Chapter Text
The pale, god awful light above the row of vegetables was flickering non-stop. Dan would have made a joke about a healthy rave, but at the moment he had more important business to attend to. Like rolling his eyes at Riley, who was looking way too happy about the very boring joke they were making.
Dan waved them and the cabbage they were holding away with a scoff. “Haha,” he said, mockingly. “Dan doesn’t know what salad is. I get it.”
“You’re supposed to laugh,” Riley whined. “Okay? Laugh.”
Dan glared at them. But then Riley smiled, all wide and bright and expectant, making Dan laugh despite himself.
“Whatever,” he groaned, trying to stretch his jaw so that the smile wasn’t quite as big. “Iceberg lettuce, please.”
“Right,” Riley nodded. “It’s easy to get these confused, so—”
“Fuck off,” Dan laughed.
Riley didn’t exactly live with Dan, but despite the teasing Dan enjoyed having someone to plan dinners with now that they’d been staying at his place for a while. It was probably just the fact that it was new, but that irritable little voice in his head wasn’t as loud when someone as decisive and annoying as Riley was around to have opinions about what to eat. Dan definitely hadn’t spent this much time in grocery stores before. It was more bearable with company, either way.
They made their way through the shop, picking up the kind of dinner ingredients that would last them longer than one of Dan’s sudden impulses to cook usually ended up in. It was probably good to have someone else around to inspire him to eat, even if the reason why Riley was sticking around at his place wasn’t exactly a fun one.
As if on cue, once Dan and Riley reached the cash, Dan spotted two familiar faces from the corner of his eye. Phil and Vic were just entering the shop. Dan’s body went cold as if he was the one breaking up with someone and not Riley.
“Fuck,” Dan heard himself whisper, trying to look anywhere but at the two of them.
Riley looked up from putting items in the bag they’d brought to store their groceries in, spotted Phil and Vic, and looked back down without even flinching.
“You okay?” Dan whispered.
Riley was very good at appearing unaffected, but Dan caught the wobble in their voice once they responded. “Let’s just get out of here.”
Dan nodded. He couldn’t help but look back though, at Phil and Vic who’d stopped in the pasta aisle. Phil caught Dan’s eye. He looked shocked for a second, before his face settled into something more neutral, albeit forced, as he gave Dan a tight nod in greeting. Dan nodded back, probably looking just as stiff and uncomfortable as Phil did, before Riley rushed him out of the shop and into the car.
“Fuck this,” Riley said in an exhale. Their eyes were closed. They took a deep breath through their nose, and again exhaled. ”Fuck this.”
“Fuck them,” Dan agreed.
Riley grinned. “Oh? Switzerland’s got something on his mind?”
Dan could argue, but he was too relieved to see Riley smiling this quickly after almost running into Vic to even care. “Well, there’s a reason I’m hanging out with you instead of Vic.”
Riley seemed to consider that for a second before they shrugged and started the car. A news report on the car radio filled the silence, and Dan looked out at the Tesco containing two people he used to consider his friends. He wondered briefly what they were up to, what they were buying, but then decided not to think further about it. They weren’t worth his time. Vic had been an asshole to Riley by the end of their relationship, and Phil was an asshole by association.
The only reason Dan took mild caution in what sort of judgements he passed out loud was that this wasn’t about him in the end. Riley and Vic were the ones breaking up. They were the ones that were really dealing with something. Dan just happened to be in the friend group that got split up by effect.
Still. There wasn’t any telling where the friend group would end up, seeing as Riley and Vic only broke up a couple weeks ago. Surely after some time passed, things could return to something like normal. But for the time being, Dan was pretty content with spending as much time as he was with Riley. He was friends with them first, after all. While he didn’t exactly mind Vic or the fact that Riley favoured time with him over Dan for the year they were together, Dan did enjoy the way hanging out with Riley one on one now felt like old times. And because he’s a petty bitch, he kind of enjoyed shit talking Vic with Riley over Riley’s cooking and games of Mario Kart.
Maybe at some point they’d all hang out again, but given Riley’s reaction to seeing Vic at Tesco Dan didn’t think it would be very soon.
-
Two weeks later, Dan was proven wrong. He was sitting more or less gawking at his laptop screen. He was stunned, staring at the page the notification he just clicked took him to.
