Dear Jerome (Merome) (Dear Mitch)

29th June 2023

Dear Jerome,

It's another beautiful summer, another beautiful ArcadiaCon, and a lot of beautiful faces showed up.

Like yours.

You turned up without notifying anyone. No one knows how you got a pass in, seeing as we sold out. I even scanned the email list days before to check for your email, which didn't show up.

I guess Ryan got your pass for you.

I heard you were in Florida to see him. He's still your friend. He was a part of the event as well. Knowing him, he slipped you his pass.

Damn, that came across as really salty.

Maybe I am, Jerome. I wish you'd have given me a heads up, but you haven't talked to me in over a year, now.

I had been on stage, getting prepped to talk, before my eyes wandered, and I saw you. My heart skipped like three beats, and it was all I couldn't do to choke on thin air.

I immediately announced your presence, pretending I knew about your sudden appearance. You came up hesitantly.

"Everyone! Welcome Jerome onto the stage!" Huge cheers - everyone knew that voice, even if it hadn't been heard for a long while, and a bit of me hesitated as you came up. It was time to play the actor. "Jerome, do you want to do an improptu speech while you're here?"

"Uh, I don't know..."

"You're a debater, you'll be fine! For those of you in the crowd who don't recognise him, this is Jerome Aceti, also known as JeromeASF. He doesn't record much anymore, but you'll see him in older videos of mine, or Ryan's, or a lot of other YouTubers. He's one of my old friends, and was absolutely brilliant to me."

"Oh, Mitch, you, uh, you spoil a Bacca too much! You really shouldn't make me blush like this. Who knows what I'll do?"

"Well, you could reply to my message for a start." Haha, what message? The last one I sent was probably from 2020, 2021 at best.

"Gosh, I have a baby who blows my eardrums up occasionally, give me a break!" The casual sentence sent cracks into my heart, and I fought to act natural. "If you don't respond soon, I'll join in."

"Mitch! Is that a threat?" You yelped; all I did was smile. "So, speech, my friend?" I asked instead, and instinctively, put my arm around you. I felt a tiny flinch come from you, but you were trapped.

Slowly, you grabbed the microphone. "Hey, I guess I have to do this now. Uh, for all you who think I'm just another stranger, my name is Jerome Aceti, I am twenty nine, and I am married. Uh, my wife is Louise, and I have an amazing little girl called Taylor. I'm currently living in New Jersey, where I'm from, and I am of Italian descent.

Before JeromeASF, I had a few other channels, like HacksourceFilms and AwesomeSauceFilms, or ASF. I started ASF with Mitch and a few others who are probably here, and we all recorded together on things like COD... do people still know what that is?" You asked quickly, and everyone laughed.

"Anyway... so I don't know exactly what I'm meant to talk about, but I'll ramble on anyway. My wife is called Louise, and we'd initially started dating in 2013. There was a period where we'd broken up though, but we got back together after a while, and it's one of the best decisions I've even made." You flashed me a quick, grief-filled look that said it all.

And losing you was one of the worst I'd ever made, but had I kept you, you would have been the best decision. The best of the best.

Either way, you continued.

"We had our daughter last year, and her name is Taylor. She's... seventeen months old now, and let me tell you, when she cries, it's a hurricane in the house. Almost like that time Mitch cried when I rejected him." You nudged me as the Merome jokes slipped out of your mouth easily, and I bit back a cry.

"But in all honesty, uh, I have to thank Mitch for being my best friend. I hope every single one of you out there has someone in your life like Mitch, who you can laugh with, talk to, and have people write fanfictions about." I couldn't help but laugh. Those were some good fanfics.

"Now, to everyone. I don't know what your dreams are. They're your dreams, after all. All I want to say though, is to keep at them, and to know that they may change. I'd never viewed YouTube as a dream. When I was in college, my main dream was just to finish my chemistry degree without failing anything, but I dropped out. Look at where I am now, though. I'm an accountant, well, training to be one. I'm still doing YouTube, but not as much now. I'd never have called these my dreams as a teenager or young adult, but they're better than anything I did dream of. I have an amazing family, brilliant friends, and most of all, the love of all you fans out there.

I owe my life to you, and for that, I love you. Cheers everybody." I finally let go, and you handed back the mic and stood to the side of the stage and I wrapped up.

After we finished though, I left the stage quickly. I didn't want to hang around and talk, because there's nothing to talk about. Plus, I wanted to get home. It had been a long day.

I saw you try push through the crowds that enveloped us, and it was much easier for me to leave. You were the uncertainty, the question of whether you'd be back tomorrow. I was free to leave, but from how I saw it, you were swamped under with requests for signing of gear and merchandise.

I couldn't stay. Understand that. Understand that it is now me leaving, because you don't need me in your life. You're right, you have a wife and now a child. Adding another thing with me, friendship or more, is just asking for trouble.

I no longer want to be toyed with like a disposable ragdoll. I don't want to be there only to be apologised to while we pretend things are okay to the eyes that watch our every move. I want consistency, and you won't give that to me, and as much as it breaks my heart, I'd rather let you go once and for all, than let you keep coming back.

Love you long time,
Mitch.

Okay. So I want some things understood, before this book goes any further.

Wow, that sounded really angry. Anyway...

Right now, I am in the middle of exams. What's more, this week and last week were some of the busiest I've ever had. Last week, I had more exams than usual, and I've had to study most nights.

This week is also busy, but for different reasons. I've just simply got a bunch of things going where I can't always write. This means that I have barely written anything new for this book in the past week, due to time constraints, so I'll be dragging out updates a little to allow me to get back on course.

Amber