𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨 𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐬

balloon

request from multiple people 🫶

TW - self harm, implied mcd

☼

Life is exhausting.

Nick was exhausted.

So what was a person supposed to do when they were exhausted?

Nick didn't know.

☼

While Nick loved his job, and he knew he was insanely lucky to be able to do what he does for a living, he would be lying if he said that he wasn't tired. He was grateful he didn't have to work a nine to five, or brave the difficulties of customer service, waiting tables, or even changing tires, but he couldn't help but want a break from the internet life. It was selfish, he knew, but he couldn't help it.

When he had brought up taking a break to Chris and Matt, they had just laughed, brushing off Nick's concerns like it was a joke.

"Why would we need a break?" Chris had said.

"It's just YouTube, Nick," Matt had pointed out next.

Nick just smiled and laughed along, pushing it off as just a joke, like it was nothing. Like his exhaustion was nothing that needed attention. He was making it up. He just needed a nap.

☼

As time went on, the exhaustion crept into other aspects of Nick's life. Not only being sick of YouTube, he found himself growing tired of TikTok, keeping up social media, dealing with fans, carrying a camera everywhere for his brothers, coming up with and executing challenges, and flying back and forth across the country. He loved both of his homes, but damn all the time and money and energy spent flying all the goddam time was sending his mind in spiraling circles, making him so dizzy and unable to keep up with the realities of both of his worlds.

When he had brought up settling in one city for a while, just so he could gather his bearings and tether the strings of reality back to his single balloon, to Chris and Matt, they had just laughed, brushing off Nick's concerns like it was a joke.

"They're both our homes," Chris had said.

"We don't have to settle in just one, we have the time and money to do both," Matt had pointed out next.

Time and money. I have time and money.

Nick just smiled and laughed along, pushing it off as just a joke, like it was nothing. Like his exhaustion was nothing that needed attention. He was making it up. He just needed a nap.

☼

As time went on, the exhaustion was really starting to scare Nick. He had grown tired of Chris and Matt, his own brothers, for god's sake.

All of his time and money were spent with Chris and Matt. Making videos, meals, life were all with Chris and Matt. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year round, for 20 years and the rest of his life. All Nick had ever known was Chris and Matt.

When he had brought up a single vacation to Chris and Matt, they had just laughed, brushing off Nick's concerns like it was a joke.

"But we always go places together," Chris had said.

"We're brothers, we stick together. It's what we do," Matt had pointed out next.