Eric was inviting him to a birthday party — no, a birthday weekend — over at his parents’ house. That part wasn’t exactly strange. Eric always did the most with his birthday plans, and the fact that he made use of his rich parents’ big house for it even at thirty years old was not something Dan would ever complain about as long as he was invited.
No, what truly blew Dan’s mind was something different. He took one look through the invite list to find Phil and Vic’s names there. Of course, the bastards had already said yes, leaving Dan and Riley to be the ones to agree to make things really fucking awkward if they ended up saying yes too.
To be fair, Erik might have planned all of this out before Riley and Vic broke up, but then again it had been a month. Erik could’ve absolutely adjusted his plans, invited them on separate days or something, but no.
Fueled by some misplaced annoyance and an impulsive need for vengeance, Dan clicked the ‘will attend’ button and sat back in his computer chair, arms crossed over his chest. He was considering how he would go about convincing Riley to come too, because he absolutely wasn’t going without them, when he got a notification saying Riley just agreed to attending too. Maybe they had been waiting for Dan to agree, but, this was odd. Dan should’ve had to convince them a little bit at least. Riley wasn’t supposed to be this ready to spend a weekend with their ex this soon after breaking up.
“Riley!” Dan shouted. He had no idea if they were even at home.
“What!” Riley shouted back. It didn’t sound like they were that far away.
“Come here?” Dan laughed. He heard a laugh in return, and then Riley stood in the doorway to Dan’s bedroom. Dan circled around in his chair to face them.
Riley looked way too happy for someone that just agreed to spend a weekend in the same house as their ex boyfriend. Dan squinted at them.
“What!” Riley said, holding their hands up.
“Are we really going to Eric’s thing?” Dan asked, carefully eyeing the weird expression on Riley’s face.
“You decided for us, mate,” Riley shrugged. They sat down on Dan’s bed.
“You said yes half a second after I did,” Dan reasoned.
“So?” Riley asked. “I was reading the thing.”
“Am I meant to believe that?” Dan asked, raising an eyebrow.
Now Riley was starting to look annoyed. They ran a hand through their short black hair and looked away from Dan’s face. They were kind of folding in on themself, crossing their legs and folding their arms.
“I mean,” Dan said, softening his tone, “you still haven’t taken your name off the flat, right?”
“That’s the ADHD,” Riley quipped immediately, as if the excuse had been sitting on their tongue and they were just waiting to use it. “I’m gonna get to it.”
Dan attempted a gentle smile. “So it’s not about waiting to see if you and Vic are getting back together at all.”
Riley rolled their eyes. “Stop with—” they gesticulated wildly at Dan, letting out a huff of frustration, “—that,” they settled on, standing up.
Dan raised an eyebrow. “With what?”
“That concerned, careful act,” Riley said. “I get it. I was sad about the breakup. It’s not like I can’t exist in the same space as Vic for a couple days now, though.”
“It’s only been a month,” Dan argued.
“So?” Riley challenged. “What, is there some kind of rule for when you’re supposed to be fine hanging out again?”
“Probably you’re supposed to wait until after you think you can get away with sleeping with them ‘one last time’,” Dan grinned, exaggerating the bunny ears on the last three words just to annoy Riley even more.
Riley huffed again. “That was a week ago! I was drunk! It’s not like I went through with it!”
“Yeah, but—“
“I was just being horny about it, anyway,” Riley finished. “Nothing else. It wouldn’t have meant anything even if I did go through with it.”
Dan rolled his eyes, unimpressed. “Yeah, right. I don’t think anyone can have meaningless sex with the guy they broke up with a month ago.”
“Whatever,” Riley said. “I promise I won’t sleep with Vic. Actually, you have permission to stop me in case I say I want to. I just want to hang out with our friends like we used to.”
They looked more vulnerable about it again, but knowing Riley, any attempt at genuinely comforting them would be taken as a grave insult. So Dan relented. He wanted to hang out with everyone like they used to, too.
“Yeah, same,” Dan said. It was better to just drop it for now. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine, whatever,” Riley groaned. Dan had to hold back a laugh as they stormed out of his room. It was pretty amazing how annoyed they would get at the smallest thing.
They had a week to prepare for it. There wasn’t much use trying to talk about it when Riley had an armour up, constantly trying to deflect and defend themself.
It probably wouldn’t be that big of a problem anyway. If history proved anything, Riley’s need to prove Dan wrong should do most of the work for him.
