Chapter 15: 3 Hours 49 Minutes
Amelia walks me to my apartment despite it being farther than hers, which I'm grateful for because she's half carrying me at this point even though we stopped at that café. She gives me a little shove as we reach my apartment, and I almost topple over.
'I didn't do anything!' Amelia says innocently, raising her hands, as I shoot her a glare. I hold my head up in pretend indifference and pull my keys from my pocket to open my apartment door.
'Thanks for walking me, though.' I discard my façade and smile at Amelia. She smiles back.
'Call me whenever you want to talk, okay?' she says, and I nod. I watch her walk over to the elevators and press the button. 'And don't forget to text me about the video tomorrow!' She yells, standing in front of an elevator.
I laugh to myself and step inside my apartment. My happy mood immediately evaporates as if my flat has snatched it away. I hesitate at the door, wanting to go back into the fresh air even though my legs feel as if they're about to fall off. I glance back towards the elevators just in time to see the doors closing behind Amelia.
I sigh and walk in, dumping my bag of art supplies onto my couch. I wanted to get home as soon as possible to use my new paints, but now I feel lazy and sluggish, and thinking of getting my brushes and setting up the canvas makes me even more tired.
I get myself a bag of chips from the refrigerator and switch my T.V. on, slumping down on my couch. I absentmindedly breeze past a few channels, not really paying attention to whatever's going on on the T.V. I suddenly want to talk to Kara, and maybe it will help my mood like it did the last time. But what if she's tired of me constantly calling her and talking to her? If I wanted to be her girlfriend, I wouldn't be scoring any points by annoying her.
Heat creeps up my neck as I repeat the word 'girlfriend' to myself. I've never been with anyone even once in my life, if you don't count that time when I kissed this boy for ten bucks when I was eleven. If Kara accepts my confession, would we call each other girlfriend? The thought makes me embarrassed, and for some reason, strangely ecstatic. I came out of the closet when I was thirteen and identified myself as aromantic and asexual because of my mom plaguing me to interact more with boys, and it was my own sweet little revenge. I'd be ticking her off even more if I were to come out again, but this time as gay. The thought makes me want to immediately announce it to the world, but the idea gets quickly beaten down. Announcing it means all my fans will find out, and with them, Kara would too.
A loud noise makes me look up in alarm, but it's just the sound of an explosion from some movie playing on the T.V. I shut it off and dig into my chips packet, glancing at the bag with my art supplies every now and then, debating whether to get my ass off the couch to go and paint something. In the end, I decide to paint but not really paint, as in watch someone else paint. My logic doesn't really make sense.
I open up YouTube to search up some Bob Ross tutorials and immediately get bombarded with notifications from my viewers. My fingers itch to go look at the comments, but I know that if I start, I'll stop only when I've gone through the entire list. Sighing, I type in 'bob ross' and pull up a random video to watch. As soon as his intro plays, I feel myself relaxing and a grin coming onto my face. Bob Ross tutorials always make me feel better even if I'm having a really bad day.
Time skip to around eight at night. I'm clutching a paintbrush and trying to get a mountain scenery right having been motivated by Bob Ross when my phone buzzes with its siren sound. I look over at it, half-irritated, when my eyes take in the name of the person. It's Kara.
I do a double take for some reason and set down my paintbrush, trying not to get paint on my table, and hurriedly wipe the paint smears off my fingers with my t-shirt. I grab my phone and tap in my password.
Kara: You free right now?
My heart, which had been thumping loudly somewhere near my throat up until now, drops down. I type out a reply, disappointed. What had I expected to see, anyway? A confession? I laugh at myself.
You: yeah, why
Kara: Nothing, I was bored. Wanna play some mc?
I glance at my laptop. My eyes hurt from squinting too hard at my painting, but I'm pretty sure I'll forget about the ache in my eyes when I start spending time with Kara. I shrug, push aside my canvas to make room for my laptop, and text Kara back with a 'yes'. I start the usual ritual of pushing my laptop open and stabbing the power button.
Kara says she's just going to troubleshoot her microphone, so I decide to look through the comments on my new video quickly. Most of them are just people referring to timestamps of the video and inserting a popular meme underneath it, but some are the usual people who leave me encouraging messages. I read through them with a smile, occasionally hearting some comments, and they lift my mood considerably. However, one comment in particular catches my eye.
Jailbreak
I got recommended your channel by a friend, and I really like your content. When are you and Kara gonna get together?
My smile slips from my face. I'm sure the guy meant well, but I'm sick of comments like these. I don't mind comments like 'OH MY GOD THEY ARE SO GAY FOR EACH OTHER', but comments where people ask me to confess to Kara annoy me. I find myself writing a response to the person, but then Kara messages me back on Discord this time and I forget about them.
Kara: Finally it's done, call me
Artegon started a call that lasted for 3 hours 49 minutes.
Weekly Power Status
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