"It's pretty bad, Ian. We've been at the vet all morning and they said Pip definitely needs some kind of surgery. I'm really sorry I can't come over, dude."

For once Ian was glad Anthony wasn't talking to him in person otherwise he would've had to hide the completely crushed look on his face as he slunk further into the couch cushions to once again wallow in self-pity and remorse because Anthony bailed on him for the fourth consecutive time. Why did he still care? Why did it hurt more every time?

Whatever. He needed to get over it.

"I understand. Do what you need to do. I'll figure something out for the episode. Later."

He heard Anthony begin to protest but it ended abruptly with the press of Ian's finger on the "end call" button. He almost threw his phone, but stopped himself when he rationalized how stupid of an idea breaking his phone was.

Needless to say, Ian was not happy anymore. His work, once the highlight of his day, now seemed more like a remedial chore. Write the script, shoot, edit, repeat. Over and over. His friendship with Anthony hardly even qualified as a friendship, the way it had deteriorated into a working relationship that Anthony barely even tried to save. The fact that they were actors helped convince the fans they were still the bestest friends ever despite how much they've drifted apart. Even his girlfriend found excuses to get away from him, leaving him alone in the house while she left on vacations every so often and their sex life was hardly anything worth bragging about.

Ian felt so isolated from his friends and loved ones. He blamed himself mostly at times, because when he blamed them he would begin feeling incredibly guilty and the shame forced him to find even more faults in himself. He became withdrawn because they left him and they left him because he was withdrawn. It was a viscous cycle and he didn't even know how it began or how to end it.

God, he needed a drink. Depression was his new best friend, along with rum and more lonely nights of porn and Skyrim on his laptop.

When Ian had settled in for a weekend of writing and marathoning Netflix one day, he was suddenly surprised to get a phone call from the person he least expected to call.

He saw the picture of the girl in a tiger stripped onesie light up and he felt a rush of something he didn't really enjoy, like a cross between fear, nausea, and nervousness. He swallowed he pizza roll he was chewing and carefully answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Ian!" he heard a young female joyfully exclaim, immediately brightening his mood.

Mari. She always had a way of cracking through that tough shell he had built around himself and burst into his life with an insanely happy attitude. He loved being in her company. Ian wasn't quite sure why she would be calling him, however. As much fun as they had working together and hanging out for an occasional party, they never really socialized much.

He cleared his throat. "Mari! Hey! How are you?"

Mari laughed softly. "No need to be so formal, Ian," she assured him. Ian pictured her with sitting in her oversized recliner in her living room with Doctor Who playing on the TV and some kind of ramen dish in her hands. She was probably wearing something crazy that she considered to be hip and fashionable.

"Was I being formal?" Ian laughed nervously. Wow, he sucked when it came to talking to girls. Mari was clearly no exception.

"I don't know. It's just the way you said it, I guess." Mari laughed as well only her laugh didn't seem to be out of nervousness. "What are you up to? Are you super busy right now?"

Ian mentally laughed. He looked down at the plate of pizza rolls next to him and the TV menu screen on Netflix and shrugged. "I'm not too busy if that's what you're wondering," he answered truthfully.

"Cool. So like, I was in the neighborhood and wanted to know if you and Melanie wanted to grab some dinner. By neighborhood I mean Sac. So what d'ya say?"

"Hmm," Ian muttered sitting up from the couch and wiping the crumbs off the front of his shirt. "I'm actually alone right now. Mel's on vacation with Corin so I've just been hanging around here pestering Daisy all weekend." He figured she wouldn't want to anymore knowing it was just the two of them and slumped his posture back into the worn crevice of the couch. He wasn't even properly dressed to see people right now, despite having plans with Anthony later, but he knew Anthony would've backed out anyway so he didn't even bother getting out of his pajamas. A small part of him wanted to see Mari. He needed someone to vent to about his life and lately he's been having to bottle it all up and having to ignore human contact. He sighed.

"Well, we can still get something if you're still cool with it just being us," he heard Mari reply on the other line. "You're pretty much the only person I'd want to hang out with in this town anyway."

