Smosh One Shots and Short Stories

Heartbeat Escape (Shamien)

Damien was incredibly tired when he entered the Smosh building this morning. He hasn't really slept at all and the last nights weren't better. Today there were a couple of recordings scheduled for him. Otherwise, he wouldn't even be here. For a few months now, he stayed in some kind of home office whenever possible. At first, it was his girlfriend who convinced him to stay home so they could have more time together. Now they broke up and he continued to stay home simply because he was constantly tired and not really over it yet.

Only a few minutes after Damien, Shayne entered the building in a hurry. He was late for his first meeting and more or less ran into the conference room. Damien saw his friend running past him and sighed silently. They haven't really talked in weeks. Honestly, Damien tried to avoid talking to him. He missed Shayne and he was mad at his ex that she had always found a reason for him to not meet up with friends. That was how all of it broke. At first, he didn't even notice how she pretty much manipulated him constantly to not meet anyone but her. But when he started missing Shayne and him specifically, he wanted to get to work not only for recordings. His ex freaked out about it and the more often he asked to go, the more mad she got at him.

He finally did recognize what she was doing, making him feel bad every time he left even if he had no choice. They tried to make it work for a few more weeks. At least Damien did. But in the end, she didn't let go of it and even started to control him. She wanted to know where he was at all times and even showed up at the studios twice giving the nice girl but so obviously being jealous. So, last week he ended it. She screamed at him, accusing him of betraying her. When he finally did make her leave, she didn't stop texting and calling him. He blocked her number but yesterday evening he wasn't sure if he had seen her on the street in front of the building his apartment was in.

The whole night he thought about everything that happened. Why didn't he recognize what she did to him? Shayne even tried to talk to him about her but he shut his friend down. He still hasn't told Shayne why he broke up with her now. A part of him wanted to just run to his best friend, tell him everything, apologize for not listening to him weeks ago, and cry his eyes out. Not that he didn't do the last one of these things anyway when he was alone. But another part of him was too scared. Because he did miss him. More than he should have. More than a best friend.

"Damien! Haven't seen you in forever, man!", Spencer came by greeting him half-jokingly. "Hi", he just replied and tried to not look exactly how he was feeling. "How are you?", Spencer immediately asked because Damien failed. So he sighed and looked away awkwardly to find an answer. "I'm... I will be okay", he said what he was trying to convince himself of every day. "Okay... you wanna talk or something?", his friend wanted to know, the concern in his eyes. "Nah, I'm good... thank you though", Damien said and was so relieved that Spencer really dropped it for now and left him alone after a short: "Well, then see you later. If you change your mind, find me."

The time till the first recording went by fast and Damien felt pretty useless getting almost nothing done. But eventually, it was time to enter the set and also say hello to everyone. It felt strange how almost everyone was surprised to see him and also seemed concerned the moment they looked him in the eyes for the first time today. Normally, he was better at masking his emotions but for some reason, it was just too much to hide right now. "You sure, you wanna record today?", Shayne asked him silently when he caught him alone for a second. "Y-yeah, I'm good", Damien immediately answered. He didn't see him coming. "You're not, but okay", his friend just said and left after looking at him for another moment. Damien wasn't too sure about it but Shayne seemed mad at him.

There wasn't time to think about that now. They sat down in their chairs and started recording the first video of the day. Luckily, Damien was able to play his happy self for a while. He was talking less and spacing out every now and then but his friends had him covered and even Shayne who still didn't even look at him, pulled some attention to himself whenever Damien was struggling. Apparently, they had to do that three times today and it got harder every time. In between, Damien mastered the game of not letting Shayne get him alone. He couldn't help it. Talking to him just felt different today and he couldn't stand that on top of everything else.

Hours later, it was time to leave. Damien wanted to just go home, forget about everything and finally get some sleep. But he knew that wouldn't happen today. His empty apartment would continue to remind him of every time his ex made him stay in exactly that apartment instead of meeting Shayne and the others. So he stayed at his desk a while longer not wanting to actually go home. When he did grab his stuff and left the building he immediately froze. His ex-girlfriend stood next to his car waiting for him. When she saw him, she started to walk up to him but Damien immediately turned on the spot and got back inside. He closed the door in front of her and tried to process what just happened. "Damien?! C'mon! I just want to talk!", she tried to make him open the door again. He just closed his eyes, trying to ignore her voice. It wasn't long ago that he loved her and now he was actually pretty scared.

This is the first part of three. Hope you like it a bit dramatic like this.

Requested by @crankxmark