Good Evening Smosh friends and family. We are gathered here today to read my lame ass bullshit about how I want to make out with Damien Haas even though he's 10 years older then me. But who cares about that. Not me. Also I am writing this in full hopes that the Smosh Squad will read this and recreate it in one of their videos. Because that would be absolutely amazing. But they don't usually read OC stories, so that's a little disappointing. Anyway, on with the story.
"Good evening passengers, we have landed in Los Angeles. The current time is 4:36. Prepare for landing." Lydia heard the speaker of the captain's voice sound throughout the plane waking her up. She was finally here! She thought to herself with a large smile growing over face. She had been waiting for this since she was a little girl. She had always wanted to be a director, and while she didn't like that that meant living in sunny crowded Southern California, she knew if she wanted any chance at achieving her dream her best hope was to start there.
She gathered her things which had gradually spread out more and more around her throughout the flight and prepared for landing. She sat by the window and peered out to see the town. It was a different view from what she was used to. Usually she was flying home, which meant looking out the plane window to find fields, and rivers, and mountains everywhere. But here it was just city. Large sparking buildings, street corners, and the lights of hundreds of cars stuck in traffic.
The plane landed safely and she waited in line to step off, she grimaced when she stepped outside. California summer, that was something she was going to need to get used to. She knew it could've only been around 85 degrees, but to her it felt like a million. She left the crowded airport and looked out at the city around her. She knew it was stupid, but she immediately started looking for famous people she would recognize. She didn't see any. Lydia stood for a bit thinking of what she should do next, when she felt her stomach growl.
She decided to go get some food before heading to her hotel, so she walked into the nearest chipotle. She had never been to one, but she heard they were amazing so why not give them a try. Then she saw them, the first famous people she'd see of many in her new life. It was the Smosh squad.
Noah, Keith, Courtney, Shayne, and Olivia all sat around a crowded table with 2 empty seats. Food sat in front of one of the empty seats, she wondered who was sitting there. Could it be Ian? Or maybe Boze or Wes, or it could be Mari. But seeing that the empty seat was right beside Shayne made her hope it was Damien. It couldn't be Damien, there was no way she was that lucky.
Before she gave this anymore thought she realized she was standing in the doorway staring at them with god knows what expression on her face, and she thought she had seen Olivia look her way. She quickly moved to go order her food and then sit down at a table, carrying her giant suit cases with her. She chose a small table for 2 and sat alone at the back of the building, still giving her a perfect view of the smosh table.
She watched them in admiration. True, she was a fairly new fan, but in the last two years they had soon become one of her most watched channels. Especially the squad videos. She loved to watch them just hang out, and be themselves. Watching their videos you really feel like you get to know them, and she loved all their relationships. She loved their videos, because she wished that she could have friends that close. She had never been particularly popular so seeing people in a group getting along had always been something she envied. It was strange to see them in public. They seemed cool, really cool, but also some how approachable. But maybe that was because she had been watching their videos for so long it felt like she already knew them.
She looked around the table at each of them. Non of them were exactly how she would have imagined, but that would be the case with anyone. She spent an extra second looking at Noah. Noah had always been her favorite smosh member, he'd actually been the reason she started watching. She thought he was so cute and nice, and smart. And honestly she loved a good Jewish boy. He was also relatable as fuck, she was 18 and she had never been on a date or even come close, and he was 20 before he got his first girlfriend. But after he started dying his hair and changing his clothes, he changed a bit too. And he went from cute awkward nerd, to kind of cocky looking ass hole. Sure he was still nice, but he just didn't have that same nice guy charm as before. For the past year her favorite smosh member had been Damien. She hadn't known who Damien was for a long time, because while she loved all the members of Smosh Games, gaming had never really been her thing. She remembered the first video she saw him in was the Newly Wed game on the Smosh squad channel. The moment she had decided she loved him was the Christmas gift exchange episode when he got all those funko pops. She loved funko pops, and for some reason seeing that he did too made him seem amazing. He was hilarious, and so cute, and obviously smart, and he seemed genuinely to be so nice.
She knew it was weird to act like she knew these people just because she watched their videos,and she knew it was really weird to have feelings for any of them since she had never me them, but she couldn't help it. It was only a celebrity crush, she knew it wasn't real, but she also knew that if Damien walked into this room she did not know how she would react.
She heard a staff member call her order and she stood up to walk to the counter to grab her tray, but was interrupted on her way nearly bumping into someone. She looked up to apologize when she saw who it was. She could have sworn she squeaked out loud as her mouth hung open and he eyes widened.
He looked back at her and smiled, "Sorry about that." He spoke kindly.
