Becoming a YouTuber?!

Chapter 14: Creator Summit

                 

The next morning we had to get busses to go to the place where the show would take place. I had tried getting a hold of Alfie but the boy hadn't gotten back to me. He was the one I felt most safe around as I knew him the best and I knew he had experience with helping Zoe through if she had a panic attack.

The busses left in different intervals but I had already decided which one to go on. I knew Caspar would be in the next room over and came to knock on his door.

"Abbey," Caspar said and smiled wide when he saw me.

He was already dressed and by the looked of it just about to leave. He had a camera in hand vlogging this whole trip. Caspar was far from the most stabile vlogger out there but I could sense he was determined to stick with it for this short trip.

"Hi," I said and waved to the camera. "You're getting on the bus that's leaving now too?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I was just on my way but then I found the present from YouTube. It's American candy!"

"I saw," I said with a chuckle. "I can't get a hold of Alfie but Connor and Tyler are about to go down. Want to come along as well?"

"Yes," Caspar said and turned off his camera. "I tried to get a hold of Joe but I think he might already be there or something."

We stepped out of his hotel room and Caspar happily vlogged all the presents in front of the other YouTubers' doors and his chatty voice and silly antics reminded me so much of Nate.

"Do you like New York so far?" Caspar asked me in the lift.

I nodded. "Sure, it seems like a pretty cool place. I have plans with Connor to go explore it tomorrow and get a better sense of it. Is it pathetic to say that I miss Nate though?"

Caspar shot me an understanding smile and I was once again reminded how this boy was much more sensitive than most people thought.

"He's a good one. I'm happy he's got you into YouTube now too. You've been a part of the crew unofficially for so long but it's so cool you finally took the leap."

I didn't attempt to correct Caspar about the assumption that it was Nate who made me get a channel. It wasn't really, it was entirely my own decision and he never pressured me to do it or even talked about it but he did indirectly convince me to do so, even if it was just by getting me into that world and showing me the opportunities.

Caspar and I find Connor and Tyler in the bus and sit chatting all the way there. I couldn't help but feel really happy Connor and Tyler got everything between them sorted out and was on the way back to being good friends again. I never liked having tension between my friends.

Once there, we found Alfie and Joe and entering the room with so many of the big YouTubers made my stomach drop and I wanted to run the opposite way to be completely honest. I didn't even know who many of these people were. I only really knew my small group of British YouTubers from Gleam and then a couple of the Americans through them. This was overwhelming.

"Hey," Connor said and hung back once he saw that I didn't make a move to enter the audience area. "Abbey?"

"Hmm..." I said absentmindedly and visibly gulped. "I just..."

Connor moved us slightly away from the entrance so that we wasn't blocking it and some of the other boys looked back at us but moved on when Connor waved a hand at them.

"Scary?" he asked, understanding instantly.

I nodded. Oh I wanted Nate to be here. I wanted him to give my hand a squeeze and cup my face and tell me all the things he had told me yesterday on the phone. I knew I shouldn't feel like I didn't belong, like this wasn't my reality but it felt like is wasn't. How had a timid British girl made it all the way to the Big Apple to be courted in the company of some of the biggest online influencers?