YouTube Love

Chapter 9

I guess I must have fell asleep for a bit because I woke up to my doorbell ringing.
I groggily walked to the door and opened it.
"Hel-." I froze with my eyes bulging.
There he was, the man himself; standing in my doorway. All 5'10" of him. His dark hair was about as fluffy as a clouds, his brown eyes looked right at me.
He gave a slight smirk.
"Hey, how's it going?" He stuck out his hand for me to shake it. I didn't take my eyes off of him as I extended my hand slowly to shake his. As soon as our hands touched I felt electricity pulse through my arm. I looked down to see our hands still locked together.
"Uh, hi!" I exclaimed. "Please, um, please come in."
I let go of his hand and the electricity subsided. I stepped aside and welcomed him in. "Thanks," he said as he entered. "This is a really cool place you got."
"Oh my God, he's in my house!" I thought.
"Shut up you idiot! You sound like a moron!"
"Thank you..." My voice trailed off.
"Mark, call me Mark." He said calmly.
"How did you know that's what I was thinking?" I asked him.
"Happens a lot. I respond to both. But when it's just me and another person, or I'm with my friends, Mark is what I get called most."
"Oh, I gotcha."
There was a long awkward pause.
"Nice t-shirt by the way." He broke the silence.
I looked down, I was wearing my Markiplier tshirt. My face turned red. I looked up stunned.
"I totally didn't mean-"
He just laughed and held his hand up.
"Don't worry about it. I actually think it's pretty cute."
My face turned even redder. He looked confused. "Are you okay?" He started to get up.
"Yeah, yes. I-I-I'm fine." I stammered
"Are you sure?" He got up walked over and looked me in the eyes. "You look okay." He said inspecting me.
I clutched my stomach. Thankfully he didn't notice.
"So, should we go?" I asked.
"Yeah, are you sure you're okay enough to go?" He asked.
He was so concerned. I didn't think he'd be so worried about me.
"Yeah I'm good." I said.
I guess it convinced him because we were walking outside.
I locked the door and turned to go to his car.
He sped up a bit to get to the car first, I guess all the gaming made him competitive. I looked down as I walked; making sure I didn't trip on my own two feet.
But as I looked back up, there he was, holding the door open for me on the passenger side.
I blushed and smiled a bit.
"Thank you Mark." I said and sat down in the car.
He shut the door and then got back around to the driver side and got in.
He looked over at me and smiled; but I noticed something different. That wasn't any old smile, that was a "I'm-your-friend" smile. There was even a twinkle in his eye as the corner of his mouth rose up.
I felt touched. I felt like there was some kind of connection.

As we drove, he and I talked about our lives. He told me about his brother, Tom, I told him I was an only child. I told him about my channel; how I do vlogs and game. He sounded super excited and said that he would definitely have to collaborate with me for some gaming.

We got to the place and it was quite farther away than I expected.
"How come this place? It's so far away from everything." I asked him getting out of the car.
"Just wait, there's something that makes the distance worth it." He told me as he got out.
He met me at the end of the car and smiled that warm smile again. I had never felt so connected with someone in my life. I was always the person on the outside looking in. Never really part of the "cool crowd". Always invisible and never noticed by anyone. YouTube was my escape out of all the madness. I was always anxious to get home and watch a few videos before I started recording.
I loved being able to get out of reality for a few hours, get out of my own head and become this person that everyone loved, everyone noticed, that everyone said "I know her!"
It was a great feeling to know I was important and loved by so many people.

Mark and I walked into the building and I was swept up in this elegance. The place was decorated with single glass bulbs hanging over what appeared to be thousands of tables. The person behind the podium saw us and immediately brought the two of us to this rounded table in the back; almost secluded.
Mark put his hands over my eyes before I could see anything, he sat me down and then he turned me gently so I was facing the other direction. He lifted his hands away from my eyes and then he said "take a look." It took my eyes a few seconds to refocus, but as soon as they did, I saw the most amazing view of LA. There was no darkness. All the windows were lit and there were cars on the roads. It was absolutely beautiful.
"Wow..." I said. "That is just..." My voice trailed off again.
He just gave a cheeky smile.
"That's just...how in the...I feel like I'm on top of the world!" I exclaimed.
"That view does that to you." He said gently.
I smiled at him.

We sat and talked for a long time. I really opened up to him about myself. He told me about some stuff he had never shared with the viewers. Learning even more about him was so interesting.

After we ate dinner, he paid and we got up. As we were getting up he stopped me. "Wait," he said. He pulled out his phone and told me to go stand by the window with the view. I looked confused but still went to stand at the window.
I stood and he held up his phone and snapped some pictures. One of me smiling and some pretty goofy ones.
He laughed as I posed for each goofy shot, he even started saying "Give me angry!" *snap* "Give me sad!" *snap* "Oh you're beautiful darling, just beautiful! Work it girl!" I laughed and he snapped a picture. He went back to look at the pictures and he looked shocked. He said something. I don't know what. I was too far away to hear.

We got back outside and I shivered as a cool breeze hit me. "O!" I said sharply. "You okay?" He asked. "Yeah, it's just a little cold" I said wrapping my arms around me. He took off his sweatshirt and draped it around my shoulders. Then he put his arm around me and started running. I tripped a bit out of surprise but started running too. He ran all the way to the car and opened the door for me again. I got in and sat there as he then ran over to the drivers side and got in. As soon as he sat he turned to me and he turned on the heat full blast.
The fans were a bit loud so he started to yell "IS THIS WARM ENOUGH FOR YOU YET?" I laughed. I yelled back "YEAH, IT IS!"
We both laughed as hard as we could.