it was silent on the way back. phil and alex had only argued the first five minutes and it consisted of alex rolling her eyes and and mumbling "overprotective" and "whatever" under her breath while phil lectured her about ryan but had renamed him metal face.

dan felt caught in the middle as he stayed quiet in the front passenger seat while the two 'argued'. afterwards phil sighs happily and pats dan's leg.

"when we get to the house wait for me in the room okay?"

"ew. if you guys are going to do something can i leave?"

phil rolls his eyes. "alex i've had enough of you today, don't start."

dan's heart was racing though, not because of alex's assumption, but because of how phil said the room. he didn't say my. saying 'the' was a step closer to 'our'.

"dan?" phil squeezing his thigh brought him back to reality as he shakes his head.
"okay i will."

the minute he agrees, they pull up to the house. dan gets out and phil hands him the keys.

"here, unlock the door, i have to have a conversation with alex- so don't move." he says as she starts to open her door. she sighs and blows her dark hair out of her face.

dan nods and walks up to the door with the keys. there were only three so he decided to try all, luckily it worked on the first try. as he walked in, he started thinking about all the information he heard today. yes, seeing mrs. simmons was fun but it was also rushed because she had a lot of students to meet. her talk with dan was brief but when they were about to leave she grabbed his arm and made him bend down to her height to whisper in his ear.

"phil is going to keep you this time. i can see it in his eyes. he's not going to let you leave again."

just those few words made dan's heart flutter. he knew that phil didn't want him to leave but hearing it from someone else, made him feel even guiltier about not being honest with him about alex. he had to tell him at some point but he valued alex's acceptance of him so much that it was making his brain feel cloudy.

the door opens agian to a grumpy alex who stomps up the stairs and phil with a satisfied but concerned look on his face.

"let's go upstairs, i need to talk to you."

as dan follows him, his palms couldn't help but to get sweaty. what if phil figured out? what if he tells him that he needs to leave even after what his former teacher said?

the door closes and dan wipes his hands on his jeans waiting for phil to talk. he slips his hand through his raven hair and sighs, looking dan deep in the eyes.

"alex is really mad at me for telling her that i'm puting a security camera by the front door so i can see when she leaves or not."

dan's mouth fell open at the statement. things just got so much more complicated.
"don't you think that's a bit much?"

phil stopped tousling his hair and looks at him shocked. "what? you don't think i should watch out to see where she goes?"

dan bit his lip. some part of him actually thought he was being a bit overprotective about the whole thing. "i mean yes but....i'm here all the time so why can't i just continue to watch over her?"

"yeah i guess we can keep doing that... but dan?"

"yes?"

"if she sneaks out, please tell me okay? i'm genuinely worried that she'll get hurt and not in the emotinal way."

dan nods his head because his throat was to dry to speak.

phil grins now, making his eyes crinkle as he steps over to him and touches his lips to his forehead lightly.
"i knew i could count on you."

"yea," dan speaks fnally, his voice hoarse, "always."

i had 2nd semester midterms all last week and map testing this week :): i'm fine

~alivia