Chapter 14: January

Phil POV

It was the start of a new term, and I was currently in the car on my way back to university. We were only a few minutes away. The last month had been fun. I loved seeing all my family again, especially around Christmas time. I hadn't thought about Dan too much, but he was on my mind a bit. He texted me on Christmas day and at New Year, as well as a few other times as well. I had also spoken to Chris, and Pj as well.

When I arrived, I got my stuff out of the car, said goodbye to my mum, and then made my way to my room. Chris wasn't there when I got there, so I just started unpacking my suitcase. I was done by the time Chris finally made it.

"Hey, hey, hey." He said cheerfully.

"Hey." I smiled.

"Good Christmas?" He asked.

"Yeah, what about you?"

"It was good." He told me. He was smiling more than usual today.

"Are you that happy to see me?" I joked.

"What?" He asked, slightly confused.

"Why are you smiling so much?" I asked, laughing.

"Oh, that would be why my cheeks hurt so much." He said, but didn't stop smiling.

"You going to answer?" I asked.

"No reason, I'm just happy." He told me.

"Why though?" I asked.

"Well, over Christmas, I was talking to Pj." He started, sitting on his bed cross-legged, facing me. I sat up properly on mine, turning to face him. "We were just having a casual conversation, and somehow we got on to the subject of boyfriends. He asked me if I had a boyfriend, and I said 'no, why? Are you offering?', and he said maybe. So anyway, we talked a bit more, and then he actually did ask me out. I have just left him now to go to his room. It's only the second time I've seen him since he asked me out." He finished. I broke out into a smile.

"I'm so happy for you." I said, getting up and hugging him. Suddenly, realisation dawned on me. If Chris had a boyfriend, then he wouldn't be after Dan anymore, which means Dan and I don't need to pretend to go out anymore, so he would break it off with me. I didn't want that to happen. I debated whether or not to actually tell him that Chris had moved on, but then, when he found out, he would want an explanation as to why I didn't tell him, and then I would have to tell him about me liking him, and it would all just go wrong.

I pulled away from Chris, congratulating him again. I picked up my phone to send a message to Dan.

'We need to talk ASAP', I sent.

'I'm nearly there, why so urgent?', he asked.

'It's about Chris'.

'Does he know?'

'Just hurry up'. That was the end of the conversation. After Chris had done some unpacking, Pj texted him asking if he wanted to meet up with him. Eh said he would be back at some point, then left. About 10 minutes later, I got a text from Dan.

'Where are we meeting?', he asked.

'Come to my room, Chris isn't here'. About 5 minutes later, there was a knock at the door. I walked over and opened it.

"What's the emergency?" Dan asked as he walked in.

"Chris is going out with Pj." I told him, cutting to the chase. He said nothing for a moment, just staring at me.

"Oh." Was all he said. "So that means that, uh, we don't, uh…" He trailed off.

"Have to do this?" I said as more of a question.

"Um, yeah. I mean, he's moved on, so…" He said, letting his sentence trail. We both stood there in silence for a couple of minutes.

"So, I guess this is the end then." I said, trying to mask the sadness in my voice.

"I guess so." He said.

"So, how are we going to do this then? We can't just announce to him that we broke up, can we?" I said.

"Well obviously not. We have to make it seem like we weren't working anymore or something." He said. We thought for a few minutes. "Is there a way we can do it without giving anything away?" He asked. "I mean, it's not like we've been acting as if we don't get along lately, so how believable would it be?"

"Well what would you rather us say? 'Hey Chris, Dan didn't want to be a dick and say no to going out with you, so he lied to you for nearly a year, making him a dick anyway, and sorry, but I went along with it as well'?" I said.

"What?" I heard, but it wasn't Dan's voice. I turned my head to notice that the door was open, and Chris was standing there with a look of shock on his face.

"Chris." I said, shocked. Dan's face was mirroring my look of shock.

"What do you mean you lied?" He asked.

"It's not what you think." Dan tried.

"Not what I think? Phil just said you two were lying. You're not going out?" He asked. I slowly shook my head. "So you've been lying to me for nearly a whole year?" He asked. Neither of us said anything, which obviously confirmed it for him.

"I can't believe you two." He said, turning around and nearly running down the corridor.

"Chris! Wait!" I shouted, running part of the way down the corridor after him, but he disappeared. I turned around and walked back, anger suddenly boiling in me.

"Do you see what you've done?!" I shouted at Dan.

"Me?! What did I do?" He asked.

