Chapter 3: Struggle

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by LoriAsh_

by LoriAsh_

You blinked in shock when all the air in your body was pushed out as you hit the ground.
"Oh my gosh! Y/N! Are you okay?!" Manda cried out in horror.
"What-just hap-pened?" you gasped trying to recover your breath.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't see you. I was just wandering around, staring at my phone and...I swear I didn't mean to bump you." a young girl squeaked out in true regret.
You looked at her as you pulled yourself up and on your feet using the table for support. She looked really scared and anxious. She held a phone with a bright pink glitter case in her hand. Nice. Not exactly your style, but it was cool.
"No problem. Accidents happen. I shouldn't have been standing in the middle of the doorway, anyway." you admitted. "I like your phone case."
"Seriously? Everyone I know says it's awful. But if you like it, then it must not be that bad." she said relieved.
"Why does me liking it matter?" you asked slightly confused.
"Uh. You're Y/Y/C. Of course your liking it matters." she replied like as if the whole world new this fact. "You're awesome. Even though a lot of people are hating on you for the way you edit. I like it. It's really simplistic. No extra stuff that's completely unnecessary. Your videos are like a breath of fresh air in a jungle of chaotic over-the-top ones."
"Thanks, but they do need refining." you insisted.
"Yeah, but I mean, no video is perfect. They all have flaws. And besides, who cares what the fans think?" she crossed her arms rebelliously.
"I do." you answered back honestly. "My fans are the reason I do this. If not for you guys, I wouldn't make videos at all. If some of you think I should be trying harder to perfect my editing style, then that's what I'll do. I mean, it's not that I need the approval, but I do want to make sure you guys are happy with my content."
"Wow. That's really cool of you. Most YouTubers don't think that way." she said impressed.
"Actually, every YouTuber I've met so far DOES think that way. It's not as uncommon as you think." you stated plainly.
"Huh." she replied thoughtfully. "Well, I'd better be going. It was really great meeting you." She walked away slowly looking intensely at nothing in particular.
"Man. I think you blew her mind." Lexi leaned against the table in awe.
"Her mind? You blew MY mind. That was deep, girl." Manda exclaimed.
You laughed it off as the three of you gathered up your trash and took it to the trash bin. You went to refill your drink and thought about what the girl had said. Did people actually think it was rare for a YouTuber to care what their viewers thought of them? Was this the image people had of YouTube? How was it that someone, who literally made every YouTuber's channel exist, could think that? You didn't want people to assume that of you.
"From now on," you promised to yourself. "I will make it very clear to my subscribers how much I care about them and their opinions."
"Y/N. Are you ready to go meet up with Dan? He wants to start your lessons as soon as possible so he can teach you a lot before you have to head back to America." Manda said coming up behind you.
"Yeah. Definitely." you responded with more joy than you felt. You couldn't wait to meet Dan, but you weren't so excited about the lessons. This would be a struggle. Your whole channel was riding on this, you couldn't afford to fail.

~time skip~

You felt your knees shaking with nervousness as Manda led you up several flights of stairs to Dan and Phil's flat. What was happening to you? You never got nervous when you were about to meet a YouTuber. It must be because of the stress you'd been under recently. Manda knocked on a door you hadn't noticed you'd arrived at. The door opened revealing the tall, crazy good-looking Daniel Howell. You looked up into his dark chocolate eyes. Yep, totally the stress making you nervous. Just the stress.

~Dan's POV~

Why did you agree to this? Oh yeah, Manda had begged you to. You didn't have anything against Y/N. In fact, you liked her videos. She had great content and she was really funny and relatable. Sure her videos were poorly edited, but that's why she was here.
The only reasons you regretted your decision was because of how busy you were right now with Vidcon happening and your fear of embarrassing yourself completely. You didn't know Y/N. Your socially awkward tendencies thrived in these situations. Whenever you met someone new, you made a fool of yourself. Just because you had several million subscribers didn't mean you were free from your struggles with socializing. It still plagued you to this day.
"Just calm down, Dan." you told yourself. "It's just an editing lesson. You know editing. Stick to talking about that and you won't show what a living flop you are."
"Hey!" you said with a steady voice even though an earthquake was going on inside you.
"Hey. It's great to meet you. I'm a big fan." she replied with a smile.
Oh no. She wasn't nervous. The confidence she radiated did little to calm you. How would you get through this without humiliating yourself and making this girl think you were a loon?
"It's fine," you thought. "Everything's fine. Just remember to stick to editing stuff. If you veer off you're sure to say something stupid, but if you keep on track your chances of messing up are a lot lower." Like 27% lower, but you chose not to think about that too much.
You led them both into your recording room and took a deep breath. Here goes nothing.

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A/N

Cliffhanger. Duh-na-na-na. Cliffhanger.
Just ignore me. I hope you all are enjoying this so far. Disclaimer for the next chapter: I don't know off the top of my head what Dan and Phil's new flat looks like. I'll try to find out before chapter 4, but if I can't find anything on it I'll try to include as little detail of it as I can. I don't want to assume what it looks like and be totally wrong when information comes out later. So just bear with me. 🐻
Eventually in the story, I'll have to describe things about the flat, but hopefully by then a tour video will be out. Unless there already is one and my chronic forgetfulness disease has struck again. I swear I have seen all their videos for the past year, but I have my disease to blame for any and all slip-ups. Forgive me when they happen. >•< 🐱

~Lori