“Chris?” I yelled through the flat from my position at the front door. I waited for him to respond only to be honoured by silence. I was on the verge of calling his name again before he replied with:
“What do you want?”
I sighed in frustration and rolled my eyes to the ceiling. “Your flat is so damn small! I can walk from the front door to the bathroom door in nine paces!” Chris poked his head around the doorway to the kitchen, his fringe pushed back from his face in a quiff style. He frowned at me and smiled mockingly.
“Look. One, two, three…” I started to count as I walked down the hallway, taking lunges with each number. I walked past Chris, who was watching me with a smirk stretching the lower half of his face as his eyes followed me. I stopped at the door to the bathroom and turned on my heel to look at him. “Nine.”
“I’m sorry that my home is too small for your ego, your highness,” Chris snorted as he went back into the kitchen.
I let my shoulders sag as I trailed him into the kitchen. “I do not have a big ego. I’m just pointing out that you’re being charged an awful lot for such a small flat.”
Chris laughed as he bent down to check on the pizza that was cooking on the top shelf of the oven. “Did you or did you not see the view from the large windows in the lounge? Or the fact that there are two bedrooms? You honestly don’t know much about city life, do you?”
I lifted myself up onto the counter, resting my elbow on my knee and then setting my chin down on my palm as I watched Chris move around the kitchen and open the fridge. “I have you know that I grew up here.”
“In some posh and privileged estate, no doubt.”
“Well, because I’m not slurring my words like you, it kind of proves that I’m from around here. I can tell that you’re from the North.”
“And you say that like it’s a bad thing. At least I’m not a pompous arse like yourself. You’re such a princess. Maybe I should call you that from now on? Princess?” He dumped pots of salad onto the side and opened some of the drawers and cupboards to bring out cutlery and plates.
“I’m not pompous! And Princess? Don’t call me that.”
“Your voice and comments about my flat beg to differ, Princess,” Chris sang in time with the hum of the oven’s heating fan as he opened the oven again. He used a tea towel to pull out the pizza and put it on one of the plates. “And you made me cook dinner.”
“Oh, and putting pizza in an oven and opening tubs of coleslaw is such a chore,” I replied sarcastically.
“You know I’m expecting fancy canapés and delicately arranged courses from you now, don’t you?”
“Keep dreaming.”
Chris and I split the pizza and piled the rest of our plates with salad, which included spicy noodles, tomato pasta, coleslaw, various beans in a mint sauce and tomatoes. Chris asked me if I’d like to eat at the table, to fit with my posh upbringing. I jabbed him with my elbow for his comment as we sat down at the table together.
The whole situation was undoubtedly awkward. So we simply ate in silence. After I’d eaten my salad and was then rewarding myself with the pizza, Chris spoke up.
“This is ridiculous,” he told me as he set his pizza bone down on his plate and wiped his mouth with his fingers. “I was ready to accept that I wouldn’t know my new flatmate, but how we’re just sat here is stupid.”
“We could have chatted online or something?” I suggested as I chewed my meal.
Chris shrugged off my suggestion. “I guess, but that’s in the past now. You already know who my friends are and that I have a YouTube channel, and I know that you are a spoilt brat who loves John Green.” I scowled at him as he spoke, to which Chris retaliated with a big grin. “Is there more depth to you after all, Princess? Or are you just the London brat?”
“I’m not sure if I should throttle you, verbally retaliate or just eat my pizza.”
Chris rolled his eyes at me and reached for his glass of orange juice. “You need to learn how to take a joke.”
My skin bristled as I turned my gaze to the pizza slice in my hand. “I can do that already.”
“Ah, such self-assurance!” Chris chuckled as he took a drink.
I raised an eyebrow and half-smiled at him. “Shut up.”
“Alright,” Chris sighed at me and set his glass down beside his plate. “I see that it’s up to little old me to strike up a conversation… So how do you know Carrie? Did she leave your ‘how to be a spoilt brat’ campaign to join the theatre?”
“Fuck you,” I chuckled. “Actually, we worked on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang together when we were kids. From there, we just worked on more stuff together until she got her big break here.” It was true. She and I had worked together in other musicals and plays throughout our childhood and teen years, slowly getting to know each other as I painted sets and did small features, whilst she sang beautifully for a kid. I am, actually, four years older than Carrie, and I’m currently twenty-five, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t still be friends.
“Pfft, okay. What’s the job you’re down here for? Carrie mentioned something about the theatre, but I don’t remember the rest.”
“I’m going to be working backstage at the Apollo Victoria Theatre for Wicked,” I explained, “But I’m hoping to get a part in the actual production if I can.”
Chris frowned as he ran his tongue over his teeth. “So, you’re an actress and a singer?”
