We're a Classic Case of Teenage Romance...

Even though years had passed since he'd last been in here, the tree house was exactly as he had left it. It was like some sort of time capsule. He was surprised that after all of this time, it was somehow able to crystallize itself. Stuck in the past, while everything around it changed.

The Fall Out Boy posters were still there, pictures of him and his friends taped to the wooden walls still hung loosely.

Why Dan Howell had decided to come home for the holidays he had no idea. Just like he had almost no clue as to why he was sitting all by himself in his childhood tree house. But he could guess why. He soon concluded that it was because, just like he came home to get away from London and the people there, he was now sitting in the tree house because he just wanted to be away from everyone in general.

So here he was, sitting cross legged in the middle of his childhood tree house, just sitting, just thinking. Headphones blaring a song that meant nothing to him anymore. He looked around, familiarizing himself with the place that he used to come to to erase all of his problems.

After a while of just sitting there with a blank mind, he heard a faint commotion from down below. He quickly removed his headphones. "Don't you walk away from me!" A man yelled.

"Where do you think you're going?" After no response came, the man began to yell. "Answer me!"

"No," came that bittersweet voice he'd known for years. Dan quickly headed to the small opening of a "window" to spy on them.

There she was.

Standing at a pretty safe distance from her father.

Far enough that he wouldn't be able to hurt her, but close enough so that he wouldn't think that she trying to get away from him.

Both Dan and she knew how dangerous that could be.

"No, what?" He asked condescendingly.

"No, sir. I was not trying to make you feel dumb. I was just trying to help, I thought you could use it." She replied, looking down at the ground, afraid to make eye contact.

"Did I ask you for your fucking opinion?" He snapped.

"No, sir." She mumbled looking up at her father. A moment of silence passed between them.

"You're just as worthless as your mother." He declares, loud enough for anyone passing by to hear.

"Whatever," was her reply before turning around to walk away.

Dan cringed.

Not because of her father's harsh words but because he knew what was going to happen the second 'whatever' left her soft pink lips.

Her father quickly lunged after her, managing to bring her back to him with a fistful of her hair.

"Fuck!" she yelled.

He pushed her on the ground, and before he could do anything else the home phone rang, catching her father's attention.

He gave her one last menacing look before heading inside.

She got up slowly, not bothering to dust herself off before heading straight for the tree that Dan was in.

His palms immediately began to sweat, as his heart raced a thousand miles a minute at the implication of this.

There was no where for him to hide, no where for him to run. He was stuck.

He heard as she climbed up the wooden steps, coming closer, and closer...

....and closer.

...He could see the top of her head now.

...And then finally, they made eye contact.

Silence.

The most deafening silence he'd ever experienced.

"My bad, I thought it'd be empty." She mumbled as she broke their gaze.

Neither of them moved.

She sighed. "I should go."

But before Dan could tell her to stay, she was already gone.

Dan buried his face in his hands, letting out a groan of pure agony.

He diD NOT NEED THIS RIGHT NOW!

But it was too late, he began to slowly feel the heartache all over again. Slowly it creeped its way back inside, clouding all of his memories. Making his skin crawl.

He spent the rest of the night in the tree house, too exhausted to think, to move, even breathing was becoming a sudden burden.

And even though he refused to think, all he could do was think... think about her. He had missed her greatly. Her smile, her laugh, her kisses, her hair in his hands, her hands in his hands.

Oh how he missed her, how he missed his beautiful, sweet, amazing..."Reagan" Dan finished the thought aloud, shutting his eyes tight.

"Reagan," he repeated, not liking that her name, one that he used to say everyday now feeling foreign on his lips.

"Reagan...Reagan....Reagan..." He continued until finally his frustration lead him to yell her name. "REAGAN!"

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." Dan said as he climbed down the tree house, heading inside. "She heard, she definitely heard." He mumbled to himself.

"Hey, Dan are you okay?" Came his mothers voice.

"Yeah, I'm dandy." Dan said as he headed up the stairs to his old room.

Once inside his room, he slammed his door, dropped nearly dead on his bed wanting to sleep away this ache.

But the exaggeratedly bright light coming from the neighbor's bedroom window that spilled into his own wouldn't allow him to.

Dan walked over to his window hoping to yell some sense into the idiot who still had their lights on in the middle of the night.

He slid his window open, mouth ready at the mark to yell the most insulting thing he could manage, but whatever harsh words rested on his tongue stayed there when he saw Reagan merely feet away from him, with only glass windows standing between them.

How could have Dan forgotten about this?

How could he have forgotten about all those nights he used to sneak into her room? Especially the nights in which she would sneak into his? What about all those nights he used to watch her from his bed, as she read whatever latest book she was enthralled in? Or how they had lamely tried to recreate that Taylor Swift video because in truth they were just two giant dorks who thought it was the most hilarious thing to do on a
Saturday night?

And as he stood there, with the window open, letting his forehead rest on the cool glass, the aching in his chest was demanding that he do something to stop it from hurting. Dan wanted nothing more than to be able to cross that little gap between them and spend the night with her, like he was once able to do.

Oh what on earth was he going to do now?