Lights, Camera, Action

Shenanigans

FOURTEEN - SHENANIGANS

MARK’S POV

I finally did it. I told my fans about Alyssa and I. We talked about it and decided that there was no point in hiding it or avoiding the subject when people asked. We announced the news on our one month anniversary - January 19th. It went as expected - some people were angry and complained, others were positive. My family was a little bit of both. They were happy for me, but they were a little too eager to meet Alyssa. LA was so far away from my family that I didn’t plan on taking Alyssa to meet them until possibly the next big holiday. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to mind.

Alyssa had decided that she wanted to focus more on acting during the new year. It was her passion and what she went to school for, after all, and she was good at it. She signed up for auditions in a ton of different things: shows, movies, commercials…basically, anything that would get her experience. The more experience she got, the better chance she’d have of getting into bigger and better things.

With all the things she signed up for, she started getting swamped with auditions. She would go from recording with Aubrey to hanging out with me for a few hours to auditioning and then going back home to record again or edit. She was pretty busy for a few weeks, but it paid off in the end. 

We were in the middle of playing the Super Nintendo version of Super Mario Bros when Alyssa’s phone began vibrating and ringing loudly on my coffee table. I paused the game and she swiped to answer the call and pressed her phone against her ear. I listened to her responding to the caller and I could tell it was good news. I was relieved to see her smiling a real smile as she spoke. I had been with her a couple times when she had gotten rejection calls telling her that she hadn’t gotten a role, and I had watched her expression change and her face drop. She tried to shrug it off and be positive, but I knew the rejection bothered her. I was glad to see her get a positive call for once.

“Which role did you get?” I asked, grinning with her when she hung up the phone. Yawns and laughter are contagious, but sometimes smiles are too.

“It’s a movie, and it’s not a huge role, but it’s a role. I’m going to be playing a college student!” Alyssa explained, setting her phone back down.

“Hey, that’ll be easy for you! Congratulations, Lys.” I scooped her into a huge, bone-crushing hug and I didn’t let go until she claimed that she couldn’t breathe. “What, you don’t like me leaving you breathless?” I joked, raising my eyebrows at her.

“Not like that,” she told me, a pink color showing up on her cheeks. I loved the fact that I could still make her blush.

“Like what, then?” I questioned her, curious. “Like this?” I pushed her down onto the couch and got on top of her, pressing my lips harshly against hers. I ran my hand up her thigh and stopped there for a moment, leaving her in suspense. I bit her bottom lip before going back to kissing her and my hands found their way under her shirt. I moved them up her sides and onto her stomach, pausing just under her bra line. I stopped kissing her and she was breathing deeply, sucking in all the air she could. Apparently, I had done my job correctly.

“I hate you, Mark,” she laughed.

“Yeah, okay,” I rolled my eyes. I got off of her and picked my controller back up to resume the video game, but she grabbed the controller from me and set it down. “Hey! Don’t you want to get your ass beat in Super Mario?”

“Not at the moment, no.” I was sitting up by then, so she got onto my lap, facing me. Our lips collided and she pushed her body up against mine, grinding on me. She let her hands slip under my shirt and wander up and down my torso and I found myself doing the same to her. She stopped kissing me for a moment to reach up the back of her shirt and unhook her bra, which she took off without taking anything else off. My heartbeat sped up considerably as she danced on me more and played with my belt while our lips moved in sync, but after a moment she stopped and got off of me. “Alright, we can play now,” she grimaced.

“What the hell!” I yelled as she giggled. 

“I’m ready to beat your ass in Super Mario, let’s go!” she complained, ignoring my comment.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can play video games with a boner,” I explained.

“Well, I can’t play video games after you tease me, either!”

“Alright, fine. Neither of us can play video games right now. It looks like we’ll have to find another way to occupy our time.” 

“Huh, what a shame.” She pulled me by the collar of my shirt and we went back to kissing, leaving our game paused and unattended.

*********************************************

January was a busy month overall, and not just for Alyssa. PAX South was in January, and cons were always time-consuming, long, and tiring. Going to PAX meant that I had to do a lot of pre-recording, and my Internet at home didn’t seem to want to work, so I was doing all my recording at the Game Grumps’ studio. As much as I liked hanging out with them, their studio wasn’t exactly the best place for me to record lets plays, so that was an interesting adjustment. I got things done, though and I scheduled my videos to be uploaded every day while I was away. Aubrey and Alyssa had to do the same thing, because Alyssa came with. It was her first con, so she seemed happy to be able to tag along.

I had my second panel ever at PAX South, and it was a ton of fun. This time I had both Bob and Wade with me, which made it even better and easier to manage. Not to mention, it caused there to be more shenanigans and craziness. Overall, though, it was amazing to meet fans and answer their questions. I even got to witness a proposal in the middle of the panel, which was adorable. I was sincerely happy for the couple and touched that the guy chose my panel to propose at. I mean, how often does someone get to say that there was a proposal at their panel?

“So, how are you liking PAX?” I asked Alyssa after the first day of it.

“It’s awesome! I think it would be more exciting if I was a fan that didn’t know you already, but it’s still cool,” she decided. “How about you? Are you enjoying all the fangirls?” She seemed to be joking judging by her smile, but the way it faded quickly…was she bothered by all the girls?

“It’s a little overwhelming sometimes, but I love meeting them,” I replied. “Why, are you jealous?” I moved my eyebrows up and down in an attempt to make her chuckle.

“No. It’s just that at least seventy percent of the girls here probably have a crush on you and it’s a little awkward.”

“Yeah, well, almost all of them know that I’m taken and most of them are considerably younger than me, so you don’t have to worry about anything,” I assured her.

“Whatever you say,” she sighed. 

By the time we were on our way back to Los Angeles, Alyssa seemed to be in a happier mood than she was then, but I knew she was still a little bothered by the whole thing. I understood why she felt the way she did, but I wished she wouldn’t let it get to her so much. She’s an amazing, beautiful, talented, successful girl who has mutual feelings for me, lives near me, and is my age. As much as I love my fans, I could never choose any of them over her. Not when it comes to relationships. 

Hey guys! As usual, it took me longer to update than I would have hoped. I've been adjusting to a new roommate and a new semester, which keeps me pretty busy at times. I'll keep writing, though, slowly but surely! To mix things up, I have a few questions for you guys. First of all, have any of you met Mark, Bob, or Wade? Also, have you ever been to a con? It could be PAX, Comic Con, whatever. I haven't done either of these things, but I'm hopeful that I'll kill two birds with one stone someday and be able to meet the trio (or at least Mark) at a convention of some kind. Anyways, I hope you liked the chapter! Please vote if you did and answer my questions in the comments. Plus, tell me what you think of the update, if you'd like. Thanks for reading :)