s t r e a m {SAPNAP}

- 12 -

BEE POV

***

MARCH 18TH

I suddenly felt my stomach twist up in knots. A wave of anxiety washed over me. This had to be a fucking joke. I didn't answer Sapnap, and he started sending me messages asking if I was okay. Instead, I called Kayla.

"Hello?" She said, drowsiness on the tip of her tongue.

"KAYLA!" I half screamed, half cried.

"Christ, what is it?" She instantly sounded more awake.

"You know what guy I've been talking to on Tinder?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Well I tweeted something he said, right? The thing about Hawaiian pizza and toilet paper?" I started to pace up and down my room, my hands shaking as I spoke.

"I recall," Kayla yawned. "Didn't you just tweet that like, fifteen minutes ago?"

"Yes, and about ten minutes after I sent it out, Sapnap DM's me. You know, the Nick guy from Dream's channel."

"Ohhh, yeah, the other Nick."

I nod, even though I know she can't see me.

"I thought he was being all weird, asking about the guy on Tinder, being weird when I asked him if he hated me or something, and then he just lays it out there. God, I'm so fucking stupid, how did I not know? Kayla, Tinder Nick and Sapnap Nick are the same fucking person. And I've been falling in love with one and feeling like the other one hates my guts." I fall backwards onto my bed.

"God damn, this is like some super fucked up soap opera. What're you gonna do?"

"THAT'S WHY I CALLED YOU!"

"Oh! Well, I would say...talk to him like normal? I mean, you guys are already friends, so how much worse can it get?" Her advice was absolute shit, as usual.

"But--oh, nevermind. I gotta go." I hung up without waiting to hear her response and switched back into Discord.

Sapnap--or Nick, I guess--was still frantically messaging me.

Instead, I switched to Tinder.

-Elisabeth:
Hi:)

-Nick:
So you can message me back on here, but not on Discord?

-Elisabeth:
Oh Christ, it is you. I was hoping you were joking.

I threw my phone to the side and tried to ignore the notifications that blew up my phone. How fucked was this? Was this some weird, sick joke that God decided to play on me? Right when I thought that maybe I could have something with this guy, I go and ruin it and find out for myself that he wasn't who I thought he was.

I wondered if Nick knew that I was Libby, not just Elisabeth. I mean, I'm sure he would've mentioned if? If he knew before now?

I pulled my pillow over my ear and let myself fall asleep, despite it only being hurt after eight. I needed to sleep it all off.

***

APRIL

I didn't talk to Nick for a while after that, although I did message him the next morning and make him promise not say a word to any of our friends. After that, I went a bit AWOL on the SMP, joining occasionally to work on some builds. I hadn't really been introduced to the lore yet anyways.

I did start becoming friends with some others who were on the server, and Wilbur and I hit it off right away. Besides that, I wasn't very active.

I did stream a lot on my channel, though. Every now and then someone would ask a question regarding if I was dating someone, or whatever happened to that guy from Tinder. I always just shrugged and said we fell apart.

I was disappointed, honestly. I almost wished that I hadn't tweeted out what I did, but I was glad I had. I would've found out one way or another. I regretted making things awkward between us, though.

I distracted myself by making more and more speedrun videos, and I even started to play some other games like Five Nights and Freddie's or Asylum. While my Minecraft streams were always the most popular, I also gained quite a bit more recognition from my other gameplays. I was getting over a hundred thousand views per stream, and I didn't even know how it happened.

I was more than grateful, though. I couldn't thank God hard enough for actually letting me succeed. I stopped really doubting myself, so that was a plus. When the semester finally ended and summer break was about to start, I felt like I was at an all time high.

I went back to streaming almost every day, and even started to post other videos on my YouTube, too! I posted little vlog type videos with Kayla and some of my other friends from class, doing shopping hauls, contests, and even conspiracies.

In the first few weeks of April, Kayla and I did a small series where we would drive around to the most haunted places in Texas and the states around us. People absolutely ate that up, begging for more. Suddenly I wasn't just a Minecraft streamer.

But it was still my number one priority. I thought back to when I'd first started—pretty much two years ago. I never thought I'd make it to this point in my life.

I was driving to Galveston with a few of my friends for a nice beach vacation. Since the semester ended in early April, we decided to go the first week of May. I had already told Twitter to expect a streaming break, but I did intend on posting some Vlogs along the way. I wasn't magnificently rich, but I had to say it was nice to have the money to take trips like these.

I wanted to do a giveaway or something to thank everyone for the last two years of content creating. I was one of the rare ones, see, because I managed to blow up with only having a short experience as a creator. Other people like Dream and Tommy had been on YouTube or Twitch for years before they even started getting popular.

When we got to the AirBnB, I threw my bags into my bedroom and stepped onto the balcony. I snapped a picture and decided to tweet it out.

BEE (@LIBBEE)
Thank you all for the last two years! When I first started streaming at the beginning of my freshman year of college, I didn't think it would get anywhere. Now there's a whopping 1 MILLION of you following my Twitch. I never could've dreamed of this much love and support, thank you.

I hit send and walked back into the house where my friends were getting changed into their swim suits. Texas summers were sweltering, and we were ready to cool off in the ocean. I smiled and followed them down to the beach.