𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 | 𝐣. 𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐬

𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

"Charlotte, where are you?" Emilie's voice echoes from downstairs as she walks in through the front door. "Up here" I scream from my desk as I work on editing my new video for tonight. I hear Emilie running up the stairs and flying straight into my room. Once I catch a glimpse of her she looks like she ran a marathon before she came home.

"Why do you look like you ran here?" She places her hands on her knees and hunches over trying to catch her breath while sticking out her pointer finger. "Give me a minute Char." I try to hold in a laugh while staring at her. Emilie has never really been one for voluntary physical exercise, which only means that she has something important to tell me.

I've known Em since we were both in elementary school. We were in the same class every year up until 7th grade, but we've stuck together like glue ever since. At this point Em is not only my best friend, but also like my sister we'd do almost anything and everything for each other. We've both always been big readers, but now more than ever since it's our jobs. She's been a booktuber for way longer than I have and after a really bad breakup a few years ago, she encouraged me to get back into reading and to make content that revolved around reading and reviewing books. I never thought that after the break up I'd find something that truly made me the happiest I've ever been, but my job and the people that watch my videos have done just that.

After two minutes she starts to stand up straight and walks to sit on the chair in the corner near my bookshelves. "Well, first off it's because I did run here and you won't believe the email I just got, which I'm pretty sure you got too. You probably would've seen it if you weren't so busy editing right now." Emilie takes her phone out of her pocket and frantically searches for said email. Once she finds it she passes me her phone. I skimmed through the email to get the gist of why she ran to show me this rather than text me.

"Char, do you not see how much of a big deal this is? We've never gotten an invite from a publishing company for something. This is huge, we have to go." Em looks like she's just about ready to pass out from the excitement. "I know that, but what exactly did they invite us to?" Listen I'm all for invites, but there are only so many social interactions I can handle before I mentally shut down in front of other people. I talk to a camera for a living and only have one best friend, which is Em, but that's as far as I go when it comes to interacting with other people unless I run into a subscriber.

"Okay, so the publisher has an author coming out with a new hockey romance series and they want a group of booktubers to go to at least one hockey game to build up some hype for the release of the first book. We were both invited to a Devils game up in Newark two weeks from now. All we'd have to do is post some stuff leading up to the game and then take pictures with the ARC they sent us while we're at the game." Em's explanation of what we have to do seems simple enough, but the fact that it's for a sport I've never watched a day in my life is throwing me off. "So what do you think?" I stare at Em and let my brain work through a few pros and cons before making my choice. Technically, like Em said, this would be a really big deal for both of us. This is the first time we've been recognized by a publishing company and they want us to promote the first book in a new series, which means they may want us to promote the other books that follow shortly.

"Oh, what the hell? Let's do it Em." My best friend's face lights up at my response and she grabs both my arms jumping up and down. "Oh my gosh! Are you sure because I know you're not a huge fan of sports and not a huge fan of talking and being around a lot of other people?" She gives me a look that begs me to be honest about whether or not I feel okay with doing this. "Em, this whole opportunity is a big deal and if I get to do it with you I don't see why any of that should matter." I give her a big smile assuring her that I'm all in. "Thank you thank you thank you!" She takes me into the biggest hug that feels suffocating but in a comforting way.

One thing Em will always get about me is that she knows how I've been since the breakup. She will always try to make sure that I'm comfortable with doing something I usually wouldn't do. I truly appreciate her more than she will ever know. The breakup shot down my confidence and made me scared to talk to people because I just felt like no one wanted to hear what I had to say. Em has been someone who has helped me slowly gain back that confidence I lost. Hopefully going to this game and stepping a little out of my comfort zone will be what I need to get some of my old self back. There's no turning back now.

~
𝕒𝕦𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕣𝕤 𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕖
Hey hey everyone. So here's the prologue and obviously there's not too much going on just yet. More will happen within the next few chapters. The first chapter should be up within the next few days, so until then I hope you liked it!

have a great day/night MWAH 🤍