𝐧𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐞 , 𝐛𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐞

uno

We Meet Again—

There was a pretty side to life, and then the ugly. I saw a lot of ugly in the world, in myself, and I knew I always wanted to embrace it. I had to accept both parts of myself because in life, how could you not? How could you not accept what you have in life? You can't change the unchanging.

I'd been dragged through the mud for the first thirteen years of my life. There'd been a lot of ugly, a lot of pain I'd dealt with. There was little pretty for a long time.

I was officially diagnosed with alcoholism when I was fifteen, two years after my drinking began. My life felt like a deep hole, I kept falling farther and farther toward the bottom. I continued to plummet until I'd been out into rehab. A shed of light blinded me.

I met Baylen when I was sixteen. He was one of the first friends I had made at my new school. His humor was top tier and he was unfathomably kind. It was something small, a smile. It was only a smile that had lured me in.

I started my channel in fall of 2018, and coincidentally, Baylen got expelled somewhat around that time for handing out a business card, which basically kicked off his YouTube career.

I decided to stay in school because that's what my calling was. My saving grace blew up on YouTube leaving me behind to finish my high school education. Sometimes when more and more time passed, I wondered if the fame would get to his head.

As he did pranks and fun vlogs with his friends, I filmed my experience in highschool, dealing with sobriety and me being a fuckhead with my bestfriend, Mia. Other than that, I was just myself. I had blown up, but not to the extent Baylen had.

My subscribers were around 700k while Baylen had around 4 million subscribers.

On my twenty second birthday, I received a text.

baylen!
Happy birthday Liza, it's been a year daddy...

I laughed at that text. The text that started it all.

𓏲*ੈ ೀ

I didn't believe it at first when Baylen reached out to me. It had been so long, so I was dreading the possibility of awkwardness. I was dreading the fact it won't be the same, how could it? So much time has passed and... well "it's been a year daddy..." wasn't exactly an understatement. It had been a year.

I packed with unease bouncing off of me. My roommate, my bestfriend noticed this and threw a pair of balled up socks at my head.

"So, you're really going to see him?" Mia asked and plopped down onto my unmade bed, her brunette hair fanned out against my mint green sheets.

"Yes, Mia. I told you, it'd be rude if I said no. And I mean, what's the worst that could happen? We can hardly recognize one another?" I theorized, and hoped she wouldn't agree that was possible. Were the light blonde highlights too much?

"God, Eliza, I've never seen you such a wreck. You'll be fine. The worth that'll happen is that you'll fuck," Mia joked, thrusting her hips in the air multiple times to get her point across.

"Oh, God, no," I mumbled with a smile on my face.

"Holy shit, don't tell me you've got a thing for the YouTube king," Mia gasped, sitting up and putting a half to her thrusting of hips.

My eyes went wide and I shook my head.

"You realize he's like my bestfriend, right?" I quizzed and Mia shrugged with satisfaction.

"Who you think is sexy," Mia added and sucked my teeth, frustrated with all of the annoying but true things she was saying.

"Maybe not sexy," I mumbled, zipping up my suitcase.

"Well you told me about that one dream where he was—" Mia began, but I cut her off with a Squishmallow that had been at the foot of my bed.

"We don't speak of it," I replied, tugging my luggage off of the bed.

𓏲*ੈ ೀ

The plane ride was pretty short and sweet from Florida to Georgia. That's where he wanted to meet instead of the rowdy Florida house. I wonder if he would've thought it'd scare me off. However, I miss the chaos, just because I finished college doesn't mean I can't enjoy things like fun.

Going through baggage claim was annoying since my bags took forever, but I ended up finding my things.

I knew Baylen was picking me up, so I expected the best prank to a normal meeting. I've been in vlogs before and our friendship had been pretty public, but neither of use went out of our was to address it.

Excitement fueled me as I went down the escalator. I saw Baylen, no camera, just him. It had been a rare sighting, but I was still elated to see him standing there and by the look on his face he'd been excited too.

"Liza?" His words came out as a question as I came off the escalator with my suitcase handle in hand.

"Baylen!" I bubbled, I didn't stop him from throwing his arms around me and giving me a bear hug. It seemed more emotional than I thought. But, I guess there are a lot of emotions there to feel.

"I missed you, kid. Still the same height, you smell a little better than last time, and you definitely look smarter. Is it just me or you made it out of the swamp?" Baylen quizzed. Of course, I'm friends with Baylen Levine, not even five minutes into seeing him Shrek is mentioned or referenced in some way, shape or form.

"I guess so. I'm still the same Eliza," I smiled and he smiled back. He looked down to my bag and grabbed it for me making my smile grow.

"Milady," he said in a fancy voice. "Let's get us the fuck out of here and out to dinner to discuss."

"Discuss? Discuss what? The Shrek franchise?" I quizzed jokingly.

"Yeah, what else would we discuss? Maybe you graduating college? Nah, shit's boring. Definitely not discussing that BS," Baylen was definitely joking, but I jabbed him in the ribs.

"Oh totally not. Fuck that shit," I played along, walking through the parking lot with him.

"Yeah, it's like totally not discuss worthy, we're not talking about that shit over a basket of wings and fries," Baylen quipped.

I rolled my eyes.

"Only if they're spicy, otherwise you're out of a date," I nagged and he sighed loudly.

"God dammit, and I thought you were the Fiona to my Shrek," Baylen continued on. His words were humorous, but to me, they felt real.

"Really, then is Noah our Donkey?" I asked and Baylen laughed. Maybe he was the same Baylen after all.

author speaks : hey! how are we liking this first chapter? i'd love to know! please comment and vote. :)))