most likely to discuss what casual outfit could double as a dance costume in case she needs to spontaneously join in.

Forty minutes later, we're heading out.

Mum frowns as she sees, "I wish Liz could have come."

"That's okay, Mum, she can see your garden another time." Eliza beams reassuringly. Mum nods in acceptance and we head out, walking there because she doesn't want to pollute the air with toxic car fumes.

Well, I don't want to pollute my feet with pain just before tomorrow's P.E lesson.

Why do your feet hurt?

I almost jump out of my skin, recovering from my instantaneous heart palpitations. I know Phil's probably both laughing and feeling guilty so I just shake my head at myself, chuckling inwardly.

We're walking a couple of miles...

Is that it?

I can practically hear the smile on his face, but I know that he understands.

Sorry, I've got to – ow – go! Catch you later, alligator!

Laughing at his infantile rhyming and concurrently worrying if he's hurt himself somehow, I stay silent while we walk. Eliza nudges me as we get there and I smile at her gratefully before painting a polite expression on my face. Mum's co-managers are quick to greet her and hurriedly usher us all inside, leading the way to the back door of the building. When we get there, I wince at the sight of the crowd waiting with awkwardly delighted smiles on their faces.

Ellie shakes her head, "Liz better have gotten in."

"Of course she has, nitwit. Say it any louder, would you?" Eliza reprimands, but not unkindly.

I snort, disguising it as Mum beams at us, her face flushed with excitement. She and one of her friends make a short speech to thank everyone and officially declare the new peaceful community gardens open, which is followed by an explosion of cheering and clapping but a lack of whistling because that's supposedly too rambunctious.

I roll my eyes and find a small space for myself, regretting that I hadn't managed to bring anything with me. Resorting to my phone, I slip in earphones, my headphones banned because Mum thinks their anti-social vibe would ruin the vibe, and shut my eyes.

You look tired.

I am tir – wait, what?!

My eyes fly open so fast I have to blink to clear away the brightness, but I can't miss Phil's chocolate fringe standing out to me in the crowd. I think it's just me because everyone else walks past like he's not even there or with only a small, appreciative glance to his shirt. I can feel myself smiling as he gives me a small wave, his perky blue shirt too celestial for the foliage behind him.

Aren't you going to come any closer?

Only if you don't mind me intruding your solitude?

I can't fathom even a single response to that so he smiles and walks over, narrowly avoiding a crash with someone who looks ready for vengeance before settling beside me with a smile, "Hey."

"Hi. What are you doing here?"

Without letting him reply, I feel my face flame, "I don't mean I'm against it; I was only wondering because you live in the other side...?"

He laughs, a mirthfully bright noise I hadn't thought could exist outside of fairy tales and nods, "I know, I'm not meant to be here, really, but I work here sometimes."

"You do?" I ask, bemused. I've never seen him here before. Then again, I don't frequent the place enough to notice who comes and goes.

Phil nods, ducking his head slightly, "Only if I need money for something."

The flicker of a frown lands on my face before I smile it away, "You sound mature or something."

"Eh, selectively."

I find myself grinning, a soft laugh slipping between my lips when Phil shrugs. He gives me a purely happy look, his hand brushing against mine. It doesn't require immense thought to choose my reaction, slotting my hand inside his warm one and watching his face light up when I do.

Your hands are almost too cold.

Sorry.

He pauses, sending me a soft, mildly amused look. I go to unlink our hands but he tightens his grip just enough to let me know he's okay with my hands being colder than his, loosening it again after a few seconds and tilting his head, "Why did you walk here?"

"Mum: she doesn't want to cause pollution."

"Oh, that's great isn't it?"

"Yeah, sure, but I had to walk so far to get here."

"So did I." he tells me and I immediately feel guilty because at least I live close to this place; he must have walked for ages but I'm the one sat here complaining when he's far more entitled to.

He must catch my expression as he adds, "But I came here when it was lighter outside so it was easier."

"Stop being so kind." I comment without missing a beat, my filter apparently broken.

He smiles so wide his teeth become visible, "I don't think so."

A familiar alarm goes off somewhere and I groan, standing up. Phil looks confused as I help him up so I sigh, "We have an evening curfew."

"But it's still early?"

"Yeah, we're weird." I admit, almost laughing, "I'll see you later?"

"Sure." He smiles, heading straight for the road.

I've never disliked our curfew more. Why do we even have one? I debate on whether or not to ask Mum but end up sticking with my original decision not to because I've never gotten an answer before and I doubt now will be any different. It's still annoying...

I wonder how his curfew works or if they even have one, also trying to find Mum again. I see Eliza first and join her as she finishes her conversation.

"Yo."

"Where'd you go?" she asks in return, fixing her hair, "You missed the cake."

"The one drowned in flowers?"

Ellie jumps on Eliza's shoulders, nodding to me, "Yup. Don't stress; it was awful!"

Mum smiles as she sees us, "Ready to head back?"

