An Aftermath Of Many Years (CrankGameplays)

9

19th November 2016

I was tired. I was not having a good morning, and for once, it wasn't my hormones doing it.

First thing, four am, Jenny came bursting into my room, jumping up and down, screaming that she got asked out by none other than Aaron freaking Smith, to which I already knew about, because I had been on the phone with him five hours earlier, because the freak was having a panic attack thinking she was going to say no. My vegan roommate, however, had no concept of sleep schedules and woke up at four every morning. She was usually rather good at not waking me up. However, not today.

"Jen, that's great, but I have a live stream today and would like to not look like roadkill for it."

"Chill. It's nothing a little makeup can't fix. Besides, get up. Waking up early to a good breakfast is the best thing for when you're on your period."

I groaned, "shut up asshole. Your body doesn't hate you like mine does."

"Aww. Poor baby." She pulled me out from under my dark purple duvet and onto the light grey carpet. "Now let's talk about me for a second. I had no idea he felt that way about me."

"I did," I groaned, climbing back into my bed.

"It was just so out of the blue, like what the fuck? We've known each other for years. What the fuck? What do I say back?"

"You haven't texted him back yet?" I sat up straight and ran a hand through my hair. Oh, how I regretted not tying it up last night.

"No. I'm in shock." She was pacing in my room. "I'll text him now. What do I say?"

"What did he say?"

"Wanna go see Doctor Strange with me? As a date?" She did a pretty good Aaron impression if I was being honest.

"Yes, you dipshit. You say yes."

When I walked up the stairs to see everyone setting up, there was this moment of 'fuck me'. I was tired, you could see it in my posture, there was no hiding it. Ethan obviously was the first person to greet me. He smiled and waved at me from where he was hiding behind a mic. I was the last person to arrive, but I had brought Starbucks with me, so compensation. Only because Jenny was driving and was chill with getting something as well.

"You look less shit than usual." I chuckled at him and put down the drinks on Ethan's desk. It was the cleanest.

"Ethan, that's hardly a compliment," Mark laughed, not turning around.

"I meant that you look nice. You don't usually wear makeup," he said, flustered, desperately trying to salvage the situation. I didn't think there was any salvaging needed, and the fact that he had just said what flooded out of his mouth was the best thing of my morning. "Not that you look bad without makeup."

"It's cool. Under this-" I gestured to my entire face, "Is the result of going to the slaughterhouse three times over."

"Rough morning?" He sympathized. I nodded and he smiled. "I wanna hear all about it."

"Later, lover boy," Mark teased, brushing past me and grabbing his drink. "Did you get one for everyone?"

"I fucking texted you, asking what everyone wanted. Also, they spelt Kathryn's name wrong." I smiled and grabbed my own drink, aware that it was half empty.

It was funny. The Livestream was calming; for me at least. The fact that I could just sit for a while and relax was such an engaging and cool thing to me. Ethan kept trying to make me laugh from my little spot on the wall that I was always leant against. For a while, he was making faces at me, but I wasn't really laughing. Just a few pity ones here and there, but none of that real laugh out loud bullshit.

Then he started tweeting me. He knew I was on Twitter. I was looking through the hashtag for fanart. He just kept tweeting at me, making my notifications become the worst thing to look at. Mostly people telling me that Ethan wanted my attention.

"Ethan fuck off." We held this strange moment of eye contact. The makeup on his face looked ridiculous.

"I'm not doing anything."

"Get off Twitter, you fuckface."

Mark laughed, " I live for your interactions."

I wanted to tell Mark not to, but my phone was way more important to me, signalled by the text notification that Ethan definitely picked up on. He seemed to want to know what the message was more than I did. I mouthed a 'fuck off' in his direction and pulled my phone from the pocket of my hoodie.

You still thinking of going with the fam for Christmas?
- Aaron Smith

I sighed, unwanting to answer him, but we both knew I was going to. I was actually good at texting people back.

First of all, never say fam again. And second, I'm not sure.
- Kiara Fischbach

I'd say hurry up and be sure, but I'm not mean like you, so take your time.
- Aaron Smith

Ouch. My metaphoric heart.
- Kiara Fischbach

"Kiara's on her phone. I'm calling her out. I didn't know she had friends, but she's texting them." Ethan had such a loud voice. I looked up at him and he was pretty much waving his hands in my direction, to the shameful glare of Mark. I smiled and stood up, coming into the view of the camera and in range of the mic.

"You can read my conversation out load if you're that bothered by it." I leant over his shoulder and handed him the white phone.

"You still thinking of going with the fam for Christmas? First of all, never say fam again. And second, I'm not sure. I'd say hurry up and be sure, but I'm not mean like you, so take your time. Ouch. My metaphoric heart." He sighed and handed back my phone. "There was also a very flattering image of Kiara eating a burrito, but that was from earlier."