“In a way, yes, but I’ve only done small plays otherwise, so this is my first shot at this, I suppose. I’m hoping to get an agent soon, too.” I shrugged at him and looked down at the two slices of pizza that were left on my plate. “Do you want the rest of my pizza?” Chris didn’t even say anything, he just reached over to my plate and began to eat.
“Any chance of a song?” Chris mumbled around his food.
I snorted and pushed myself up from my chair, the chair’s legs squealing against the kitchen floor. “Not a chance in hell.” I picked up my clear plate and set it down on the empty space beside the sink, setting my fork flat against the plate.
Chris tutted as he stuffed the last of the meal into his mouth and got up after me with his own plate. He opened up the dishwasher to reveal some dirty dishes and large empty gaps. “The dirty cutlery and plates go straight into the dishwasher, your highness. Do you think you could manage such a chore?”
I bit down on my tongue as Chris left the dishwasher open for me. As I put my plate away, Chris went over to the kettle, which was tucked away behind two bottles of concentrated fruit squash. “Dare I ask if you like tea or not? Fair warning, your answer could permanently change my opinion of you.”
I straightened up after putting the dishwasher tab in and shutting up the dishwasher. “I can only tolerate hot chocolate, maybe sugar laced coffee so that it doesn’t taste like arse,” I said as I turned the tap on in the sink to wash my hands and rid the sensation of traces of uneaten food rubbing against my fingertips.
Chris beamed at me. “Congratulations. You can stay here for at least a little longer. I’m not a big fan of hot drinks myself, either.” He hid the kettle once more and instead reached into a cupboard and brought out a few packets of Jaffa Cakes. “I don’t suppose you’ll be wanting any of these either…” he sighed theatrically, lifting his hand to put those chocolate and orange cake beauties back into hiding.
I snatched at one of the packets, jumping slightly so that I could actually reach.
“Wow, Princess, you can actually do your own work, after all!” Chris chortled as I walked from the room. I pulled a contorted face at him over my shoulder as I made my way back to my room. Idiot.
*
I balanced my laptop on my hand as I walked down the hallway to the kitchen. My legs took me straight into the lounge, where I found just the person that I’d been looking for. “Chris? What’s the Wi-Fi password?” I asked him as I slumped down at the other end of the sofa to him, sitting on his toes.
“Hey, get off!” Chris moaned as he tried to shake me off, so I dutifully leant to the side slightly, allowing him to move. He shifted his feet to hang over the back of the sofa, his socks hitting me in the face as he lifted his gangly legs. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of his feet, but instead of complaining, I pressed him for the Wi-Fi password again.
Chris stopped teasing me and began to type away on his laptop again, losing interest in me at such a seemingly dull question. I groaned aloud and pushed at his legs in an attempt to irritate him enough that he’d tell me the password. It was only a password!
“LouisLover69,” Chris muttered, startling me so that I had to brace my hands on his leg.
“Excuse me?” I scoffed, leaning towards him and looking over his laptop at him so that I could see his face. He was blushing like crazy as he tried to keep his eyes on his screen, the webpage he was on being reflected in his glasses. “Could you say that again?”
“LouisLover69. Do I need to say that again for you?” Chris snarled. “Capital L’s, no spaces.”
I flopped back onto the sofa and laughed, my hyena like cackle echoing around us. “Do you have a secret you want to share, Christopher?”
“No!” Chris stuttered, pushing his laptop screen down slightly to make eye contact with me and shoot me a death glare for laughing at him for once instead of the reversed. “I used it as a joke in a video ages ago. I only used it to make a reference to the video!”
“What sort of videos do you even make that can involve that as a Wi-Fi password?” I teased him, keeping eye contact. I didn’t want to be the first want to look away. That would be like admitting defeat in our silent contest, I suppose.
Chris rolled his eyes as he glanced away, a sigh escaping his lips as he tapped away on his laptop keys for a moment. “It’ll be easier to show you,” he said.
“Woah! Please don’t tell me that you’re going to show me porn or something?” I joked and widened my eyed at Chris. Chris laughed at me.
He continued to chuckle slightly as he brought his legs around so that he was sat on the sofa properly. He tilted his laptop towards me to show a YouTube video on a channel named ‘crabstickz’.
I was about to question the name of the channel, when some second-hand sparkly video effects filled the screen. There were pictures of unicorns, One Direction and attractive guys along with spirally writing that read ‘A Day in the Life of Becca!!1!’. I raised an eyebrow at him, as if to ask if he was seriously making me watch this. Chris shrugged at me and then looked back at the screen.