"S- s- m- my - bad- no worries." She stammered out barely able to speak, rushing through the few words she could speak.
She could tell her eyes were still bulging out of her head, and she could tell he was noticing it.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Oh, um, yeah, yeah, I'm fine." She said nervously breathing heavy.
'This couldn't be happening. I am meeting Damien Haas, and I am acting like a complete idiot, and for nothing. I'm a random stranger, I mean nothing to him. To him this is just a weird interaction that will be over in 2 seconds with some weird girl in a chipotle, and he will never think about it again. What am I freaking out about, he's just a person. An insanely attractive famous person, but a person.' She thought to herself trying to calm down. It worked a little bit. Her eyes went back to a normal size and her breathing stabilized a bit, but her shocked and nervous expression stayed glued to her face.
"You sure?" He asked again. 'Wow he was so nice.'
"Yeah." She assured. And he smiled at her once more obviously about to leave and rejoin his friends, but before he could move she thought the better of it. This was honestly probably the only time she'd ever see him in her life, and she was just about to let him walk away. She would be so mad at herself later if she didn't say something. "I'm just a really big fan." She tried to keep her tone normal, and it must've worked at least a little bit because he smiled back it her, with his adorable wide open mouthed smile.
"Oh, well why didn't you say something." His cheerful smiling demeanor never faltering. "Here, give me your phone."
She handed him her phone before even thinking. It turned on to the lock screen and he swiped left opening her camera. "Here" he spoke lifting the phone up in front of them with one hand and placing the other around her shoulder drawing her close to him. She smiled into the camera along side him and she thought she might actually burst from how happy she was. He handed her back her phone and gave her one last squeeze from their side hug. "There you go," He said turning to face her once again. "What'd you say your name was again?" He asked.
"Lydia." She responded meekly.
"Well it was nice to meet you Lydia." He said with one last smile before walking away.
"You too Damien." She said mainly to the air, before going and grabbing her food, bringing her back to reality.
Had that really just happened? Had she really just met the Damien Haas? This couldn't be real. She felt like she was floating on cloud nine.
She sat back down at her lonely table and began to eat some chips. That would surely be there highlight of her week, no way anything was going to top that. As she continued to eat she mainly watched her food or her phone, but every once in a while stole a glace over to the Smosh table, and Damien.
A couple times she could have sworn she saw him looking back at her. Then after a little while she noticed all of the Smosh squad members stealing glances of her. Had Damien told them about how strange she was. Did they think she was a stalker freak, following them around to chipotle. 'Oh god' she knew she shouldn't have said anything. She began to eat faster, she should probably just leave as fast as possible. She had made them uncomfortable. They were just people, trying to live their lives and get food with their friends and she had to ruin it.
She glanced over at the table again and saw Damien was no longer seated beside Shayne, but instead walking straight toward her.
Lydia froze. She wanted to look back down at her plate and pretend she hadn't seen him. Pretend it wasn't happening. What had she done wrong, what was he going to say. Had she made them uncomfortable. Her thoughts raced a million miles a second as her eyes stayed glued on his form walking toward her.
Before she could process what was happening or think of anything to say he was in front of her leaning down on her table. She looked down at his hands that rest on the edge of the table holding his upper body up. They were strong looking hands. She looked back up to meet his eyes. He was smiling down at her.
"Hi" He said.
"H- Hi" She stuttered. Trying to smile back like she was fine with this. Like she was something even resembling a normal human being.
"Are you meeting anyone?" He asked glancing over at the empty chair at her table.
"Oh, no. I just moved here. Today actually, I was just getting some food before going to my hotel" She replied,proud of herself for forming actual sentences.
"Oh, really? That's awesome!"
"Yeah" She smiled up at him sincerely.
"Well, since you're just sitting here by yourself, would you want to come sit over with us? We have an extra seat."
Lydia stammered in silence for a moment, her jaw hanging open.
"Um- uh yeah!" She smiled nervously. This had to be a joke, how was this happening to her, she must've been the luckiest person in the world.
"Cool" He smiled his typical nonchalant friendly smile.
Lydia stood up grabbing her tray of food and reaching down to grab her suit case handle.
"Hey I got it" He said reaching down to grab the handle for her. Their hands brushed briefly and she blushed.
"Oh, thank you, but you don't have to do that."
"Please, you're new, let me show you we have some class here in LA"
They walked together back to the smosh table. Damien retook his seat beside Shayne, and Lydia sat across from him beside Courtney.
"Everyone, this is Lydia. Lydia, this is everyone" Damien spoke motioning to the rest of the people at the table.
"Hi" They all greeted her with a smile. Shayne reaching across the table to shake her hand.