"You were the one that convinced me to lie to him. I told you it was a bad idea, but you said he wouldn't find out, and now look what's happened!" I shouted.

"Hey! This isn't my fault. You didn't have to go along with it. You could have just said no!" He shouted back.

"I did, but you kept begging me!" I shouted.

"Begging you? Please, I didn't beg you. I asked and you agreed." He said.

"That's bullshit, and you know it." I shouted.

"No, that's the truth." He said, just as loud as me. "I can't help it if you decided you wanted to do it. It's not my problem that you couldn't keep your mouth shut." He shouted.

"Oh get off your high fucking horse Dan. This isn't my fault. You were the one that came up with this idea. You were the one that begged me to go along with it. And it's your fault that he found out!" I shouted.

"I wasn't the one that said it!" He countered.

"You could have kept watch of the door. You could see it better than I could." I told him.

"Oh, so because I wasn't looking at the door its all my fault? Fuck you Phil, it's not." He said.

"You know what? Just get out. I don't want to see your face anymore." I said.

"Fine then." He said, storming over to the door and pulling it open.

"I hope you're fucking happy." I said. He looked at me, before walking out the door, slamming it behind him. I stayed where I was for a couple of minutes, just staring at the door. I walked backwards until I felt my back hit the wall, then slid down it, tears falling from my eyes. I sat there for at least 10 minutes crying.

When I finally composed myself a bit, I stood up, wiping the tears from my face with my sleeve, then grabbed my phone, dialling Chris' number.

"Come on Chris, please pick up." I mumbled to myself. There was no answer. I tried his phone a few more times, but he didn't pick up. I decided to leave him a text message.

'I'm so sorry Chris. Please talk to me'. I felt really bad what I had done, and to top it all off, I was no longer with Dan. What he had said had really hurt. I had really liked him, and now, we were ruined. I don't even know if I could face him again, not after that. I climbed into my bed, and cried myself to sleep.

I was woken up to the sound of the door slamming. I turned over in bed to see Chris come in. he didn't look at me, he just went to his desk to pick some things up.

"Hey." I said, hoping he would say something. He didn't. "Chris, please talk to me." I begged. Still nothing. "Look, I just want you to know that I'm really sorry, okay. I didn't mean for this to go that far. It started as a one night thing, but then you became my roommate, and I didn't expect to become friends with you, but Dan didn't want to offend you, so he asked if I would carry on, which I stupidly agreed to. I don't know why we did it for so long, but just know that I'm really, truly sorry." I said, hoping he would turn around and say something, but there was still no answer. "Please say something. Shout at me, tell me how much of a crap friend I am, anything." I pleaded. He picked up whatever it was he had been collecting from his desk, some class notes or something, and then walked to the door. He opened it, but turned to me.

"I just can't believe you both." He said, then walked out the door. That set off a new wave of tears. I sat there for god knows how long, just crying, but I knew that wasn't going to make it better. For the rest of the night, I stayed in bed. When Chris came back a few hours later, he completely ignored me, going straight to bed. When I woke up in the morning, he wasn't even there, obviously having gone out early to avoid me. I spent the day sitting in my room, scrolling through Tumblr.

Later on that night, I could hear music playing. I remembered that someone a few doors down were having a party right before term started. I couldn't bring myself to go out there. I didn't know if Chris or Dan was out there, and I didn't really want to face them now. I stood up from my bed and walked into the bathroom, looking in the mirror. I looked terrible. My face was all blotchy, my eyes were puffy and red. There was a knock at my door. I tried to sort my face out as best as I could, but I still looked like I had been crying. I walked over to the door and opened it. There were a couple of boys from my lectures standing there.

"Hey Phil, you coming out to the party?" One of them asked.

"Nah, I'm not really up for it." I said.

"Shame." The other one said. "Oh yeah, there was a boy looking for you. Brown hair, fringe." He said, trying to describe him.

"Chris?" I asked hopefully.

"Nah, the other one. That friend of yours. Um, what's his name? Dave? Dom? Or something like that." He said, trying to remember the name.

"Dan?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's it." He said.

"Well, thanks for telling me." I said, trying to smile.

"Come out for a bit later, yeah? Even if it's just to grab a beer and take it back to your room." The first one said.

"Alright." I agreed. They walked off, and I closed the door. I didn't want to face Dan now.

About half an hour later, I decided that I would go and get that beer. I opened the door and peered out, making sure Dan wasn't around. When I saw he wasn't, I walked down the corridor and down a few doors to the room where all the food and drinks were. I walked over to the pack of beer, and grabbed one. I could faintly hear someone calling my name, but the music was too loud, so I couldn't be sure.