-
Dan didn’t really know Phil that well. He was just some friend of Vic’s that ended up hanging out with them all every once in a while. Maybe Dan had seen him around more and more shortly before Riley and Vic’s breakup, and maybe Dan had kind of very specifically remembered any time he joined them, but that was all unimportant now that they’d taken different sides in the whole breakup ordeal.
In short, Phil wasn’t really someone Dan had considered anything other than a kind-of friend, and definitely not a person he’d chat to in private. Especially not now. But Phil didn’t have the same idea, apparently.
Because Dan was now deciphering the tone of a random ‘hello!’ next to a hedgehog emoji in a private chat that had no history except for a list of board games Phil accidentally sent to Dan instead of the group chat a few months ago.
They were only a couple of days away from Eric’s birthday weekend. Dan was really not interested in getting a head start to the awkwardness he was preparing to avoid during it.
Dan: messaging the wrong person again?
Phil responded instantly.
Phil: Nope! Just wanted to check something
Dan frowned. The three bubbles indicating that Phil was typing popped back up, so he relaxed slightly. He wasn’t hoping to have to wring out whatever Phil wanted to say to him.
Phil: I don’t want Vic and Riley to do anything stupid while we’re there, so, let’s just not let that happen yeah?
Dan wasn’t sure why he was feeling so utterly annoyed by that. Maybe because it felt presumptuous of Phil to think Riley wasn’t over Vic yet. But another part of Dan was enjoying confirmation that Vic wasn’t getting over them that easily either.
Dan: yeah don’t think we have to worry abt that
Phil: Rly?
Dan: idk abt vic but riley’s fine
Dan is nothing if not the guy that will have Riley’s back, even if he has to lie for it.
Phil: Lol Vic is fine but you know how people get
Dan probably shouldn’t have too much of an attitude. Phil was being nice. Or something. Either way, they were going to have to deal with each other at least a little bit soon and Dan wasn’t going to set himself up for more awkwardness than he had to.
Dan: sure yeah i guess. i’ll keep my eye on them but it’ll probs be fine.
Phil: Nice! Ty
Dan put his phone down. He glanced over at Riley on the other side of the couch, playing Animal Crossing on the TV and groaning every time they accidentally dug a hole in the wrong spot. Dan figured it was probably best not to tell them about Phil’s messages for now. He liked seeing Riley get annoyed about video games more than seeing them get anxious about Vic or worse, excited about any possibility that Vic might be down for something Riley might also be down for a few days from now.
Dan instead made himself comfortable, watching Riley suck at Animal Crossing in an attempt to not think about whatever Phil and Vic were up to right now.
-
On Friday night, Dan and Riley arrived at Eric’s parents’ house after a tense couple hours on the train. Dan was probably more tense than Riley. Riley seemed fine, and excited, and Dan was imagining having to console Riley come Sunday after they inevitably ended up having a huge fight with Vic again. Their relationship had been pretty rocky from the start, but seeing the way it affected Riley once it actually ended had Dan feeling like he’d fucked up by agreeing to go on this little holiday after all.
Dan felt a second of relief once they got to the house. Eric was ushering his parents out like a child. It appeared no one else had arrived yet.
Riley had no issue running up to Eric to give him a hug, despite how obviously Eric’s mum let out a frustrated sigh to indicate that they were interrupting something. Dan kept his distance, watching Riley unknowingly disrupt the moment while Eric’s parents gave up whatever argument they were having. Once they got in their car, Dan finally stepped forward, giving Riley a look that they probably didn’t interpret correctly anyway. Eric gave him a hug.
“Please tell me Phil and Vic cancelled on you,” Dan said as they parted.
Eric laughed. “Wait, is it that bad?”
“No,” Riley said, loudly. “We’re fine. Dan, come on.”
“They didn’t cancel,” Eric said. “They’re coming later.”
Dan gritted his teeth. Riley rolled their eyes.
“You’ll have to behave,” Eric said, adjusting his glasses frames with a wide smile, and wrapped his arms around Dan and Riley’s shoulders. “Birthday rules.”
“Isn’t your birthday on Monday?” Riley quipped.
Eric froze for a second, then decided to push Riley away and squeeze Dan’s shoulder.
“Alright, I’ll be hanging out with my real friend who’s gonna obey my birthday rules,” he finalised, smiling up at Dan.
