Work Text:
"overwhelming sense of unhappiness... Where'd that come from."
Dan was laying on his bed as he tweeted this and, as his eyes begun to sting, he put away his phone, laid face down on his pillow and closed his eyes. He immediately fell asleep, or he thought so, because the second he opened his eyes he wasn’t in his orange-lighted bed but in the middle of a pavement in the centre of London. He didn’t even have the time to realize what happened that the people on his same pavement were all walking over him, as if he was invisible. He tried to ask where he was precisely but nobody seemed to listen to him. Soon enough though, he saw something that made him understand where he was… big screens on a building? He was in Piccadilly Circus!
Dan was looking at the screens and various ads were displayed but he wasn’t paying attention to any of them but to one. This one showed the date and he couldn’t believe his eyes when he read: “15th November 2015. WHAT? 2015? WHAT THE HELL?” Dan soon realized he was screwed. Alone, in a very big city, 6 years too late for him. He was still looking at the screens and, this time, one ad captured his attention: “iPhone 6s. Great.”
He was lost. He surely visited London before but, this time, he had nowhere to go and not a clue on how to go back home. Moreover, people continued to ignore him making him feel even more confused. Was he really invisible? Was this all a dream?
He kept walking around the city without really knowing where to go. Everything was so different and yet all remained the same. He spent a lot of time trying to figure out what Instagram means, for example, and he learned that it was an application, also called app, very similar to dailybooth. Very interesting fact.
As he was walking down the street, while all the people continued to bump carelessly into him, Dan kept looking at all the weird things that he encountered feeling stupefied and even more confused than before, until a wild thought came into his mind. He had to find his future self, his – how old is he now? Oh yeah – his 24 years old self, he wanted to see if he had any success in life or – and he believed more in this option – if he was still the same inconclusive human being, but he had no idea how to find him because he didn’t know where he was living. As these thoughts were flooding his mind he looked up to see that he was near the London Palladium Theatre and, as he was approaching, the billboard on the front of the theatre caught his attention. The nearer he was the more confused he got and, as he arrived in front of the theatre, he had to stop himself from falling face first on the ground for the surprise. On that billboard, he could distinctly see himself – well, the older version of himself (damn he looked fine) – and one of the people he admired most in the entire world, PHIL LESTER!
What was he doing on a billboard with AmazingPhil?
“The Amazing Tour Is Not On Fire. This sounds familiar… oh yes, my stupid twitter @. What the hell does this mean? And why the capital letters? Ugh.”
He was definitely dreaming, or at least he thought so, and that explained why nobody could see him.
As he was now convinced he was dreaming, he relaxed and decided to enter the theatre to see his “future self” and Phil’s show. Because,apparently, he was invisible, there weren’t any problems to sneak into the theatre and, once he was in, to follow the arrows that led him to the stage but, while he was walking, he saw another arrow that indicated the direction to the meet and greet. Dan, led by his curiosity, followed that path and, at the end of it, he was greeted with hundreds of people all queuing. He moved forwards to take a better look of what they were waiting for and what he saw left him flabbergasted. “Dan from the future” looked so happy as he was signing books over books and taking photos over photos with all the people in the room, but the thing that left him most shocked was the fact that Phil Lester himself (he looked damn fine too) was by his side doing the exact same thing and they were both all smiley and happy. If he wasn’t already convinced, he now was 200% sure he was dreaming.
AmazingPhil would never be this close to him, and a few tweets mean nothing.
Because he could do nothing but stay there, Dan decided to reach the stage and take a seat somewhere to watch the show as the events in the other room were too painful and he couldn’t bear it. He was already too sad.
A couple of hours later, all the people from the other room started to gather and the parterre was soon full of screaming people. They all had this book in their hands. Dan leaned to read the title and: “Oh for God’s sake, The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire? Again with the capital letters? Really? Mind, what the hell are you doing?”
While all the people were gathering, music started to play and he could easily say it was picked by him (well, the dream version of him) except a couple of songs he didn’t know but Dan didn’t bother to worry about them as it was all a dream.
The show begun and it looked so real, so beautiful he almost believed it was true, that he wasn’t dreaming because he didn’t want it to be a dream, that this could really be his future, a happy future. That’s all he was asking, to be happy. As the two guys on stage were performing a single tear dropped from Dan’s eyes but he couldn’t say if it was a happy or a sad tear as all his emotions were mixed up. The only thing he was sure about was that this is the future he wanted and that his mind was playing a trick on him.
As the show was coming to an end, a final stab was inflicted to his chest. His dream future self and dream Phil performed a song that was a hymn to their friendship and Dan this time, seeing all the people in the theatre scream and sing along and the two guys on stage sing and smile so bright throughout the whole song, couldn’t stop the tears as the thing happening in front of him was everything he could ever hope for.
The show ended and Dan was left alone with his tears and his sadness.
He could hear people cheering and laughing in the backstage and he could easily pick his own laugh. They were all having well deserved fun after this beautiful show and, as his eyes begun to sting again, he rested his head on one of the seats and closed his eyes.
A matter of second went by when Dan reopened his eyes and, as he was expecting, he was in his room on his bed all alone and, after a quick check at his clock, the year was 2009, 9th October 2009.
It was all a dream, he knew it. It was too real and too beautiful but still only a dream.
Now, there was no way he could manage to sleep so, he turned on his laptop and logged into Twitter.
1 notification.
Phil Lester (@AmazingPhil) followed you.