Becoming a YouTuber?!

Chapter 28: Tulley's Farm, third time not lucky

It had been arranged a year in advance. No kidding, it was actually something that had been settled last year when we'd been at the scary horror experience.

To be fair, I knew it was almost impossible to arrange anything between all the YouTubers who were all so busy with different projects and responsibilities. Every year someone had been unable to make it. But it was still a miracle that we managed to get this many people together and I put it all down to Zoe's determination. She was so damn organised about the whole thing.

I felt a bit sad about leaving Patch at home in the flat, even though I knew Emma and Megan would come over later today and dog-sit for us. They were both absolutely in love with him and I had a sneaking suspicion they let him get away with things just because of his cute face. I couldn't really judge, I was also an easy victim to puppy eyes, both from my dog and my boyfriend.

"Can you believe that this is the third time?" Nate asked as we parked the car near a hotel were we'd be staying afterwards. Usually, we'd drive home but it was always so much of a journey and we were usually beyond tired and when we learnt that some of the crew had booked rooms here, we jumped on too.

"It's kind of surreal, isn't it? So much have changed since then. I remember being so on edge the first time we went when I didn't know what to expect and you took full advantage of my jumpiness."

"I like being protective boyfriend, sue me," Nate said with a laugh and pulled out our bags of the rented car. We'd usually borrow one of his friends but none of them had been available. Luckily, Nate just happened to have contacts at Audi (those damn YouTube perks) and we were allowed to borrow one from the company.

"Do we know who's here this year?" I asked and followed Nate into the hotel.

"Well, loads I believe. Zoe, Alfie, Poppy and Sean, I'm sure. As well as Mark, Ange, Jim, Caspar and Niomi. I believe Maddie is here with her boyfriend too and Joe was finally free to join."

"Joe?" I asked with a big smile. That was a nice surprise. Joe hadn't been able to make it before, due to commitments such as book tour, which was perfectly reasonable but I knew how much Zoe had wanted her brother to join the group.

We checked in and not before long we ended up in Zalfie's hotel room with most of the crew. It was lovely just being able to go around the circle and hug people. It was a little gathering of most of the close circle I counted as my YouTube friends.

"Still didn't manage to convince Tan?" I asked Jim as I hugged him.

"No, she's still too much of a cry baby," he said teasingly but his tone was gentle. "She doesn't like being scared or having things jump out at her."

"I doubt most of us do," I countered. "But I get what you mean. I'm still not too keen on the walks through mazes where dressed up people jump out at you."

"Dressed up?" Jim asked. "Those are real monsters, Abbey. Make no mistake."

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes.

It was so nice settling in with the group. We didn't get to hang out together nearly enough. If we did, it was almost always at work-related events where we'd have other responsibilities to think of. This was only a social event and we only got a small handful of those throughout the year.

Previously, all of it had just been social events for me, as I had been brought along as a +1 but whether I had accepted it or not, I was now a fully-fledged YouTuber. It was very different to attend that kind of events and actually have to do work and not just casually hang around and do what you wanted to.

It was exactly the reason why it was so nice when we got to go to events where there was no ulterior "work" motive, besides of course vlogging, which essentially did mean that you never fully turned off. All our friends who did YouTube full-time loved their jobs, which had started purely as a hobby, but that didn't mean that it wasn't difficult for them to properly switch off and just enjoy things.