"What about your other friends?" Ian rebutted, knowing he couldn't possibly be that important to her.

"I'm not really in the mood to talk to them. I don't know it's hard to explain..." Mari trailed off. "You know when you just know they're gonna make up some excuse if you make plans with someone?"

Ian almost laughed bitterly. "Totally. You have no idea. And they always seem to cancel every time they make plans with you."

"I know, right?" Mari chuckled then sighed. "Ah well. You can only let it go for so long. So how about it?"

Ian was feeling pretty good for the first time in a long while. "Yeah! Do you wanna meet somewhere or...?"

"Actually I was thinking about coming over so we could take one car, if that's cool with you."

Ian nodded quickly and stood up, still clutching the phone and picking up his plate. "Y-yeah. Come on over!" He began cleaning up the garbage that had slowly collected around him, one-handed. "Do you still have my address?"

"Pretty sure I do."

"Cool. Uh, yeah! It should be..." he straightened up the living room partially and scanned the room for more old candy wrappers. "...should be fun! So uh, see you soon?"

"Yeah! Be there in about 45 minutes. Is that enough time?"

Ian's heart was racing, assumingly from rushing all over the living room. "Sure, that's plenty! So I guess, see you soon?"

"Alright. Later!" He heard Mari hang up then sighed. He needed a shower and a shave.

Feeling a lot better about his overall physical appearance, Ian felt confident enough to venture out in public. He pat Daisy on the head and filled her water bowl. "Don't freak out, Dais, but Mari's coming over," he began lecturing the dog. "...so be good and don't bite off her face or something."

Finally he heard the doorbell ring and Daisy perked up her ears. "Don't," he warned the animal silently holding up his finger knowing she sometimes barks at guests. He opened the door and was greeted with a tight hug. "Oof! Mari!" he breathed out as she clutched him tightly.

"Hey dude!" She answered back then released him. She was holding a gift bag along with her handbag. "What's up? It's been like, forever since I've seen you!"

Ian nodded and allowed her to step inside. "Yeah it's crazy. Pretty sure the last time we were hanging out..." he lifted his fingers in air quotes, "...we had to eat some of the nastiest shit ever for losing that Game Bang."

Mari laughed and made a face. "I can still taste it when I burp."

"Oh, God," Ian chuckled again and went to the couch to grab his wallet. "At least now we'll be getting some good food and not some weird gross combination of things found in the fridge."

"Tell me about it. Oh, and I saw this and thought of you and Mel. Thought you might like it." She handed the gift bag over to him and he dug out a flexible squishy figurine of the Eiffel Tower.

"Why does it squish like that?" Ian laughed. He flattened it in his hand and it sprang up making them both chuckle.

"I don't know. Just thought it was really cool and you'd have hours of fun messing with it."

"You know me so well," he smiled, stretching it in his hands.

"So, did you have any place in mind because I know a place if you're in the mood to try something new."

Ian raised his eyebrow and glanced at her. "Have you seen Lunchtime with Smosh? I think we pretty much tried everything at this point, even the food trucks out in the middle of nowhere."

"Right, so you've had Mongolian, and Indian, and Korean, and French?"

"I've had French fries. Pretty sure that counts as being French last time I checked." Ian knew it was a dumb joke but it made her laugh anyway.

"We should try the Mongolian Grill! It's the kind of food that makes you feel like a man's man." Mari smiled and looked away from him. "Not that you aren't manly enough..."

"If it turns me into a manly man then I'll eat it."

Mari smiled as they began to walk out the door. "Fair warning: that's exactly what's gonna happen."

When they arrived to the restaurant Mari tried to explain how it worked and how they grilled the meats and vegetables you choose right in front of you. They sat down with hot, steaming bowls piled with food and Ian felt his stomach growl. "This definitely looks and smells better than anything we had do eat on Game Bang."

"Dude, if this was the punishment food I'd lose every time," Mari grinned as she separated her chopsticks.

Ian watched curiously as she effortlessly worked them to bring a sizeable amount of food to her mouth. "Damn, you're like some kind of pro with those," he commented in astonishment.