Riley proceeded to argue that they were ‘totally over Vic’ and that there didn’t even need to be any birthday rules because they were just that irrelevant. Dan found himself laughing along to Eric continuing to get a rise out of them as they moved on to sit outside on the porch, enjoying the sunny day with rosé and incredibly childish banter.
If it was just this, for the whole weekend, Dan would be okay. Now that they’d arrived, and Eric and Riley acted like they normally did, any fears Dan had slowly but surely began to slip away.
-
Dan wasn’t feeling quite as calm later in the day.
Vic and Phil arrived an hour ago. Luckily, Dan and Riley had been setting up their place in the guest bedroom, so the initial greeting had been a short, passing ‘hello’ while Eric showed Phil and Vic to their room. Dan was feeling a little smug about the fact that him and Riley were the ones that got to choose, which meant their room was bigger and closer to the bathroom.
“Wait,” Riley said, immediately flopping back onto the bed and ruining Dan’s meticulous de-crinkling.
Dan sat down beside them. Even with his size, he had a lot of room on his side of it.
“What?” Dan asked.
“Their bed’s smaller,” Riley said. “We should switch rooms.”
“Bro. What.”
“Think about it.” Riley pushed their fringe out of their eyes with a sigh. “A small bed for two guys. They have a few drinks. Everyone’s gone to their rooms. They’re in a tight space. Hands begin to wander…”
“And why would that bother you, exactly?” Dan turned to lie on his side, watching Riley with a grin. “Vic’s single. Phil’s single.”
Riley looked nothing short of pleading when they met Dan’s eye. “Right.”
“I get it,” Dan said, even if he didn’t. At least not to the extent that Riley needed to be understood.
“Forget I said anything,” Riley squirmed. “Shut up.”
Dan spluttered incoherently. Riley slapped him on the shoulder.
-
Riley was determined to actually ask all the way downstairs, but once they sat down with Vic, Phil, and Eric in the living room, the idea seemed lost to them.
“Riley!” Vic piped up, standing to give Riley a hug that they immediately walked into. Vic was shorter, and the way his chin fit over Riley’s shoulder was so practiced and comfortable Dan almost got the urge to look away.
Instead, he sat down beside Phil. He breathed a sigh of relief, watching Riley pull away and sit down on the armchair a fair distance away from Vic.
“I think we’re getting thunder soon,” Vic said, looking out the large window towards the thick green forest right outside the house.
“Yeah, I’m not sure we’ll even have electricity,” Riley agreed. “Whenever there’s a storm this house shuts down.”
“No wifi?” Dan asked, making Vic and Riley laugh.
“That’s okay!” Phil grinned, looking mischievous. “I brought—“
“—Every board game you own, we know,” Vic finished for him, teasing eyeroll and all. “Yeah, Phil’s planning to make everyone compete and hate each other again.”
“It’s a good icebreaker!” Phil tried, looking at Dan as if he’d find some agreement there. Dan was willing to give him that, despite everything. He’d rather people argued about something stupid like Monopoly than the giant ‘recent exes’ elephant in the room. “Right?”
“It’s Eric’s call,” Dan shrugged. Maybe he wouldn’t have been this stingy about taking Phil’s side in any other scenario, but he wasn’t taking any chances right now. Even if Phil was cute. “He’s the birthday boy.”
Eric beamed as all eyes turned to him. “Exactly! And I don’t want to stay inside all weekend, so I’m sure the birthday gods are gonna move the rain somewhere else anyway.”
A loud crackle from the sky made everyone jump as if called for, but Eric just shook his head, clearly unbothered.
“I’m telling you,” he said. “It’ll be fine.”
-
The rain was pouring down outside once they all sat down for dinner. Dan was enjoying himself. They were drinking wine and eating a vegetarian lasagna, talking about university memories. It wasn’t really leaving Phil out, even if he hadn’t been part of them. Every anecdote seemed to spark his interest, one way or another.
Dan was trying his hardest not to focus on Phil, but his attempts faltered the more he had to drink. Vic and Riley were acting normal. It could have to do with all the years they’d spent being friends before they ever started dating, benefitting the ease with which they fell into friendly banter. Whatever the case, now that Dan didn’t have to supervise them as much as he thought he would, there wasn’t much to stop the inebriated freedom he took to linger whenever Phil caught his attention. And as the night went on, the unfiltered glances back from Phil lessened in subtlety.
“You know,” Phil said, a failed attempt at Monopoly later. “I think Riley and Vic are gonna be fine.”
