Hiding From the Truth

Only A Name

Cory's P.O.V.

"And you didn't even get her number?"

          I rolled my eyes at the phone with a smile. "No, Brandon, I didn't get the pretty girl's number." I repeated for the third time during this conversation. It had been a full 24 hours since I'd met Raegan at a GameStop, and my friend Brandon was beating me over the head with the "you didn't get her number?" stick.
          "I'm just saying man, you could have at least got something more than a first name," I heard Brandon say over the reciever. "I wish I had been there. Did she have cake though?" And I heard him laugh. I joined him for a few minutes, and then mentioned that I had to get back to editing. "Oh, my bad my guy. Get to it." And he hung up.
          Raegan. That's all I had to go on. A first name, and a hope that I might see her around town again. A beautiful girl with a beautiful smile who played freaking Dark Souls, and the only connection I had to her was a name and the last copy of a video game that I payed for before I could even think about it.

          I shook my head, turning on my camera and leaving out of its line of view, dawning my 'Supreme' hat before peaking around the corner of my desk and dabbing into my seat. "Yo, what's up, it's the Trendy Gamer here. Playing all the trendy games."

In that moment, my phone rang.

          I checked the caller ID, and decided to make a note to strangle Jay the next time I saw him. "Yo, Jay, what's up man?" I asked, sighing and leaning back in my chair.
          "Cory, how's it going?" came Jay's voice through the reciever. "Just wanted to check and see if you got an invite."
          Invite? "To what, young boi?" I asked, putting him on speaker and checking my texts messages first. Jay was silent for a moment, and then chuckled. "Check your email."

         Upon opening my email, I skipped all the stuff that looked like trash and searched for anything out of the ordinary, finally seeing what Jay was talking about. There was an unopened email inviting me to L.A. for a party that was celebrating YouTubers from the gaming community and letting them meet with each other for a good time, and it was from...
          "What the freak?!" I yelled, hearing Jay laugh on the other end. It took everything in me to compose myself as I massaged my temple. "But why would Markiplier invite me anywhere? Does he even know who I am?" I was genuinely confused; Markiplier was one of the hottest gaming channels on youtube and I...well, I was still SaucyxKenshin, but not that saucy. So how did he know me?
           "I dunno man, but I hear that Brandon and Ryan are going, and I know for sure I'm going, so you should come too. It'd be great." Jay said again, someone else talking in the background. "Hey, I gotta bounce, but I'll text you later."
"Later bro."
The phone clicked.
             I put the phone down and shut my camera off, along with all the other stuff I had set up, and sat back down in my seat again. Was I really gonna go? "Yeah sucka," I muttered to myself, picking up the phone and replying to Mark's email.

~~~~~~~~~~

Raegan's POV
         

"Hey Rae, how are you!"

              I sat up a little straighter at my desk and paused the video I was watching. "Hey Mark!" I answered back. "I'm good, how are you? I saw the Warfstache video; 10 out of 10, my guy."
              "Ah man, thanks! That was a lot of work. But I'm good!"

               Mark Fischbach, a.k.a Markiplier, and I had met at Pax East when I was first starting out on this platform making videos, and had maybe about 1 million subs. I was there to get something signed, maybe it was a t-shirt, and I came up to the table. "Hi Mark!" I said giddily. "Such an honor, I mean a pleasure, I mean--"
               "Hey, it's cool!" He laughed as I fidgeted with my words. "No worries! I'm just a normal a******, so don't be nervous." He eyed me for a moment, causing me to be even more nervous as his brow arched. "What's your name? You look familiar. "
                Uh-oh. "It's...it's Raegan. Raegan Sawyer. I don't think we've ever met before, though; this is my first time seeing you in person." I stammered through my words and probably butchered any respect he had gained for me. But he smiled wide and embraced me instead. "I thought I recognized you! You're Instant Raeplay, right? I love your videos, they're dope!"

             I think I cried that day, like, literal tears, but Mark and I have been friends ever since.
    
             "In 3 weeks, huh?" I asked, glancing over at the calender on the wall not covered in soundproofing. I could almost hear Mark's excitement through the phone. "Yuuuuup! I've invited a bunch of other YouTubers, and I'm really looking forward to it, so you should definitely make your way to L.A." Mark was giddy, I could tell, but...
               "I dunno, Mark...you know how nervous people make me sometimes. And parties aren't really a thing I do well..." I tried to ease into answering no, but Mark was having none of it, and promptly told me that if I didn't come, he would egg my apartment. "Oh...fine. I'll come." I sighed, admitting defeat.
                 "Great! See you then!" And he hung up. I screamed at myself in my head at not being more firm in.my decline, but decided that it wouldn't really help anything and decided instead to take another bite of my Captain Crunch cereal. I'd only been to Los Angeles a few times, and those trips were all due to collabs that I was working on--Game Tournament with Gabbie Hanna, Drunk Goggles with Team Edge, a Try Not To Laugh video with Mark--but I had never gone for the sole purpose of hanging out.

             "Hello, Rae?" came a soft knock at the door. I turned in my chair, smiling. "Oh hey Pazu. Come on in." I granted her the permission she was looking for. She closed the door behind her and faced me with a smile, "I hope I'm not disturbing you at all." She said softly. Today, Pazu was sporting a green and white stripped tank top with white shorts, her long hair tied up in a dark bun.
            "No; I was actually just relaxing. What's up?" I asked, welcoming her to sit down on a bean bag chair across from me. She gratefully took a seat and wrung her hands together. "Well...I have a bit of a problem. There's this guy, and--"

            I bolted from my swivel chair and planted myself on the floor in front of her: it wasn't every day you heard Pazu talking about guys. "I'm listening!" I squealed with excitement.
           Pazu laughed lightly, "Well, I don't really know him, but he's very attractive, and I'm not sure how to approach him. I don't even know his name; it's very complicated." she sighed in exasperation, lightly placing her fingertips on her forehead. I leaned forward and hugged her, "It's okay, Pazu, it happens to the best of us. I understand how you're feeling, trust me."

And the crazy part was that I was telling the truth.

              I had tried to keep my mind occupied, even going as far as recording several videos for the next month or so and taking my time to cook for Keke, Pazu and myself instead of getting takeout. But my mind wandered, mostly to the chocolate stranger named Cory from a GameStop I probably had no business being at yesterday. He invaded my thoughts with his curly afro and suave accent, even his boyish half grin gave me chilling thoughts.

And all I had was a first  name.

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ISSA UPDATE YOUNG BOI!!

Thanks so much to everyone reading this fanfiction! I am honored to be entertaining you with this sucky fanfiction!

(Just between you and me, if you really like this chapter, let me know down in the comments, and there might be a "double upload" on ya foreheads.)

Updates to come! But until then, keep on misadventuring. Bon voyage!

~Ty