Mari swallowed and grinned. "Want me to show you how to use them?"

"I know how!" Ian shot back defensively. He picked up the two sticks and stabbed a bell pepper strip, bringing it to his mouth with a satisfied smirk.

Mari giggled. "So you're gonna do that with every little piece of food and be done by...next Tuesday?" Ian nodded and jabbed at his food again. "I guess I have to be your chopstick sensei." She stood up and moved to the booth next to him, lightly gripping his right hand. Ian chuckled nervously as she placed the chopsticks between his fingers and made a chopping action with them. Ian could smell the young Asian's lightly scented perfume as she pressed against him in the booth and demonstrated how to use the wooden sticks in a proper manner. Ian allowed her to move his hand and both their hands comically brought a portion of the grilled meat and vegetables to Ian's partially open mouth which made Mari start giggling uncontrollably. "I just airplaned food into your mouth like a little baby," she laughed. "What does that say about me?"

Ian quickly swallowed the food and grinned. "Uh, it means you're ready for momhood and that you put that meat in my mouth."

"Oh God," she laughed even harder "A mom who airplanes meat in her kids mouths with chopsticks."

"Isn't that what all Asian moms do?" Ian said with a sly grin.

Mari acted as though she were thinking deeply about the question. "Hmmm. I think that's about right."

Ian laughed and tried the chopsticks on his own. "Thank you for the lesson, oh great and beautiful sensei." He clasped his hand together and bowed to her.

"Totally not racist at all," she said with a laugh.

Ian smiled back and he was suddenly struck with a thought: he hadn't had this much fun just goofing around and hanging out with someone in a really long time.

He missed this. Human contact. Smiling. Laughing. Being close to someone. It seemed to fulfill an inner need that he seemed to have forgotten about since... well, his friends became distant. Since he became distant. Ian had always blamed himself for it. Always thought he was the reason they left him, but if that were the case, then why was he getting along so well with Mari? Maybe she helped bring out something within him that Melanie and Anthony couldn't. Ian frowned and grew quiet at the thought of what had happened with Anthony earlier that day.

"Hey, you okay?" Mari asked, sensing the sudden change in atmosphere surrounding him.

"Huh? Oh yeah. Just thinking..." he sighed then continued eating.

Mari seemed to notice his distress. Her voice grew quieter with concern. "Are you sure? Did I go too far with the racist thing?"

"No! No," Ian quickly replied. "It's not you. It's just... lately I've been feeling myself get really..." He turned away and set down his chopsticks with a sigh. "I've been feeling really isolated from everyone and I think they're distancing themselves from me because of it." Ian frowned and picked up the sticks again, pushing the food around. "It's like, I tried hanging out with Anthony and he keeps coming up with these excuses the day we're supposed to meet up, but it's not like I should get mad because they're kind of valid reasons, I guess. Like today we were gonna get together and shoot an episode of Lunchtime, go over some ideas for videos and just hang out, but he said his cat needed to go to the vet for surgery or something. I shouldn't feel upset about that, I mean if Daisy needed surgery I'd of course cancel plans and try to be there for her, but I'm just disappointed that plans fell through. I guess that's a little selfish..." Ian's gaze fell in shame and Mari lightly placed her hand on his arm.

"It's not selfish to feel disappointed, Ian. You two made plans and things didn't work out. It's perfectly normal to feel like crap when that kind of thing happens," she consoled in a softer tone. "You can't control these things."

Ian lifted his head and turned his apprehensive blue eyes to the window instead. "Yeah, but this is the fifth time Anthony's bailed on me and the first few times I let it slide, then the excuses started getting less and less believable, even though they seem to be valid reasons. Like, before this he said he missed his flight, but when I asked if he could talk to the airline he just hurriedly kept saying he couldn't and that he had to go. It really didn't make sense. I just don't think he really wants to see me anymore. Even during shoots he just doesn't seem as into it as he used to be. It really sucks."

"Maybe you should talk to him about this," Mari suggested, seeing the pained expression on Ian's face.

