The Downsides Of Popularity ✓

Chapter 11

BLUE.

 'Hey! Been busy all day it seems. You didn't come back to class until the bell rang today,' Meera says catching up to me. 'Yeah, it's been busy today,' I say and the exhaustion is evident in my voice.

Exhausted from crying.

To make sure I don't spill any of these in front of my best friend 'cause I don't want to deal with it right now, I bid her goodbye and give her an excuse of having to go home early. Her hand hangs in the air as I lose sight of her in the crowd.

***

'How is this possible? I left it right-', Sreyansh coughs in between his lines and I rush to bring a glass of water for him. He drinks the water and places the glass on his bedside table. Maya assigned him one of the three lead roles which made him even more anxious. So after freshening up, I came down to his house so he could practice in front of me.

I sit down next to Sreyansh on his bed and take away the script from his hands, breaking his concentration.

'Shway please!'

'You've been practising for a whole hour without a break and now you're coughing. Take a break 'cause you need to calm down,' I say and he groans, 'Not a Taylor Swift reference again.'

'She's the best and her songs are precise, always.'

Sreyansh shakes his head and falls back on his bed. He closes his eyes and I'm staring at him again. I pinch his nose and he wakes up from his meditation, startled as I laugh.

'You said to take rest and now you're pinching my nose,' he says rubbing his nose while I simply give him a mischievous smile. 'Let's go back-', I interrupt him immediately with a stoic 'NO'.

'So we keep sitting like this? Boring,' Sreyansh rolls his eyes.

'Tell me a secret,' I pitch to cut the boredom.

'Well... I haven't gotten any secrets like that. There is a major one though...', he trails off and smirks 'cause he knows he has perked up my curiosity when I say, 'Tell me! Tell me!'

Sreyansh gets up from the bed and sits down on his desktop. He ushers me to come over and I see he has opened a YouTube channel: The Anime Apocalypse.

'Yes, I know this channel! They are one of my favourites and I love the AMVs- Wait, hold up-', I notice that the page looks like the creator's view. I gasp and Sreyansh tries to hide his smile using his right hand.

'YOU are The Anime Apocalypse? ARE YOU SERIOUS?!', I almost scream and he shushes me.

'My parents also don't know about it so keep it down,', Sreyansh whispers at me and I just can't conceal the shock on my face.

'I love video editing and one day I was viewing this AMV and I thought, why not try it out myself and see how it works? The progress was slow at first but I started gathering a lot of followers after the "Sad Song" AMV I made,' he says and clicks on the said video.