Work Before Play

Speadsheets

I had finished moving in two days ago. Everything unpacked and set up in my room. I had finished all the chores around the house. The sound of laundry echoed around the quiet home.

I was at my desk staring at my computer when I heard screaming. I jumped out of my chair in a panic. I ran throughout the house to find the source of the screams. I stumbled upon the door that Mark said he did not want me to go in.

I hesitated at the door. I did not want to upset Mark for going inside but I had to know what was going on. Slowly, I turned the handle to open the door.

I peered in and saw Mark at a desktop. He was furiously clicking the mouse and pressing the keyboard. He continued yelling at the screen. What interested me most was the interior of the room. There was noise canceling foam on the walls, a light shined on Mark's face, and a bunch of wires around his desk where the computer was set up.

Then Mark started talking. He was still staring at the computer though. He seemed to have rage quitted something on the computer. He said goodbye and waved to the screen.

What is with this man...?

I saw him sideways glance at the door I was peering around.
"Lydia!" He turned towards me in shock.
"Why are you yelling? What is all this?" My mind was whirling with questions.

Mark turned to his screen again and began typing something. "Well, shit. I guess I have to tell you now. Come here."

I walked to stand behind him. Curiously peering at the screen, he had youtube pulled up. He was at a guy's channel, Markiplier. I began to look closer at what was really on the screen. It was Mark himself!

"You?" I said trying to wrap my head around all this. "11 million subscribers?!?"

Mark scratched the back of his neck, "Yeah, I didn't really want to show you because I don't like talking about it all."

"Why?"

"I don't want you to think of me differently." He said shyly. " And I didn't want to hire a fan either."

" You are no different! You are just more popular than I knew before! That doesn't make you a different person, I promise I won't tell anyone or act different around you, Mark." I said truthfully.

"Well, now that I know what's in this room, I can write off you being a killer from my list." I said sarcastically trying to lighten the mood.

"Haha, you haven't met Darkiplier yet then." He said suspiciously and started laughing hysterically until he coughed at his throat getting really dry.

I laughed so hard I was clutching my side. "Well, thank you for that laugh, but I have to get back to my spreadsheets."

"Your what?"

"Come on." I said, holding out my hand.

I guided him back to my room. I showed him the five different spreadsheets I had pulled up.

He stared at them all for a moment. "Doesn't flipping back and forth get kind of tedious?" He asked thoughtfully.

"Yeah, it kind of does." I said blinking my eyes from the strain they were under.

"Here, I have an idea." He told me to bring my monitor and save all the files that I need to a flash drive. He led me back to his "recording room", as he called it. He hooked up my monitor.

"Wow." I said in awe of three monitors hooked up and had files of spreadsheets on their screens.

"Have fun!" Mark said before leaving and closing the door. "Don't worry, I'm done for the day with recording, editing, and all.

I sat at his desk chair and got to work. It was amazing to have all these going at the same time to get everything done faster.

I unhooked my stuff and saved my files and left the room around 11pm and went to bed because I had a 9am the next day and two meetings.

I got up way before the guys ever would. I showered and dressed quickly so I wouldn't be late.

I put on my freshly ironed blue collared button down dress shirt. And put on my tight black pencil skirt that went a couple inches above my knee. I slid my feet into my black suede wedges while putting my diamond tear drop necklace on.

I took one glance in the mirror before I left and felt confident enough for my meetings. I grabbed my business satchel and keys to my car to leave.

My meetings went amazingly. The marketing for the Ag product my group developed was ready to show to businesses and my instructor was sure that it would be a hit! My advising meeting with great because my advisor was impressed that my grad project was coming to a close so that meant I was close to graduation planning.

I stopped my the store to grab some fruit. I walked up to the front door and unlocked it. I walked in and saw Mark's fiery red hair next to a green haired man sitting on the couch.

"Oh, I didn't realize you had visitors." I said shyly. The slender built green haired man turned around to see me. His blue eyes popped a little when he took in my figure.

"Wow, Lydia," Mark said his brown eyes in awe as well. " what are you all dressed up for?"

"Well, I have a couple of meetings today, so I kind of had to." I walked past the threshold of the home to set my satchel on an end table.

"Do you want me to start cooking?" I asked politely.

"Nah, Sean and I were going to order pizza. Do you want some?" Mark asked kindly.

"Yes, that'd be nice. I feel like I deserve a treat." I walked over to greet Sean so I stuck out my hand. "Hello, I am Lydia Greenbriar."

"Sean, nice to meet you Lydia." Sean said in a thick Irish accent.

"Are you from Ireland?"

"Yes, ma'am." He said with a slight chuckle.

"Interesting, my mother's side is almost all Irish."

"It must be where you get such beautiful natural red hair then." Sean joked. He then looked to Mark, "You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend. What the fuck, man?"