Someone wearing a purple zip up hoodie, 3D glasses with the lenses pressed out and a blonde girl’s wig came into view on screen. “Hello Internet, I’m Becca Hodgekins and this is my ‘Day in the Life of Becca’ vlog.” Her voice had a partially American sounding hint to it, but it sounded a little melodramatised and it kept fading out when she talked in her croaky voice. The camera wobbled a little. “And Saskia’s here too. Keep the camera steady, Saskia!”
Familiarity in the girls face welled up inside me, making me spluttered stupidly. “Is that you?” I gasped with laughter as I pointed at ‘Becca’, my eyes switching over to the remarkably similar looking man sat beside me on the sofa.
Chris smiled at me sadly. “She’s a character I created for my channel…” I shook my head at him and quite happily went back to watching Chris/Becca make a fool out of his/herself in front of the camera.
The video went on for ten minutes with ‘Becca’ going around town, shopping in expensive clothes shops and making comments about the clothes to Saskia behind the camera, who only nodded and shook the camera in response. It finally ended with the girls being back at Becca’s house, and Becca yelling at her dad for changing the Wi-Fi password.
“He says that he told me to write the new password down. Whatever Dad, like I have the time to do that,” Becca drawled. She picked up a notebook which had a post it note attached to it, with multiple lines drawn on it in pink highlighter, directing towards the words ‘LouisLover69’. “Oh my God! It’s right here!” She started laughing in a somewhat seal like fashion. “How could I forget this password? Ah-ha!” Becca then said goodbye, with there being a similar exit screen to the entrance of many images and glitter effects, before the video ended.
I couldn’t believe him. “So, you decided to change your Wi-Fi password as an inside joke to your own video?”
Chris shrugged and grimaced. “That about covers it…”
“And, dare I ask who was filming you throughout the day and letting themselves be seen in public with you?” I said, thoroughly enjoying making fun of him and watching him humiliate himself without me even trying.
Chris chuckled and moved his laptop back around so that only he could see the screen again. “That would be Mia.” I frowned to myself as Chris began to type away on his laptop, ignoring me once more. I turned my gaze to my own laptop and typed in the password for the Wi-Fi, smiling giddily to myself when it accepted.
“Oh, right,” Chris said, interrupting me and my silent celebration of having Wi-Fi. “Do you have anything you need to do tomorrow?”
I frowned at him. “I’m new here, Chris. I only know you and Carrie. But Carrie did say she’d come and visit me tomorrow. And on Monday I’m going to the theatre with Carrie to sort out some things.”
“Great. Maybe Carrie could take you out for the day? It’s just that it’s Mia’s twentieth birthday tomorrow and I’m going over to her house to help set up for a little party thing. It’s going to be a campout type thing in her lounge,” he explained to me. He lifted his hands and made elaborate gestures with them, exaggerating the excitement in his words. “Mia’s oldest friends are coming down from her hometown especially for it.”
An overnight party? “Um, sure?” I couldn’t help but feel a little pissed that after all of the time I’d been away from Carrie, and when I was so new here, this girl Mia was going to be fawned over. Not that I’d want attention constantly, it’s just a little…different.
Chris started typing on his computer again. “And of course you could come along if you wanted. You’d get to meet Carrie and my friends, just meet more people really. What do you think?”
I floundered to try and come up with an excuse. If anything, I wanted to practice my singing without Chris hearing me, and if he was away, then being alone in the flat would be a perfect opportunity to do just that. “I dunno. I mean, they’re your friends and surely I’d just get in the way and I-”
“Fine, don’t come. But they’re going to want to meet you at some point or another. Why not honour them with your regal presence?”
I smirked and tilted my head to the side. “Why are you so keen that I meet them, anyway?”
“The majority of us there are YouTubers. That means you can spend a whole evening talking about John Green and it’ll be completely acceptable,” Chris encouraged me. “Are there any other little internet comforts that you’d be able to share, perhaps?”
“They’ll actually know who John Green is?” I said. I felt like he was sugar coating the whole experience for me, trying to make me go with him. He probably didn’t want to leave me in his flat alone in case I ransacked the place. I wouldn’t do that. Well, maybe the rest of the Jaffa Cakes would vanish…
Chris snorted and rolled his eyes. “Darling, everybody knows who John Green is,” he purred, changing his voice so that his words slurred together with a slight squeaky edge to it.
I raised my eyebrows at his voice, making him smirk at me. “So any internet addictions here, or are you too normal to gain access into this party?” he continued.
“I have a blog, if you must know.”
“Tumblr?”
“I have Tumblr too, but it’s a writing blog.”
“Can I read it? What’s the web address?” Chris asked readily, resting his fingers on the laptop keys, ready for me to tell him.
“No and I’m not telling you.”
