Smosh One Shots and Short Stories

Eventful event III (Ianthony friendship)

"I can't do it. They'll hate me", Ian mumbled walking up and down his hotel room minutes before the company-wide online meeting they scheduled. Anthony stopped him in his tracks and just pulled him in for a hug. "It's gonna be okay", he whispered and made him sit down in front of his laptop. For now, Anthony was just sitting right next to him, not visible to the others on the conference call. In the time it took until everyone was online, Ian sat there sweating, shaking, and overthinking everything he ever did.

But at some point, there was no way around it anymore. He had to admit it. After some kind of introduction, he managed to get it out: "We're pretty much out of money." A silence followed accompanied by shocked and confused looks on people's webcams. "And I know it for a while and I'm so sorry, that I didn't have the guts to tell you guys earlier. I tried to make it work but... yeah. Here we are", he explained embarrassed. "I... I mean, we all knew it didn't look too well", Shayne said carefully but still in disbelief. "And we knew something was going on", Courtney added which made Ian look a little confused. "You basically didn't talk to any of us for weeks outside of work", Damien said. Ian sighed. "I'm sorry", he apologized again.

"Okay, but what's the plan now?", Shayne wanted to know. Ian looked up surprised one more time. They all were shocked but no one seemed too mad. "I... honestly, I don't have one yet", he admitted. "But we're here to come up with one", Anthony finally couldn't hold himself back anymore from sliding into Ian's camera. "What?!", Shayne exclaimed in disbelief. "You two didn't even talk yesterday!", Angela almost screamed. "But we did tonight. And we came up with one thing: We need help. Of course, we can't expect any of you guys to help out the company you work for. Especially because we don't know if it's going to work. But I think we should try at least", Anthony explained and made Ian feel so much more relieved simply by talking for him.

"We?", Courtney asked after thinking about Anthony's words for a second. "Oh, yeah. I'm in", he said with a slight laugh. He almost forgot about that. "Okay, I don't know how, but I'm in too", Shayne was the first one to commit. "Let's think of some plans first", Anthony again laughed a bit while Ian just sat there. He couldn't believe that no one was just leaving or at least screaming at him. "When you last told us we had to cut budgets, I thought about our office. I mean... it's probably a bad idea, but we could switch to home office for a while or find something smaller and save the rent we pay and stuff like that", the first idea popped up. Ian gulped. He definitely should have thought his actions through earlier.

They continued to throw ideas at each other and at some point Ian was able to talk again. Anthony was still running most of the meeting but it was okay for both of them. Hours later they closed the laptop. For now, they had a long list of ideas, and Anthony and Ian promised to think every single one of them through. There was hope again. Ian still couldn't quite believe it and Anthony was even more positive that they could manage all of it. "Okay, I think the first thing we need to go through is the office thing. It's not easy to work without the sets but you did that before and it would save the most money", Anthony said.

Ian sighed again helplessly. He had to tell him eventually. "Hey, you good?", Anthony asked when he saw his friend's face. "Yeah... I guess there's something more I have to tell you", he answered. Anthony immediately knew this was serious again, so he sat down on the hotel bed inviting him to sit next to him. He did and still didn't really know where to start. "I... the office is kind of my... my home right now", he admitted after a few moments of awkward silence. Of course, he earned a confused look from Anthony but it quickly turned it into shock which didn't really make it better.

"You mean... you sold your house or what?", Anthony asked still in disbelief. "I told you, I tried everything", Ian mumbled. He stopped counting the times he felt embarrassed since they started talking last night. "You know what? Yes, you did", Anthony agreed and put his arm around his friend's shoulders again. "But... I mean you're right. The office is the most expensive thing of all", Ian tried to get away from the fact, that he basically was homeless right now. "We won't cancel contracts until you find a place to stay", Anthony assured him. "I mean, if you're okay with it, I have a spare room, but I won't make you take it", he added. Ian looked at his friend a little surprised. "I'll think about it", he said sort of relieved.

"Maybe we should get some sleep and get home tomorrow and then we can go over the list. We may not have a lot of time to work things out, but not sleeping won't help", Anthony suggested and already got up from the bed. "Yeah, I guess so", Ian agreed just now realizing how tired he was. So the guys parted ways shortly after but only to get a few hours of sleep. And when they headed off to get back home, the atmosphere between them felt like it was everything possible again. Ian wasn't expecting that to happen on his three-day trip to this event and Shayne and Angela seemed just as surprised by everything. Anthony also didn't ever think this would happen, but he was so certain about helping his childhood friend save the company they built up together in the first place. All of them felt like they were part of a team going into battle. And it did feel like a winnable fight.

So, as I said, this feels like a pretty dramatic story in a weird way to me. I hope you still like it!
If you have any ideas or wishes for new stories, please let me know in the comments!
Happy Holidays everyone!