Behind A Mask - Shaymien

19: Girthy Cracks

The week went by without out any major changes. Courtney and Olivia were still dating. Shayne and Damien hadn't cancelled on going to homecoming together. Shayne and Damien were both too awkward too ask each other out and Damien's YouTube identity was still unknown to the public. Or at least, he thought it was still unknown.

Since Damien had opened up to Shayne about his relative success online, the blonde's intrigue as to Damien's online identity increased. Damien didn't want to tell him and that's fine, but some similarities between a certain YouTuber's videos and Damien's public life were interesting, to say the least.

Shayne had concluded that Damien Haas, his best friend and the only person he truly trusted in his life, was FrozenGaming. When he first reached this conclusion, he couldn't believe it. When Damien said he had blown up, he expected it to be between 200000 and 3 million subscribers not 16million. But he did say it blew up twice and the SocialBlade analytics had demonstrated two major spikes in his subscriber count. That was the first point leading to it.

Damien had also said that he had been doing YouTube for three years, and as he clearly wanted to hide his identity, he would probably have a personal YouTube account and his actual channel. FrozenGaming's stats said that he had joined just over 3 years ago. This was the second reason that pointed directly to it.

Thirdly, on the night Shayne stayed at Damien's, he had expressed a frustration for not having posted a video. This was confusing at first, Shayne had thought him to not be so popular that it would be an issue, or perhaps he was only making videos occasionally. He had stated that it was the first time in three years where he hadn't uploaded and a Youtuber who hadn't posted a video for the first time in three years on their channel was FrozenGaming.

Shayne had thought there was undisputable evidence proving Damien's identity but perhaps he had focused too hard on FrozenGaming. There could easily be a channel less popular that Damien recorded videos for, but if it was them, then he hadn't heard of them.

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Damien had finished recording a series of videos for the next few days and sent them to his USB as he was going to see Mari and Joven for the day. He enjoyed hanging out with the couple, they were calmer and not as overbearing as Courtney, Shayne and Olivia. They planned on getting some food, then Damien would give the USB for the next three videos to be edited and sent over. It would be fun, just three friends having lunch and talking.

The group met at KFC and ate inside, a poor choice for a Youtuber - especially when the editor of Damien's channel is known. Damien successfully gave Mari the video and informed that he was going to Homecoming with Shayne, resulting in an explosion of happiness from Mari and a smile and thumbs up from Joven, who was less excited about it but still incredibly supportive. Damien unfortunately did have to deflate Mari's joy by saying it was only as friends.

As the group departed, they didn't realise an employee taking photos of the group together.

On his way home, Damien received a text from Shayne.

Shayne 🏳️‍🌈

Hey, do you want to come over to mine soon?

Damien noticed it was sent an hour ago and so he sent a quick reply.

Is the offer still open?

I mean, if you want to you can come over.

Nice, I'm on my way :)

Damien walked slowly to Shayne's house, not wanting to arrive at a time that would make him seem too eager.

He arrived at Shayne's to a smiling Shayne and a collection of Oreos on the coffee table. The pair sat in comfortable silence, with Shayne offering Damien to choose a movie. He chose to watch Lion King and the two enjoyed it. The pair enjoyed each others company - they couldn't deny it - but they couldn't help but long for something more.

Damien longed for a relationship.

Shayne longed for an answer.

Damien wanted to ask, but he didn't want to ruin anything.

Shayne wanted to ask, but he didn't know if it would offend Damien.

After careful deliberation, one of them broke the silence.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You just did."

"Can I ask you two questions? That counts as the first."

"Fine."

Shayne stumbled, "So, you know have you have YouTube. It was really bugging me that I wasn't able to subscribe to you because you never told me. But, I think I was because I think I heard your voice in their videos." He paused, not noticing Damien's face slowly lose its colour. "So, uhm... I wanted to ask you if you were FrozenGaming?"

Damien shook his head, returning to watching a movie and eating Oreos, not noticing a series of notifications on his phone including a news article.

FrozenGaming Editor seen with two others - Who is the man behind the mask?

Authors Note

Don't question the chapters name. I like some ambiguity to the chapter name.

Do they think FrozenGaming is Joven?
Will Damien tell the truth to Shayne?
Is the media awful (yes, yes they are)?

Thank you for reading Chapter 19 of Behind A Mask - Girthy Cracks 💚💙💛

-J