Waking up the next morning was not a graceful thing. An alarm rung out almost violently showing no signs of stopping and STAR suddenly wanted to smash his phone against his bedroom wall. But he was better than that so he settled for sticking his arm out from under his blankets and blindly poking around for the snooze button.
The peace was short lived as the realization that a stream needed to be planned and prepped all before tonight hit. A small voice in his head told him that he could ignore all his responsibilities and just lay in bed all day. He chose to get up and make coffee instead.
The kitchen was warm, he did live in Florida after all. STAR was basically on autopilot, shuffling through the motions of making his coffee instead of happily crafting it like usual. The process didn't take long, he took his coffee black so all he had to do was brew it and throw some ice in the cup. It was on his trek back to his room while clutching his cup between his two hands the exhaustion started to lift. Feeling like a weighted blanket was being removed from his shoulders. A rare motivation nestling in its place instead.
Gleefully he dropped into his chair and turned on his laptop, taking small sips from his cup. After it loaded up he immediately went to discord to give his daily morning greeting. A little colourful dot popped up over his personal messages, indicating someone had messaged him. His mouse clicked on it, revealing chump had been messaging after he said goodnight.
So this wasn't ideal. STAR grasped onto his chain, fiddling while bracing to fully open the messages. In a perfect world Chump would just say goodnight and leave it at that. STAR however, did not live in a perfect world.
Chump: You don't expect me to buy that lame excuse do you?
Chump: You never sleep, it scares me how often you're awake. So what's really going on?
Chump: STAR?
Chump: Okay, we'll talk about it tomorrow. Goodnight.
STAR nearly ripped the poor chain in half. Stupid chump and his stupid curiosity. He allowed the abused chain to fall limply around his neck, favouring to use his hands to type instead.
STAR: I've just been a little burnt out recently, feeling a little discouraged is all.
He wondered when he got so good at lying. At least he had time to prepare for Chumps response. The anxiety inside him settling slightly. Allowing himself to sip from his coffee once more he sent out his good morning to the server and clicked back over to his personal tab. The text at the bottom of his screen displaying *chump is typing* had other plans for his emotions apparently, forcing the fear to wash over him like a tsunami. The declaration across his screen telling him Chump was trying to call only escalated that fear, making him feel physically ill.
Desperately trying to get his breathing under control he pulled himself back from hyperventilating and joined the call.
"Hey! I have big news!" Chump was way too happy in contrast to STARs inner turmoil. Voice flowing clearly through the computers speakers the second the call connected.
"Oh cool! what is it?" STAR sounded surprisingly normal for someone who wanted to throw up their coffee. Chump laughed on his end before speaking in a tone reserved for times of pure excitement.
"I'm coming to Florida! I can even help you out of your streaming funk while I'm there!" Forget throwing up, STAR was going to die. He was going to curl up in the corner of his room and die.
"Oh! Chump you really don't have to do that! I'll be okay I promise everyone has times where they aren't as motivated!" He was rambling at this point but he couldn't really care. STAR could barely get through a call with Chump while knowing they were hours away, so how in the world could he look them in the eye and still be okay.
"Don't worry STAR it's no big deal. Besides, I already bought my ticket I should be there in about a week." STAR smacked his head against the desk, a loud thump rung out across the call.
"STAR? what was that?" Chump sounded slightly concerned and it made STARs heart pick up speed slightly.
"I'm okay! just saw a bug and killed it. Um I'm excited to see you!" He wasn't exactly lying. A part of him did want to see his friend in person despite the countless feelings he had to analyze, which he planned to anyways just now sooner than later.
"I'm excited to see you too! I have to go for now so I can get set up for stream but I'll message you later. Bye!" STAR weakly responded to his friends farewell, he said goodbye and watched eagerly as the call dropped. The silence that filled his room after the call ended was almost painful. The voice telling him to skip his responsibilities of the day whispered to him again. This time he didn't dismiss it. Only opened twitter and wrote out a tweet informing his followers that he was feeling ill and couldn't make content today.
He loved his followers but his time would be better spent sorting through the jumbled mess in his brain. So that's exactly what he intended to do. It couldn't be that hard after all.
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He was wrong of course, it proved to be more than hard. Impossible almost. The markers and crumpled papers surrounding him being physical proof of his attempts. A frustrated groan spilled from his lips as he picked up the closest paper ball and threw it at the wall adjacent from him.
The only thing he had realized in the last hour is how awful he was at understanding human emotions. He glanced at his phone knowing that only ten minutes prior Chump had gone live.
He deduced it couldn't hurt, knowing there was nowhere but up from his current state of being. The twitch app opened revealing the live channels. STARs thumb slightly hovered over his friends face before clicking down gently. Chump was debating with his chat over how streaming in a closet is "actually pretty comfortable" a laugh bubbled up from STARs chest at the dumb conversation.
He typed out a tease siding with the chat that they seemed slightly uncomfortable sitting in the same spot without much room to stretch. Chump visibly brightened upon noticing his friends appearance.
"STAR you're supposed to be on my side, I thought you loved me" Chump jokingly pushed out his bottom lip, emphasizing his distress. STAR quickly formulated his response.
"You would like that wouldn't you" Chump shook his head at the comment telling his chat that "peepoleave" and shook his head before continuing on with the initial conversation.
STAR liked how easy the conversation flowed, he missed the easy conversations. Before he complicated it. Maybe he could keep it easy. All he had to do was try. It would be easier to push away everything he felt today and fall back into his old way of interacting with Chump. He smiled, feeling better than he had all day.
He fell asleep at his desk listening to Chumps laughter.
YOU ARE READING
Rings and other pretty things
FanfictionSTAR and Chump were very good friends. Although things seemed a little tense and awkward for reasons Chump just couldn't understand at times, the friendship was still one of his most prized things. So when they plan to meet up and STARS nervousness...
