A Wrench in the Gears [Damien Haas]

8. I'm not like other horse girls.

Hey, guys! How are you guys doing?

Thank you sooo much for 200+ reads! I'm glad that this story continues to progress throughout the chapters. Feeling conflicted about the last chapter? Same, honestly.

Anyway, let's get to this chapter! Jade's point of view now. See you later!

-/-/-

Things have been better lately.

It's our third out of twelve weeks here at Smosh, and we're starting to get the hang of things. Chris just asked Jenna to marry him, and we did an entire episode on it, which had gotten both Smosh and Athens high ratings plus an explanation that media might force people to agree to things they don't want to do simply because they're on camera, so it is always proper to ask consent first. Thankfully, the Athens and Smosh teams both signed consent forms regarding this.

Jenna quite knew Chris was going to ask her, and she seemed prepared. Of course, readers, this has little to no relevance to the story, but there were some stuff that I noted during the filming.

"So you guys know our two lovely collaborators from Athens, Jenna and Chris, right?" Courtney says into the camera as Chris waves. "They're long-time partners now, and Chris will be asking Jenna to marry him."

"Don't worry, we had consent forms filled out from the beginning of this project, so Jenna is technically in," Shayne adds, raising his thumb before punching the air. "Now punch that bell! Let's get to it!"

We had to play this out carefully. Being the leader of the Athens team in Smosh, I was technically bait. "Hey, Jenna!" I greet my 32-year-old co-worker. "They're filming a Smoshcast episode in a few minutes, and Ian told me it would be great if you and Chris would do the talking this time."

"Sure," she says before sipping her coffee. We were on camera, but no one could hear our words because the door was closed. It was just going to be subtitles of what the editors assumed we were saying. "Hey, so how are you?"

"Doing nice," I tell her, even though I was supposed to go leave to help with the set-up.

"That's amazing," she says, patting my back. "You know, I've noticed that you and that Damien boy are really getting along. It's not my business, but you guys would be adorable together."

I laugh awkwardly. I didn't want to talk about Damien in the workplace, even though all of the Athens people knew that I liked him. It was weird, but I was still so unsure of how I'd look at him. He was not simply nice, because he was all sorts of incredible, and I didn't want him to feel like the only reason I liked him is because he made me feel nice. I didn't want him to think that he was a plot device, because he's the whole story. He's a book, and he's one that I'd love to read for hours on end, but I didn't know how to make it look like I liked him for who he was, because what everyone sees is that I like him because of what he did for me.

Even though I posted bail for him, I just felt like I couldn't equal what he did. I felt too inadequate for him.

"He's nice," is all I could say, smiling a bit. "Anyway, I'll see you in the studio. I just gotta... yeah. Bye!"

I immediately leave and raise my thumb at the hidden camera outside the break room. I go to the studio to find Ian and Chris seated at the table, idly waiting for Jenna. Everyone else pretended that they were doing some other work in the studio, and it seemed effected especially because since Chris and Jenna were doing the talking, we were going to do the technicals in their places.

"Hey, how'd it go?" Ian asks me as I stand near the camera, waiting for Jenna to arrive. "We might start in five, so I hope this goes well."

"It'll be great," I assure him.