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“You know we really should tell them.” Phil said one night when him and Dan were at the Summer in the City after party. They had spent the whole night watching and laughing as they saw people look at them, look at their friend, see their friend motion to Chris or PJ and then watch them walk over to Chris and PJ to place their bets.
Dan and Phil had been watching this happen for three years. After Chris and PJ had gone back home after Summer in the City 2010 Dan and Phil had gone to hotel to spend one last night together before going back to their respective houses. Dan had been there when PJ texted Phil asking about Dan and they decided then to keep it just between the two of them. Not because they didn’t trust Chris and PJ, but because they had just started dating and they didn’t know how long it was going to last. And now there was a whole YouTube-wide bet going on about it and they didn’t want to ruin anyone’s fun.
They’d even started their own game over it. Because since they couldn’t outright ask anyone what they bet and how much they wagered. Some people–like Carrie or Charlie McDonnell–were easy to guess. Carrie obviously wanted as close to a fairytale ending as possible and would bet that they had been going out for years–which was true–and Charlie didn’t see why they would ever share their private life and figured that they weren’t actually dating. And then others were hard. Because while they knew Ben Cook quite well now, he had made his bet years ago and they had no idea what his first impression of them was.
“Yeah, but it’s just so much fun watching them all go to PJ and Chris like this, you’d think that by now they would’ve figured out that we’ve probably noticed that they all go to the two of them not long after meeting us for the first time.” Dan said with a smirk.
“I bet at least someone has bet that we’ve figured it out by now.”
“Yeah, but who?”
“Maybe Alex?”
“You’re probably right. And there goes Emma,” Dan said gesturing as Emma went over to talk to Chris and PJ, “We really should tell them one of these days.”
“Yeah,” Phil sighed, leaning into Dan. If anyone asked he’s more than a little buzzed and that’s a good enough excuse to be cuddling up against your best friend, right?
“Want to do it now?”
“You serious?” Phil asked, backing away slightly so that he could look up at Dan.
“Yeah, they’re all already convinced, what do we have to lose?”
“A fun game to play at events like this?”
“Phil, we don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. And we wouldn’t be coming out to everyone, just our friends.”
“No I do, this was just kind of sudden.”
“Okay,” He squeezed Phil’s side one last time before pulling away, “Guys? Hey could everyone quiet down? Phil and I have something we want to tell you.” At the mention that it was something that they both wanted to say everyone shut up almost instantly, putting all of their attention on the two boys. “So um I don’t really know how to say this,” Dan turned to Phil, hoping that he would help
“Dan and I are dating,” Phil said, and almost instantly there was the sound of people talking about them.
“How long have you’ve been dating?” Dean asked.
“When did you get your heads out of your asses and figure out that you’re in love?” called Chris
“Okay everyone quiet down, we know that you’ve had a bet going on for as long as we’ve known most of you.” Dan interrupted.
“And if you can keep quiet for a few seconds we’ll tell you everything you need to know.” Phil continued
“We started dating before we met in person–if you would even call it that–we knew from then that we really liked each other and we’ve been dating since.” there was a groan from somewhere in the room, no doubt the sign that someone had lost a good amount of money “And I know that PJ asked me if I was in love with Dan three years ago, and I was. But Dan and I had just started dating and we didn’t know how long it was going to last so we kept it a secret.”
“And then we noticed that there was some sort of bet going on about it and we found it really amusing so we just never told you guys.”
“We’re sorry that we kept this from you all for so long, but then again you placed money on us without our knowledge so really we can only be so sorry.” Phil finished.
“Who won?” Alex yelled across the room and over to Chris and PJ who were quickly trying to figure out the same thing. Everyone waited, the room growing tenser by the second as they waited to hear the final results.
“Carrie won,” PJ shouted, causing a few people closest to him to jump as many of the others around the room groaned.
“How much?” Jack yelled back.
“£705” Chris replied, causing more groaning.
“Thanks boys,” Carrie yelled from across the room.
“But wait, Jack and I bet that they had been dating for a few months and were just laughing from the sidelines!” Finn shouted.
“Yes, a few months , Dan and Phil, how long have you been dating?”
“Four years,” Dan replied almost instantly.
“See Carrie won, if you want to take it up with her be my guest.” It turned out that the Harries boys were actually quite smart. They didn’t even bother asking Carrie for the money and left shortly thereafter. A few weeks later Dan was talking to Carrie and asked her how she was going to spend the money. She said that she didn’t know, there was a lot of things that she wanted to get but kind of just wanted to save it. Dan told her that he thought that was quite boring of her but that it was her money and that she could spend it how ever she pleased.
And when Christmas rolled around and their present from her was far bigger and grander than it had ever been Dan figured out just how she chose to spend it.