It was just him and Dan left around the coffee table, lazily playing even if Phil was so far in the lead Dan had every reason to give up. The others had gone to sit on the glassed in porch, listening to the rain and watching the sky.
“Really?” Dan asked. He’d been in jail for a round now, pretending to sulk.
“Yeah, they’re being normal, right?” Phil said.
He was wearing a cute black and purple striped jumper. He’d pushed his hair back, deflating the quiff more and more throughout the night, giving Dan a strange urge to touch it.
Dan nodded without really considering Phil’s words. “Sure.”
“Should probably still make sure nothing happens, though,” Phil said.
Dan shushed him loudly, probably louder than Phil had been in the first place. It made Phil jump and laugh and hold Dan’s eye. Dan’s cheeks burned from embarrassment, but he wasn’t letting Phil win this one either way.
“What’s with you?” he asked. “Are you trying for Vic or something? I really don’t get your angle here.”
Phil’s smile dropped just like that. “God, no.” He looked down, seemingly confused at the state of the Monopoly board.
“You just threw the dice,” Dan reminded him. “One step.”
Phil ended up visiting Dan in jail. “Oh, hello, criminal.”
He grinned at Dan. It was a good thing Phil was so annoying, as it reminded Dan not to fall for his charms.
Back before the breakup, Dan hadn’t been that far from considering asking Phil to hang out, just the two of them. Just to see where it could lead. That felt like forever ago at this point. Now it seemed obvious that Phil really wasn’t Dan’s type. Nevermind the fact that Phil was being obsessive about Vic and Riley’s breakup, he seemed determined to take Vic’s side as well. Dan knew enough about what went down between Vic and Riley during that last week of their relationship to have every reason to second guess any person that would so loudly pick Vic’s side after that.
Dan rolled his eyes. “This game is stupid.”
He might’ve been just as focused on the whole ex-thing, but at least he wasn’t admitting to it or trying to scheme about it out loud.
“So you’re not into Vic then?” Dan asked when Phil didn’t respond. He got a five and was finally freed from jail, but ended up having to pay Phil the rest of his money to stay at his hotel anyway.
“Oh, I win,” Phil said as if it was a surprise to anyone. Dan clapped weakly, then started to put all the pieces back in the box. “And no, Vic’s just a friend.”
“Okay, well,” Dan said. “You’re weirdly concerned about him and Riley.”
“What, and you interrupting any story that was leading to their relationship isn’t the same thing?”
Dan clenched his jaw. If Phil noticed that at dinner, that meant Vic and Riley definitely did too.
“They’d probably thank me for it,” Dan reasoned.
“I think it made things weirder,” Phil shot back.
Dan stared at him. Phil giggled. “What? Am I just meant to sit here and let you talk like you have authority on a relationship you weren’t even in?”
Dan put the last of the pieces in the box and folded the board in silence. Phil was watching him quietly, taking another sip of white wine.
It wasn’t that Phil was being that rude, really. Dan had just reached a point where he knew that this argument was leading to nowhere, and he’d had enough to drink where he’d hate himself for saying anything else.
“Sorry,” Phil said once Dan got up to put the game away. “That was kind of shitty of me.”
“It’s fine,” Dan groaned. He was over humouring Phil for much longer. “Whatever. Let’s just drop it.”
He looked down at Phil, who attempted a small smile. The urge to run his fingers through his hair returned for a moment. Dan blamed the alcohol. It even caused him to nearly stumble when he put the game back in the bookcase next to the TV.
Phil shot up from his seat and grabbed Dan by the hip, steadying him.
He kept his hand there for several seconds too long. His thumb slid against the exposed skin of Dan’s hip in a slow motion that felt like everything that had been sort-of building between them right until Riley and Vic’s breakup. Dan took a deep breath to not visibly shiver.
This was the alcohol talking, obviously. Dan had no interest.
“Thanks,” he nodded, awkwardly catching his breath. He turned around and away from Phil. “Are you tired? I’m tired.”
Phil’s eyes were focused now. The veil of politeness had dropped just enough for Dan to get a glimpse of what might be behind it. He seemed to be just as over with humouring this situation as Dan was.
Phil nodded, eyes darting between Dan’s face and his hip, like he was considering something. “Kind of,” he said.
“Okay, well,” Dan stepped farther away. “I’m going to bed, so.”
