Disconnect (Damien Haas x OC)

five

"Isn't that the restaurant we went to? Dude, what is this shit? Are you kidding me right now?" Shayne screamed when Damien sat down on his desk the next morning. Damien tried his best to quieten the now hysterical man by his side, to no avail. "You actually did that, you did that!"

"You are not helping my stress levels right now..." Damien rolled his eyes. He didn't know why he was stressed, he didn't know why he was so anxious about it all. He was currently embracing his extrovert persona and enjoyed trying something new, but every part of his brain was screaming that this would be a bad idea. "Where do I even take her? Do I go empty handed? Would it seem to much like a date if I took her something? Shayne, I'm spiralling!!" Panic flooded his brown eyes. Shayne knew this look and he stopped laughing immediately. He held Damien's shoulder tightly and pulled his face to line with his.

"It is going to be fine. Imagine you're going for a meal with me or Court. Just a normal Thursday evening," Shayne smiled, trying to enforce the comfort he was trying to give. "Go for food, sit and talk. Maybe go for a walk through the park and take her home. Don't overthink, just go with the flow. I can be an emergency call if you need me." Damien just nodded in reply, panic still flashed across his features.

It was call time for their final shoot of the day, with an expected finish time of 5pm. It made it a tight squeeze for meeting Robyn but he brought a change of clothes and some essentials with him. Damien's nerves would settle whenever a camera was rolling, but his mind still spiralling in every direction but good.

"Hey guys, welcome back to another try not to win, Mario Party edition!" Angela bellowed as the crew announced the start of recording.

Everything started to go well, the group all fighting over how to lose the mini games in order to win the video. The atmosphere louder than Damien's thoughts. He did worry that this shoot would drain most of his energy but an emergency Red Bull would always pull through.

The room felt electric as the laughter echoed throughout the group and the crew behind the cameras. It felt wholesome and perfect. Nothing in the moment felt unnatural or forced. He loved the people he worked with, he loved his job. Nothing compared to this moment, that was until he heard Alex's voice break the enjoyment.

"Umm guys, the game play isn't recording..." he mumbled but his voice was enough to pull the plug in the excitement. "I'm sorry guys, we're going to need to go from the top."

"Wait really, can't we record it tomorrow or something?" Damien glanced his eyes to Shayne, praying that he would back his thoughts.

"Sorry man, tonight is the only night. We have no other time in the schedule. Are you okay to stay? If not, we will have to find something else to shoot..." Alex began to look flustered, trying to think of ways to arrange the rest of the shoot week.

"Umm, I mean..." Damien looked at the clock behind Alex. 4:30pm. There was no way he'd get to the restaurant before 6:30pm, and he already arranged with Robyn he would be there for 6. Alex's eyes began to burn through Damien's skin, he felt the rest of the crew wait on bated breath. Their eyes fixated on his skin. The pressure in his stomach began to build more. Upset his colleagues or upset a girl he doesn't know, that was the choice in his mind. Time seemed to stand still as he compressed all these thoughts into one single gulp. "Let's get going, we don't want to be here all night!"

"You sure about that?" Shayne whispered as the crew began to rushed around the group making sure everything was recording properly this time.

"I'm sure she'll understand, I'll message as soon as we're finished. Can't let the company down..." Damien shrugged. His heart felt heavy but it had to be done for the company, for his job.

"Rolling, rolling!" Greg's voice echoing around the set pulled the group into focus.

"Hey guys, welcome to another try not to win, Mario party edition. This is the second time we've done this because someone, not naming names, definitely not Spencer, didn't record the gameplay. So let's get into this!!" Damien smirked into the camera as he started the game.

"I did nothing!" Spencer could be heard in the background, preaching his innocence.

"Exactly Spence, let the grown ups play their very serious game..." Shayne chuckled, causing the room to fall back into the same energy as previously.

The clock struck 6:30 and the recording was still ongoing. Damien was unable to message Robyn to let her know about running late and he felt every ounce of anxiety weigh down on him more as every second passed. He often threw looks of desperation to Shayne, hoping they could be played off as joking looks to the fans but Shayne knew what they meant.

"And of course, Damien is the winner of losing!" Angela grumbled, her high energy levels still present in her tone.

"Oh I'm sorry Angela, maybe next time you should just try a little harder?" Damien smirked back at her before a pillow came flying towards him, curtesy of Angela. "Don't we just love a sore winner guys. Anyways, remember to drop a like on this video if you enjoyed it and smash that subscribe button to keep updated with all our amazing content."

"And that's a wrap!!!" Alex called from his seat in the background. "I'm sorry we overran guys, have a great night. I'll see most of you tomorrow!"

The group disbanded, leaving Damien and Shayne standing around. Damien's eyes fixated on the clock, 6:50. There was no way that Robyn would have waited this long, he was a complete fool for not thinking to message her before restarting the shoot but he just wanted to get started straight away.

"She'll understand bro, don't worry about it," Shayne tried to comfort. "Let's go, you need to get changed."

"She won't be there. We said 6, it's been 50 minutes. No message. I'm just going to go home, spend time with Freyja and Zelda..." Damien shrugged as he made his way to his locker. He pulled out his phone and stared blankly at the screen.

Four New Messages

We're still on for 6 tonight,
right? If you're busy, let me know.

Hey, just so you know I'm in
the far corner, white top with
checkered pants. I'll see you soon.

Is everything okay? I know it's
only been 30 minutes but... yeah.
Just let me know you're all good.

This was stupid, I don't know
why I bothered. You could have
at least had the decency to
message me Damien...