***
It's been 3 months since I talked to Ava, During this time I wanted to try my hand at becoming a YouTuber. In the beginning, It was easy. I was a natural-born gamer, I was good at any type of game I played.
Even if I sucked at any physically skilled things besides soccer and stuff that has to do with purely breaking ankles. My compiling videos of gameplay and cool editing got me to around 200k subs in 1 month.
The problem with that was, those types of YouTubers usually peak at 200k so I face revealed and started the play games like that. I wasn't at all bad looking, and I was naturally funny. Plus my skill in games drew the audience to me more quickly. After these 3 months, I had peaked at 2.8 Million subs. It was quite good these numbers, My viewership was also the kind that scaled around my subs. So it was harder to get subs rather than views for me, cut me slack everyone has their struggles.
However, I was just in the middle of the finals In Mnucker, a new pixel art fps shooter. It was quite unique and had a unique style to it. Professionals prefer to use slide hopping with snipers or assault rifles to take out their opponents. I was unique though, I used all my modifications for damage on my Deagle and the double-round game pass. So I had 10 bullets in a stick instead of 5, this pass doesn't give me more bullets though. It just makes it "so I reload less often.
"You guys bet that I won't win the finals with challenge mode on since my hp is capped at half, I say it will be easy besides, why not earn double the rewards and flex at the same time?" Although I said this I was not underestimating the competition at all.
'Since I've spawned in grasslands I'll use this to my advantage, everyone knows I slide hop and aim like one of the best.'
I instantly started zooming through the map, exchanging my gun and knife for an extra boost. Then, the opponent and I spotted each other at the same time opening fire instantly. The difference was that I slid right behind me with a burst of speed flicking my camera to the slide, while at the same time dodging his bullet, swapping my knife for a gun, and shooting him all in one swift motion.
However the moment I fired I knew my aim was a bit off and I missed the headshot, so I dodged back to my original spot and threw a flashbang. Unfortunately not before he could shoot me back, although it was not a headshot he wasn't falling for the same trick twice as a man who's made it to finals.
But after I threw the flashbang I also threw a decoy grenade from behind a wall, the only other auxiliary in my loadout making him shoot over to where the grenade was. Although I hit myself with the flashbang as well and the screen was white, I had muted damage noises so I heard exactly where his shot came from. So I slid back to the decoy and fired exactly where he was, successfully winning me the final match.
"LETS GOOO!!!!, you guys made me bet today's videos income, don't be afraid to commit to the end now."
...
The comments mostly went like that but one specifically caught my eye.
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"You guys seriously think I don't talk to women? I have the greatest feat out of all of us. I have Ava Du Martel's number."
'Damn, if any of that was true and I was one of those novel protagonists I'd feel like this man roasted me and my entire set.'
"Haha, I'll prove it right now and facetime her."
Immediately after I said that my chat exploded with comments along the lines of "you won't", and "do it then". Along with the standard insults and some people believing in me, So I pulled out my phone and dialed up Ava.
Once she answered, my chat exploded seeing I was telling the truth. Although, for some reason, she was at a desk with lots of papers on it, and what looked like beats split with what I assume to be a new music video on the screen.
"Hey Ava, by the way, don't say or show me anything you don't want spreading currently since I'm live. I just thought you should know since although we've texted sometimes we haven't really spoken in a while, do you think I should go over there sometime soon?"
"Yea, you can if you want." My chat was flooded right now with messages like "You can visit her?!" or "IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME, NOT HIM, ITS NOT FAIR."
"Uhm so does in 2 weeks sound cool?"
"Yea sure, I don't care. Listen, I'm really busy right now so I'm gonna go." After that, she hung up.
I was stunned, she had never done me dirty like that. Even during all these months, she had never been rude at all. I'll cut her some slack though, and give her the benefit of the doubt. Suddenly becoming a celebrity in 3 months would make anyone feel a little more superior, especially when she did me the favor by being friends.
She was already more well off, to begin with. I was snapped back to reality still with a stunned expression when someone donated 150 dollars saying "So you have Ava's number, Sure I'll admit you've won, but at what cost did you win?"
***
I hung up with him to quickly get back to my work. I have a lot of inspiration and if I keep going at this speed I'll be completely done in about 8 more hours. Although right now it's already 10 at night I'm sure I won't sleep too long in the morning.
Once I was finished with my new album I immediately published it. I'm glad I manipulated reality to make it so I had a few public appearances on different interviews and other things. Otherwise, it would be extremely hard to come up with any sort of background, or not spark any controversy coming up.
On this topic I noticed how easy I had it compared to anyone else, they would have to actually live out and learn from these experiences. Meanwhile, I just directly will it, and boom it already happened.
Unfortunately, I ended up sleeping until 2 PM, I woke up kinda tired mentally otherwise fine. I woke u to all sorts of notifications, I opened my phone to see articles and stuff like "Ava Du Martel dumps her new boyfriend?" or "Ava cold shoulders her new guy friend".
"Wait what? I never did anything like-." Then it dawned on me, Tristan called me and I completely wrote him off while I was focusing on the work. I quickly scrambled to call him not caring he was currently live, I needed to explain myself.
"Oh hey, Ava, what's up?"
"Tristan! I'm sorry I treated you like that, I was just so focused on work and I didn't realize-"
"No, No, it's okay, I saw after I ended and figured you were working hard after thinking about it for a while. Although you know you should personally apologize, you know how that could come off right? Not everyone is as understanding as me."
"I know, I know, I'm sorry I'm on my way tomorrow is your day I promise." After the call ended I quickly got up and got myself ready, I also decided to book a private plane to get there faster. I really need to watch what I'm saying. After seeing that video the soul empathy even hurt me, and I wasn't even the one insulted.
***
After hanging up with Ava I looked at my camera still live smiling. I got a donation asking "You were never really mad at her were you?". I responded with "No my friend I just wanted quality time". I then opened the live stream, seeing the chat praising me and calling me different names. Some of the titles are things like "Smooth Criminal Watcher", "Subtle Manipulation Master", and things like that.
"That ladies and gentlemen is how to playfully non-harmfully gaslight."