Run Away

Group

Chapter 1

"Wes, if you don't stop breathing over my shoulder, I'm going to kick your ass," Mari Takahashi exclaimed, annoyed at her friend's constant hovering. "It'll get done, I promise!"

"It's just that it needs to be done by tonight so that I can post it by midnight because otherwise we're going to fall behind and I've never been behind in my life," Wes Johnson babbled, obviously anxious. As usual. He was a tall, muscular guy with chin-length auburn hair that he spent way too much time rearranging. He usually wore a t-shirt and jeans, but everyone could always tell when his girlfriend, Remina West, was in town, because he dressed up. Everyone who knew Wes knew that he was severely obsessive-compulsive and this was just one of the many ways it shone through his personality. It was also why they loved him, though. He pretty much single-handedly ran the editing division of the Smosh Youtube channel.

Smosh, the brainchild of Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, was a large comedy channel on Youtube. The original channel usually filmed scripted skits and videos, while the Smosh Games section of the channel did live gaming and in-person punishments.

"I have ten minutes of footage left to go through. It'll be on your desk in an hour, okay?" She shook her head. "I want to get this done as much as you do. Peter's taking me out later."

"Just please, please-"

"IT'LL BE DONE," she groaned. "Now go away."

Wes mussed her hair, like he always did, and left the room, grabbing a small stack of disks on the edge of his desk as he left.

Mari sighed. At least now he would go bother someone else.

She really needed to get out of here ASAP. She only had an hour before she was supposed to go with Peter to the country club that he frequented, and she really needed to get ready. She sighed, then shifted her gaze to her best friend, Matt Sohinki, who was editing at the desk right next to hers.

He looked really deep in thought, his tongue out just slightly and his bright green eyes flickering across the screen. He had his favorite Yankees cap on, slightly askew on his short and disheveled brown hair, and his jeans had a small hole in the left knee, a detail Mari found oddly amusing. He was never the most put-together guy. Which, in essence, was part of what made him the perfect best friend.

She snuck up behind him and, quick as lightning, snatched the hat off his head and put it on, turning it backwards and kneeling down next to him. "Sohin..." she grinned.

"God. What do you want now?" he sighed, trying his hardest not to smile at her antics.

"You know what would make you the bestest best friend in the whole wide world?" she wheedled.

"I'm not finishing your footage," he broke out in a grin. "I've already got three more hours to get through here."

"Please?" she begged. "I really have to go and I would totally love you forever."

He raised his eyebrows at her.

"And... and I'll bring you Taco Bell tomorrow," she groaned. "With hot sauce."

"Thank you," he smirked, taking the disk from her hand and grabbing his hat back. "Now get the hell out of here and stop bugging me."

"You are a fabulous man," she giggled, hugging him quickly before skipping out of the office.

Sohinki shook his head, smiling to himself. He and Mari had one of the strangest friendships he had ever seen. She hadn't really paid much attention to him when the ClevverGames (his original channel) men had joined the Smosh Crew, but he had found out later from Anthony and Ian that she was just painfully shy and not really used to meeting new people. Armed with that information, he had gotten her the first two seasons of Doctor Who and left her a note telling her that if she ever wanted someone to watch with, it was his favorite show. The two had spent the entire next day watching both DVDs and getting to know each other. Now they were completely inseparable.

And sure, there were the people (Joven, mainly) who teased him about maybe having feelings for her, but he knew he didn't. She was the nuttiest, geekiest, most awesome girl he had ever met, but he'd never really thought of her in that way.

Besides, he really did love Pete. He was an awesome guy, and he obviously was head-over-heels for Mari. They had been dating for almost three years now, and Sohinki had gotten to know Pete really well in that time, too. It hadn't been one of those situations where the girl meets a boy and drops her best friend. Now, whenever Sohinki asked Mari to hang out, she just brought Pete and they all had a blast together. Mind you, he wasn't nearly as much into Doctor Who as the two of them were, but Mari loved him nonetheless. And Sohinki had definitely been worried about how all the rumors going around of him and Mari would affect Pete, but he just laughed it off and made jokes about all three of them being a couple. Which made him even more awesome to Sohinki.

"Sohinki!" A man with wild red hair came jumping into the office, his shirt off and a foam sword in one hand. Sohinki just stared. "We're filming. Come film with us!"

"Why are you half naked?" Sohinki asked.

"I was explaining the Lasercorn tat to the world," he grinned, turning around and flashing the tattoo on his back that had given him his famous nickname. He had originally been known as David Moss, but once he had shown everyone the unicorn with a laser that was permanently etched into his skin, Anthony had quickly come up with the nickname and it stuck. "Come film fun things with me and Jovie!"

Joshua Ovenshire, Lasercorn's best friend, came barreling into the office and tackled him in a giant bear hug. Sohinki jumped back, chuckling at the two of them wrestling on the floor. Joshua, like Lasercorn, had also been christened with a nickname by Anthony the day he came to work in the office. Now he was just Jovenshire, or Joven for short. Only Lasercorn was allowed to call him Jovie. He was a fairly big guy, just slightly overweight with a large frame, although he had definitely been working out more recently since he had gotten engaged to his long-time girlfriend, Kate. He had dark brown hair that was usually styled into a short little mohawk, and he consistently wore the same blue-and-white striped t-shirt to work.

Lasercorn and Joven had both worked with him at the Mahalo studio, which had turned into ClevverGames, until the three of them had been offered editing positions at Smosh Studios. Somehow, that had turned into them basically running the Smosh Games channel, filming videos up to three times a day. Easily put, the friends played video games for a living. And got paid quite a bit for it.

"You...put...a...shirt...on!" Joven yelled, punctuating each word with a blow to Lasercorn's head by the matching foam sword he wielded.

"NEVER!" Lasercorn shouted, managing to throw Joven off and careening back down the hallway, hands in the air and his shirt tucked into the back of his belt, flying behind him like a superhero's cape. Joven was right behind him, banging his sword into the walls as he ran down the hall.

"I can't believe these are my friends," Sohinki muttered to himself, but he was unable to help the good-natured smile that spread across his face as he returned to editing.