DISCLAIMER: this is not a jake x johnnie story lol it's them with 2 diff ocs
Isn't it strange how two strangers you meet in Walmart could end up being your future roommates? Thats exactly what happened to Mandi and Maria, but Jake and Johnnie would...
Maria was happy when she got amazing reception on her song. Jake, Johnnie and Mandi had all shared it on their stories, meaning followers and listeners had flooded to Maria. She woke up the next day with 20,000 new instagram followers, 15,000 new YouTube subscribers and 50,000 streams on 'My World'. People flooded her comments and DMs begging for a music video, but she didn't even know where to start with that.
She got up and got dressed, walking into the living room to see Jake, Johnnie and Mandi sat on the couch, talking.
"Nice of you to tell me we had company coming," Maria said as she headed over to the fridge and grabbed one of the many cans of redbull.
"We figured we'd let you sleep in," Johnnie said, "Did you check your socials?"
Maria smiled. "I did. I know I don't look it, but I'm, like, majorly happy. Everyone wants a music video, but I don't know. I don't even know where I'd start with something like that."
"Just make it simple," Jake said, "Performance based is pretty easy to do if you get a cool background and band."
"Why would I get a band? I played all the instruments myself."
Jake's jaw dropped. "All of them?"
"Mhm."
"Maria, that's, like, crazy talent."
"Thanks. Music was really the only thing I could really focus on before I got medicated for my ADHD, so I'm basically a one-man band."
"I have an idea!" Mandi said.
"Go on."
"Okay, so you know in Liv and Maddie where Dove Cameron played Liv and Maddie and they, like, cloned her in the editing?"
"I mean, we didn't need an example, I know what you're trying to say. That's not a bad idea, actually."
"I know, I'm smart like that."
"But where do we even start with that?"
"I can talk to my editor."
"You don't edit your own videos?" Johnnie asked.
"Um, I'm too busy being awesome to edit my videos. Anyway, my editors called Lexi, she's really talented, I'm sure she'd love to do it. All you'd need to do is record you playing all the instruments."
"Yeah, great. But is that it? Just me playing instruments?"
"I mean, you could add some sort of story. The song's a story, right? About your boyfriend?" Jake asked.
"Ew!" Mandi practically yelled, "He is not her boyfriend."
"I mean, he was when I wrote it. Maybe Jake's right. Some sort of storyline, like what me and Adam had."
"Right, then he'll get super mad."
"He doesn't care, Mandi, he's not some psycho."
"Sounds like it from the song," Jake said.
"Well yeah, but that relationship was toxic on both sides. It's been seven years since we broke up, I really don't think he's gonna care. All we need is an actor."
"I can talk to my friends," Jake said.
"Great! Just as long as they look older than me."
"You're five foot tall," Johnnie said, "Everyone looks older than you."
"Shut up."
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Just a week later, the performance part of the music video had been filmed, and Lexi was in the process of editing it. It was time to film the story part, with Jake and Johnnie's friend Adrian. Maria was kind of nervous, she'd never thought of herself as an actor, but she had to be today. She had to argue with, fight with and make out with this guy who she'd met once. Kind of nerve wracking.
Luckily, she got along really well with Adrian, and the two hung out a little before it was time to film. When they got to the place they were meant to be filming, Jake, Johnnie and Mandi were there. Mandi was gonna be the one recording, and Jake and Johnnie had decided to tag along because Jake liked to claim it was his idea, which wasn't entirely wrong, and Johnnie just went wherever Jake did.
The video was filmed quickly. They only needed about fifty seconds of footage, anyway, and Maria wasn't as bad an actor as she thought. They finally had to shoot their final piece, which was a make out session. At this point, Maria felt she knew Adrian well enough, she wasn't nervous. Before Mandi could start filming, Jake spoke.
"I'm just gonna head to the 711 whilst you guys finish off. Anyway want anything?"
Everyone shook their heads, and Jake went out alone. He didn't know why, but the room they were filming in suddenly felt really claustrophobic. He wasn't even hungry, or thirsty, he didn't want anything from the store, he just wanted to get out.
He'd had a crush on Maria in middle school and high school. He was really upset when she'd ran away, especially for a boy, an older boy who, by the sounds of it, was way cooler than him.
But when he met her, the feelings didn't come rushing back like some sort of romance movie. Of course they didn't. He was twelve when he started liking her, fifteen when he stopped. It had been ten years, why on earth would his feelings come flooding back?
In Maria, he saw a friend. She'd changed a lot, he knew she wasn't the same girl, and he was okay with that, because they were just friends. He wasn't relieved when she told him her and her boyfriend had broken up, because he didn't like her. He wasn't disappointed when she hadn't initially came out with him, Johnnie and Mandi, because he didn't like her.
But then, that same day, when she came over to his house, they spoke about pretty much everything. Music, YouTube, the TV shows they watched. He decided not to bring up Kansas, figuring her boyfriend probably wasn't the only reason she ran away.
Thats when they came back. In all honesty, him and Maria barely knew each other in school. He had a crush on her because she was the pretty, funny girl, the only one who he thought was similar to him, but he didn't know anything else about her, now he did.
Then he listened to her song. It was about her ex, and the lyrics 'I love him' made him a little sad, but he saw past that when he realised just how talented she was. The fact she even played all of the instruments made her better.
There was something inside of him begging him to volunteer himself to play in Maria's music video, but he figured that'd be way too forward, and the only good part of it would be making out with her, anyway. All of the other shots he'd have to argue with and fight her. He didn't want that. He also didn't wanna see her with anyone else, so he left.
He felt stupid. He'd let one conversation with Maria make him crush on her. That's all it was, a crush, but he knew how these things started, because she wasn't just a crush, she was his friend. They hung out, they saw each other a lot, and he knew his feelings would only grow.
Maybe middle school crushes aren't as silly as they seem.