"Yeah." Florence says for all of us, none of us caring enough to correct her.

Eliza looks up from her phone with a calm smile, "Liz says she's going to make herself hot chocolate."

Meaning that she's successfully back home and everything went well. Mum nods, "Okay, that's good. Tell her she can't have marshmallows."

Eliza pretends to do this as we walk back, my feet protesting even though they probably shouldn't be allowed. Just as planned, we get back right on time – early even – and Mum starts to set the table while we 'freshen up'.

I'm not surprised when Mum doesn't inquire about Phil during dinner: she's always busy with work or spending time with Florence. We have a borderline awkward meal, each of us eating the macaroni and cheese that Liz cooked for us earlier and re-heated because Mum forgot about it. Ellie and Eliza are clearing up today so I head upstairs to get some homework done before Phil's show.

It's not hard work so it's done easily, except for the maths work that I totally give up on, and I log into YouTube just as I get the alert that he's live. I laugh at his rather simple liveshow name of 'October the 19th' but know he only does that because he doesn't want to deceive or disappoint anyone with extravagant titles or clickbait – not that he's ever disappointed anyone.

Well, he shouldn't have done but there's always going to be stupid people who don't appreciate him being a literal sunshine. The descriptions he writes are wild enough to make up for the just less than amazing titles anyway.

I smile for the entire time, my grin still strong – possibly stronger – as Phil nears the end of his one hour live show, the whole thing seeming better to me this time because I've met him in person like I'd always only hoped. To my shock, he tells me and the internet, obviously, that he's met his match and can't wait to tell us more about them if they're willing.

I laugh, wondering what he's going to think and say when I tell him I've been waiting almost forever to be in one of his videos.

Phil quickly gives a vague, yet secretly detailed if you know what he's referencing, description of me but not one that I could actually be recognised by. His perpetually compassionate nature still makes me smile, despite having witnessed it on more than several occasions.

Phil waves, telling us that his time is up, before asking for people's plans and offering his: he's going to try and call someone. I smile and type in the comments that I'd love to receive that call, before I can think about it. I scowl at own faulty inability to refrain from doing things I might regret in future as I gasp, "Damn."

Phil chuckles as he reads my comment, which I hadn't expected him to, and a few others, ending the video with a cute wave and his hand covering the camera like usual. The screen fades as he ends the stream so I read through the previous comments, reading a lot about him being lucky to meet his match and people already shipping it despite not knowing who it is, or rather who I am. I don't log off, even when there's nothing left but a blank box, watching as people carry on talking but not wanting to add anything myself and ruin their conversations.

My phone starts to ring.

I roll my eyes, then frown at the 'unknown' flashing on the screen. Deciding that I have nothing to lose, I answer, then panic.

I panic because of who it is.

I panic because, even though I've thought about this for years, I'm not prepared.

"Hey, Dan?" Phil's voice shines through the phone, a little echoed.

My voice gets lost on the way to my mouth and I have to cough to try and reboot my larynx. I exhale nervously and nod for no reason, "Yeah?"

"Are you okay? Is this a bad time?"

"No! It's a wonderful time. Hey."

"Hey." Phil laughs, "Are you free?"

"No, I'm priceless." I mutter but Phil hears and laughs, soon followed by a thud.

He clears his throat, "Sorry, that was my headphones falling off the table."

"Klutz." I joke, rolling my eyes.

"Yeah, yeah." He replies, "That probably wasn't a great first impression."

I decide not to tell him over the phone that my first impression of him was three years ago, on a black-and-white video blog.

Instead, I laugh, "Doesn't matter, you're stuck with me anyway."

"True. Are your feet better?"

"Yeah..." I let my reply fizzle out as he laughs,

"Good luck with athletics."

I only groan in response.

"Seems like you can't wait." He jokes and I can't avoid laughing, his optimistic comments apparently contagious.

"How did you get my number?" I ask, curious. We'd forgotten to exchange numbers during the day and we only just saw each other at the garden ceremony so I'm not sure where he got it.

He goes quiet for a moment, "I may have looked it up on the school website."

"What? How?" I ask, leaning forward with a frown.

"Uh..." Phil trails off but I smirk,

"You've got to teach me how to do that!"

I can hear him sigh with relief, "Sure, why not? You into computers?"

I am, but only since I started watching Phil's vlogs. I nod, then chide myself for stupidly gesturing to someone over the phone before replying, "Yeah, of course. But school's kind of ... boring."

"Definitely!" he agrees, our conversation flowing easily after that. We talk for hours, and have to stop when he yawns, and, in turn, causes me to yawn as well. I smile, "Night, Phil."

"Night, Dan." He yawns again, then ends our call. I smile sleepily, too tired to change my clothes. It's around one am, so we've talked for three hours or so without a break. I plug my phone in the charger and let my head hit the pillow as my eyes shut, entering a dreamless sleep.

All the chapters henceforth are over 2k I believe :)