"I've tried. Believe me. I've given up at this point." Ian let out a small huff and hid his eyes from Mari's view. "I've stopped trying to be upset over it, but I can't sometimes. I don't know what to do."

Mari quietly looked down to his hand and clasped it with both of hers. A sympathetic expression covered her face as Ian suddenly found it a little more difficult to breathe. "Have you talked to Melanie about this?"

Ian fidgeted and muttered in a tiny voice. "No."

"Why not? She could've helped you..."

Ian sighed. "It's complicated. I mean, I don't wanna get her involved in my problems." Ian grew quiet and it was painfully obvious that he was trying to fight back tears. "Not only that, but she's been keeping her distance from me too. She's always out with her friends and when she gets home she's always too exhausted to do anything with me. We barely even talk anymore and we fucking live together. I just..." He set down the wooden sticks again and let out a defeated breath. "I don't know what else to do with my life, except work and be alone."

Both grew quiet for a moment until Mari finally spoke up. "Ian, don't think you have to be alone. I'm always here if you need someone to talk to. I can help you talk to Anthony and find out what's going on. Whatever it is, we can work it out." Ian nodded sadly and took a small bite of his food. "You should explain how you feel to Melanie too. Just sit her down and talk about how you've felt the past few weeks. Open up to her like you have to me." Mari looked down at her own food, which had probably cooled off my now. "I'm always here for you because we're friends. Don't ever think that I'm not."

Ian slowly glanced up at her and tried to smile. "Thanks Mari. That means a lot to me." He leaned in embracing her tightly and Mari returned the gesture. "Thanks so much for being here for a dumb, short, goofy guy like me." Ian was now smiling and let her go.

"Oh, don't say that about yourself. You're not that short." Ian laughed and sighed softly, keeping his gaze on her and shaking his head. "You should finish eating your warrior food before it gets too cold."

"Oh yeah! I need to be really manly after that little debacle." He jabbed a meat strip with his chopsticks and tore it with his teeth.

"You're doing it all wrong," Mari complained and Ian grinned. "I have failed you, my student."

"I'm jabbing the meat with my wood! I wanna be manly, not proper!" Mari snickered and opened her mouth to say something, but Ian stopped her. "...and don't take that in a sexual context," he warned her.

"Uh huh. Whatever you say, Ian."

When they arrived back at his house, Daisy joyfully greeted them, wagging her tail contently. "She likes you," Ian laughed when Daisy ran up to her first.

"I can tell," Mari grinned patting her head and rubbing her back. "I made a new best friend, apparently."

Ian cracked a smile and chuckled. "Interspecies lesbo dog. Get a room, you two!"

Mari shook her head and ruffled Daisy's fur. "Awwe, don't listen to him. He's just jealous," she whispered with a sweet voice to the German shepherd.

"...am not!" He flared back crossing his arms. "Okay. Maybe a little."

Mari let out a small laugh and walked to where Ian was near the couch. "I'll cut the sappy goodbye since you're manly now, so... later dude!" She almost walked off and Ian turned his head and smiled, biting his lip. "...but in all seriousness, Ian," she continued, turning back to face him. "It's been really great hanging out with you and I'm really happy to see you smile." Ian nodded and began feeling his smile begin to fade as the memories of the conversation came back. "Hey. I'm only a phone call, text, tweet, whatever, away. Don't ever feel like you don't have anyone there for you. Talk to Melanie. Talk to Anthony. Talk to the Smosh games guys, I don't know! Just... don't feel like you're bothering me with whatever's on your mind, because I'm always willing to listen." A tiny curve gradually shaped Ian's lips and he nodded with sincerity.

"Has anyone ever told you you're the most amazing girl ever?" Ian asked trying to hold down his smile.

Mari laughed and quickly leaned in, kissing him on the cheek. "I tend to get that every so often." She opened the door and turned to him one last time. "Come over and watch Doctor Who with me sometime. We can get pizza and give ourselves manicures."

Ian chuckled and watched the Asian ballerina get in her car and drive away.

He almost wished he were in that car too.