Phil faked a smile, nodding as he made his way to the porch. Dan hurried up the stairs, trying his best not to lose his footing again.
-
Dan wasn’t sure how much time had passed since he got in bed when he was woken up by someone getting in the bed beside him. He reached out with a noisy sigh to squeeze Riley’s shoulder, just to say hello.
Except, it wasn’t Riley’s shoulder. Riley didn’t sleep shirtless, first of all, and this shoulder was definitely bigger. Dan retracted his hand as if the touch had burned him, confused.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you,” a voice Dan couldn’t distinguish said. “They changed the sleeping arrangements.”
It was Phil. Dan opened his eyes. The absurdity of the situation forced him to reach full consciousness and at the same time realise that he desperately needed the toilet.
“God,” Dan muttered, rolling over and stepping out of bed. “Okay.”
“Oh,” Phil said. He sounded almost offended, but he moved to get out as well. “No, I’ll get out, don’t worry about it.”
“It’s fine,” Dan groaned. “I just need a wee. Stay there, I don’t care.”
“Oh, okay.” Phil got back into bed. He looked like he was about to pass out any second now. “Sorry.”
Dan mumbled some kind of ‘don’t worry about it’ in response before he made his way to the toilet.
He did a quick job of it even though he partly wanted to stay inside the bathroom to try to process the situation. There was no use, really. It would only result in Dan stalling, psyching himself out about going back into bed with Phil. Because that’s what he was literally doing, and he didn’t want to think about it because something about it felt less innocent than sleeping next to Riley did.
There were sounds coming from the other guest bedroom, Dan realised when he got back in his room. All he could really hear was subtle talking and laughing. It was weird that Phil was here, wasn’t it? Regardless of his reason.
Phil was hugging a pillow, face down lying on his stomach. Dan glanced over his bare shoulders and the way the duvet was bunched up at the small of his back, calves and feet exposed. He looked like a frog, Dan thought as he got in bed next to him.
“Why did they change where people were sleeping?” Dan asked.
“Don’t ask me,” Phil grumbled.
“What?”
“Birthday rules,” Phil explained, though his tone was nothing short of mocking. “We’re not meant to question them.”
Dan scoffed and covered himself in his own duvet, wrapping himself up and facing away from Phil.
“No, but it was weird,” Phil said. “Didn’t look like the other bed was that small, but it was awkward trying to get in next to Vic.”
“Yeah,” Dan relented.
“This bed is big, though,” Phil said. “It works.”
He was right. This bed was large enough that it was kind of weird to keep it in a guest room, in Dan’s opinion. But, it did successfully fit two giants without making it feel like they were on top of one another. That was the most important thing in the end.
Still. Dan felt Phil’s presence as though he was closer than he was, probably because he wasn’t used to him. He didn’t know Phil well enough to not feel awkward sharing the silence right before sleep. It made Dan so aware of everything. He felt Phil’s warmth and heard Phil’s slow, sleep-ready breaths like they weren’t keeping a polite distance.
“Where’s Riley sleeping, then?” Dan asked.
“Eric’s room. And Eric and Vic are in the other guest room.” Phil yawned.
“Why didn’t you just go to Eric’s room?” It was probably rude to ask this many questions, but he was well past trying to spare Phil’s feelings right now. Something about him made Dan feel like he didn’t have to.
“God,” Phil quietly said. “If it’s that much trouble I’ll leave okay?”
Dan shifted, looking back at Phil. For a second, he caught a sour look on his face. The moment Phil’s eyes met his, though, he faked a smile. It was kind of gross, how easily Phil managed to do that.
“It’s fine,” Dan said. “I was just wondering.”
“Alright, well,” Phil sighed, but he still kept his tone friendly. Dan would’ve been impressed if he didn’t see through it so easily. “I barely fit in it.”
Dan yawned. His need for sleep returned like a ton of bricks. “Alright.”
“Any other questions?” Phil asked.
There it was. That mild, annoyed thing that Phil kept so neatly under wraps, but Dan kept hearing louder and louder. Maybe it wasn’t that much of a surprise that Phil took Vic’s side, after all. People tend to seek out the people that are the most like themselves.
“Nope,” Dan said, matching Phil’s fake tone just to communicate the fact that he could hear it. “Good night.”
“Night!” This time Phil sounded even cheerier. Like he was trying to beat Dan at his own game.
Dan rolled closer to the edge of the bed, trying his hardest to fall asleep quickly.