Chris pulled a mock offended expression, opening his mouth and placing a hand over his heart. “I am deeply wounded, Princess. But, if you have Tumblr, that’s enough of a connection for you to understand our sense of humour.”
“You keep talking like you’re all mental ward escapees, not people who talk to a camera for money!”
“Really? You think talking to a recording device when you’re alone is a sane occupation?” Chris remarked, looking over the tops of his glasses at me.
I smiled slightly, “I never said that, but I suppose they’re words to that affect, yes.” Chris grinned at me and turned back to his laptop. “So who’s going to be there?” I asked curiously, hoping to find out if Chris did have a crush on his off limits best friend or not.
I watched as Chris’ eyes lit up slightly, highlighting the slightly golden flecks in his eyes. “You actually want to know in advance?”
I rolled my eyes at him and stared him down. “This is a chance for you to show off about your friends, Chris. Most people wouldn’t pass up such an opportunity.”
Chris snorted and sat in silence for a second. “Fine. Of those attending who have channels, I’ll show you one of their videos each. Is that acceptable, your ladyship?”
“Enough with the name calling!” I whined. Chris laughed at me and despite my best attempts, I found myself smiling too.
Chris led me through a number of videos and introduced me to Charlie, PJ, Dan, Phil, Lucy and Mia. He also slipped in a video of his and a video of Carrie’s. Whilst his video was playing, he made numerous comments about how dashing and handsome this vlogger was. When we were on his channel page, I saw that his subscriber count was nearing its first million, even though the last video had been posted many months ago. Chris hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he was on a hiatus from video making.
After almost two hours of watching videos, I could name each of Chris’ friends by simply looking at a photo, to which Chris called me a stalker, even though he’d been the one to make me actually learn their names in the first place.
I got up and made for the door, saying something about the journey down here being exhausting, which was a very mild understatement. Chris murmured a goodnight to my retreating back as I left to room, so I waved round the door at him, too tired to do much else.
I trudged back along the hall, looking at the rainbow fish pictures there as I returned to my room. Admittedly, the room did look a little more ‘me’, thanks to the posters and my own dinosaur bedspread, but it still felt strange to consider this my room.
From learning the names of Chris’ friends, plus some basic things about their personalities from the video of theirs that he showed me, I could tell that Mia in particular meant a great deal to Chris. When he’d talked about her channel and her, his voice gained a different quality to it, as if each of his words had to be crafted to perfection before he even considered talking about her. He’d told me about how they’d met through a school friend of his, and then of how she’d bloomed into becoming a well-known vlogger, with almost one million subscribers at the moment.
“So, do you like her?” I’d asked him as we’d looked through the about tab on her channel page where she talked about how she was just a fangirl who voiced her thoughts.
“She’s my best mate, of course I like her!” Chris had looked at me in disbelief, with almost a sympathetic look as if I didn’t know what the term ‘best friend’ meant.
I dropped my gaze and began to twist my thumb ring around my thumb as I tried to get the words out of my system in a formulated order. “I gathered that, but do you like her as more than friends? You seem very close, even for best friends.”
“Didn’t I tell you about Kickthestickz, LuckyQuartz and Phan? Randomstickz is another one of those.”
“People ship you with her, then?” I said, as I tried to nudge him into telling me the truth.
Chris squirmed slightly and then said reluctantly, “Yeah, sure, but then people ship me with all of my friends. It’s no big deal.”
He then swiftly changed the subject to his friend Charlie, and went onto his channel, saying something about filmmaking and bands as he changed tabs. And yet I couldn’t help but pick up on the fact that, judging by the way he’d said it, this was in fact a very big deal relating to him and Mia. Plus, he was blushing and embarrassed, which was as big a giveaway as anything.
I sat down crossed legged on my bed and opened up my blog page. I found the ‘new entry’ button at the top of the page and selected it. I lifted my fingers and cracked my knuckles before I poised my fingers over the keys, ready to let the blurred scenes in my mind sort themselves out and channel through my fingers to the text on my blog.
Well, Buds, you’ll never guess what Charles is like…
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Hello peoples *waves*
I've mentioned it many times (and I'm aware emails have gone out to anyone with their email linked up to Wattpad about it), but the Watty Awards Voting period has now begun, and will be open until the 31st January. I'll put the link down in the comments because I know it won't work if I leave it in this A/N. 'Procrastinators on the Internet', the story that started off my fanfic writing, has made it through to the top 5 of my section *faints from fangirling* It's in the Popfic 'YouTube Celebrity' category and then in 'On the Rise'. I'd love it if you guys could vote for me. Any votes would mean the world to me. <3 Thank you :3
Please comment and vote :)
*salutes*
Em >^-^<