"I'm a huge fan of you guys" She blushed. It was a complement and she knew they heard stuff like that all the time. But it still felt weird to sit with a group of people and say 'wow I love you guys I watch you on my phone all the time'.
"That's what Damien was telling us" Courtney said looking at her kindly.
"Oh yeah, you got a picture with me, did you want a picture with all of us?" Damien asked.
"That would be amazing!" Lydia replied excitedly.
Damien grabbed her phone once again, this time not asking, feeling comfortable enough to just reach for it, and scrolled to the camera option. He lifted his arm and they all leaned in to the table scrunching into the camera's view. They smiled then he lowered his arm and they leaned back to their seats.
"Thank you guys so much. This is absolutely incredible. I never would've imagined that on my first night in town I'd see my favorite group of you tubers, let alone meet all of you." She beamed with excitement as she spoke.
"Don't mention it." Shayne said smiling.
"Yeah, we're just people. Just like you" Damien spoke looking right into her eyes and Lydia smiled. "Now that we've gotten that out of the way let's just chill. Hangout have fun, we're not some famous people you need to faun over. Just chill and talk, we're all friends here."
Lydia blushed and smiled wider then she ever thought was possible at his words.
After a couple minutes the atmosphere became more natural. They talked and laughed. The squad made inside jokes and Lydia actually understood some of them from videos. After a while people broke off and started their own personal conversations, ebbing and flowing from one topic to another, from one group to another. At some point Lydia found herself in a one on one conversation with Damien.
"So what brought you to California?" He asked.
"Well I've always wanted to be a director, and I figure Hollywood would be my best shot."
"Oh, that's awesome!" He was upbeat and chipper as always. "Are you on any project right now, or did you just come in the hopes of finding something?"
"I'm just here and I'm hoping I'll figure something out." She laughed, "I've seen some ads for PA's on smaller crews, so I might start there. I'm not sure, but sounds like a good place to start."
"Hey well we're always looking for PA's over at the Smosh office if you're interested. Just while you get settled." He offered casually taking a drink of his soda.
"Wait are you serious?" She asked nearly jumping out of her seat in excitement. "That would be absolutely incredible."
"Of course! We'd love to have you." He looked over down the table. "Hey Noah, we're always hiring hiring right?"
Noah nodded. "Yeah, I was actually just talking to Ian about that earlier today. We are definitely looking for people right now, why?"
"Our new friend Lydia here is looking for work and she's interested in directing."
"Oh really!" Olivia said excited. "That'd be great!"
Lydia smiled as they all welcomed the idea of her coming to work with them so warmly. How had she gotten this lucky? They all talked for another hour about different things, including how her working with them would work.
She watched them talk, she saw how they interacted. She saw how they laughed together. She noticed how Courtney and Shayne's toes touched barely under the table. She knew Shourtney was real!
They sat for 2 hours talking and laughing and enjoying themselves. People filed out one by one, first Olivia left to go meet Sam, then Keith, then Noah, then Courtney. Leaving just Damien, Shayne, and Lydia.
"Well I better head out" Shayne said to the two.
"Me two." Lydia said looking down at her phone, reading the time as 7:23.
They all stood up and headed for the door. Damien grabbing Lydia's bag again, and her insisting he didn't have to.
They got to the parking lot and Shayne left walking toward his car.
"Where are you parked?" Damien asked?
"Oh, I'm not. I need to call a cab. I almost forgot. I'm so used to having my own car."
Lydia pulled out her phone to search for cab services.
"Don't worry about that. I can give you a ride if you need."
"Oh, no. I wouldn't want to impose anymore than I already have. You've been so nice already."
"Please, I insist." He said walking to his car, her suit case in hand. "I wouldn't offer if I minded. You're just staying at the Ramada down the street right?"
"Yeah." She replied following him to his car. "You really are too kind. I mean even talking to me in the first place tonight would have been more than enough to make my week. Why are you being so nice to me?"
They got in the car.
"I don't know. You just seem sincere. A lot of people come up to us and you can tell that they're crazy fans, but you seemed normal. I saw a bit of us in you and I could just tell that you'd fit in. And you did."
"You really have no idea how much tonight meant for me."
"Don't mention it. Really, especially when you start work you'll be one of us in no time."
The car pulled up in the hotel parking lot and Lydia got out of the car. Looking into the car one last time.
"Thank you again. For everything, and the ride"
"You're welcome. Hey I'll text you tomorrow about what Ian says about the job."
"Talk to you then."
"Talk to you then."
Lydia walked inside and checked into the hotel. She walked up to her room and flopped down starfish style on her bead.
R