"Phil!" The voice said, getting louder. I turned around, and I saw Dan making his way over. I quickly walked around the other way, trying to get to the door before he caught up with me. Dan had other ideas though, and was determined to get my attention. He cut the music that was playing, causing a groan from a lot of people.

"Phil! Please." He said. I stopped in my tracks. I turned to where he was to see him walking towards me again. This time I didn't see any point in trying to make a run for it so I just stood there.

"What do you want Dan?" I asked when he got to me.

"Just listen, please." He almost begged. I sighed, but didn't say anything. He took that as his cue to continue. "About a year ago, at a party like this, I made you pretend to be my boyfriend because I didn't want to be a dick to someone. That someone became a good friend of ours, and we kept up that lie because I didn't want to hurt them. I told you that this would only be until the end of the school year, but that didn't go to plan. Yesterday, we accidentally told them that we weren't really dating, and then got into an argument. Since I walked out, I have been feeling like shit, and that is because I hurt you. I didn't mean anything I said, but I was angry and annoyed. The truth is that I didn't actually want to stop what we were doing. I wanted to carry on, but not exactly how we were. Over this past year, after getting to know you and seeing how nice you really were, I started to like you, more than a friend. I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to make it awkward between us and ruin everything, but now, we have ruined it, so I may as well tell you this now as I have nothing left to lose. Phil, I like you, maybe even love you, I'm not sure. But all I know is that I don't want you to be with anyone else, and I understand if you hate me, but I just want you to know that." He finished. I stood there shock. He had just said all of that in front of everyone. What shocked me more was the fact that he had just told me, as well as everyone else, that he may love me.

He looked at me for a bit longer, then turned and started walking away.

"Dan, wait!" I called after him. He stopped and turned around. "I'm sorry for everything I said yesterday. I didn't mean any of it. I should have told you this before, but I was too scared to. But Dan, the truth is, I like you too." I told him. He looked at me for a second.

"Are you serious?" He asked. I just nodded. A massive smile broke out on to his face, and he walked towards me, stopping just in front of me. He looked in the eyes, then down at my lips, before crashing his lips on to mine. I could hear claps and wolf whistles around us, but I could be bothered to care. When we finally pulled apart, we just stared at each other, with matching smiles on our faces.

Eventually the music was turned back on and people went back to doing their own thing. People came over to us congratulating us, but eventually that died down.

"Hey." A voice said. I looked to my side to see Chris standing there.

"Listen, I'm really sorry Chris. It wasn't meant to go that far, and I–"

"Shut up." Chris said, cutting me off before pulling me into a hug.

"You don't hate me anymore?" I asked him as we pulled away from each other.

"After that? Of course not. I wouldn't have had the guts to do that." He said. He then pulled Dan into a hug.

"We really are sorry." Dan said.

"Even if you weren't going out, I could see you both liked each other anyway, and I wouldn't have wanted to get in the way of that." He said. "Plus, now I have Pj." Chris said, putting his arm around Pj, who I hadn't even realised was there.

"Congrats guys." Pj said.

"Yeah, congrats." Chris agreed.

After a little while longer of being in that room, we all decided to go back to mine and Chris' room. We spent the rest of the night talking and getting to know each other better, without lying to each other anymore. We all ended up falling asleep there.

We told our parents a couple of weeks later, and they were both overjoyed, saying that we all had to meet up soon.

I was excited for the rest of the year. I want hiding anything anymore, and we had all agreed to be truthful with one another now, which could be annoying at times considering every time I went over to Dan's, he asked if we had 'sexy times'. I loved our little mismatched group. We had all been pulled together in a weird way, but I had a feeling that we would all be friends for a very long time.

And there it is, the final chapter, it's finally over :(

Thanks for reading :) Thank you to everyone who actually read it, even if you didn't review :)

I am hoping to do a sequel, however I don't have any ideas for where that could go. If anyone has any ideas, please come and tell me, and I will see what I can do :)

Thank you to TheAdelaide9, DoodleDooo, The-Key-To-Your-Heart, uhnonniemiss, welcomeallofyoutohogwarts, RainbowPeaches, NeverlandNat, osnapitzarisya, GeorgieDanosaur, Amy, PhanFictionz, and Alice for reviewing the last chapter :)

Also, a special thank you to NeverlandNat, PhanFictionz, RainbowPeaches and GeorgieDanosaur who have stayed with this story all the way through. You people are awesome :)

Reviews are love :)

Multifandomer :) xxx