A girl walked down the sidewalk of the truck stop. Her marching band was on its way to Indianapolis this weekend to see marching bands compete in grand nationals. She sighed as she walked towards the vending machines.
She pulled her iPhone 4s out of her little purse and pulled up the locations app. Where were they again?
Ah. Just a few more hours away from Indianapolis. They were in Ohio. They only had about 4 more hours until they reached their destination.
She tucked her phone away as she reached the vending machine area.
"Hi Bobby, Hi Kaylyn," she said kindly as she passed the two. Bobby was the only one out of the two to respond.
"Hi Katie," He said in a bored tone as they returned to the bus. Kaylyn just glanced in her direction.
"Nice to talk to you again, too, you bitch…" Katie whispered under her breath as soon as they were far away enough.
She sighed once more as she grabbed a few dollars from her purse.
"How much do these things take here…?" She said to herself.
"A dollar exactly," a deep, gravelly voice said from behind her. She jumped a bit and turned around.
"Jesus you scared me!" She exclaimed. The man chuckled at her.
"Sorry little lady. I didn't mean to scare you."
"Well you did. It's fine, though. Thanks." Katie put a dollar in and punched in the numbers for a bag of Doritos.
"All right then," the man replied. He moved to go sit on a bench nearby. Katie had something that was bothering her.
Where had she heard that voice…?
"Hey," she started softly. "Your voice seems… familiar. Are you from Pennsylvania?" She asked curiously.
"No. Florida. I don't know why I'd be familiar to you." He replied calmly.
"Florida…. Do you work on YouTube?" Katie asked.
"Yep."
A YouTuber.
"Do you play games?"
"Sure do."
"Ib, Bioshock Infinite, The Walking Dead…?" She continued listing off names of games.
"Yeah. Damn good games, kiddo." Katie's head popped up immediately.
"Cry?" She asked hesitantly.
"Shit." Katie turned around immediately.
"Oh my god. Oh my fucking GOD." She whispered to herself as she stared at his face. "What are you DOING here?!"
"My parents asked me to take my little brother on this road trip to Indianapolis to see how he'd like grand nationals."
"That's sweet."
"It's been fun for a bit."
"Where is your brother, by the way?"
"Bathroom."
"Ah."
"Yeah." There was silence for a while.
"So… Will you tell no one you saw me?" Cry asked. He sounded a bit pleading.
"Of course not. Hell- I'm barely looking at your face. I couldn't recreate it if I tried anyway."
"Okay… So, what have your thoughts been on the games so far?"
"Um…. Honestly, they're shit." She stated blatantly.
"Oh."
"Well, it's just that Richard and Alice wasn't really fun. An endless winter where a kid dies? I mean, it took for-fucking-ever for us to realize the kid was even gonna die. And Rule of Rose-" Cry groaned at the mention of the game- "was utter bullshit. You had to get DRUNK to finish it. That proves it kinda sucked a lot."
"I get it," Cry groaned out. There was more silence after that.
"Hey… Before I get back to my bus, do you mind if I tell you something pretty personal?" Katie asked.
"Um…. It's not about a crush on me, is it?"
"NO. It's a pretty sad thing, really. More like musings actually."
"Okay then. Go for it."
Katie took in a deep breath before starting. "Sometimes I lay awake at night and think to myself about when you and all the other YouTubers are gonna quit doing YouTube videos."
Cry moved from his spot for once. He looked at her little teenaged face in confusion. He patted the bench's empty space next to him. She slowly came towards him and sat down.
"One day, you'll all get tired of the same routine or you'll want something more, and I'm terrified you'll all just stop. Stop playing games. Stop even coming on YouTube. I'm scared I'll never see you play another good game before you retire. I'm scared you'll all move on too soon."
Cry stared at her quietly as she continued.
"I'm not ready to let go yet. I'm only 15. But I know that one day you and all the YouTubers will want more and slowly stop making the videos you do. If that day comes soon, I don't know how I'll handle it… I love you all so much… If you all stopped while I was still alive, I'd feel like shit. I know it's selfish. It's really childish, too. But I can't let you all go. I know it seems ridiculous. I know you'll tell me it's all gotta end sometime. But I can't help but feel it'll be too soon for me no matter how long you'll have been playing."
Cry didn't know what to say. She seemed so vulnerable. She's trusting him with all this heavy reality shit before he even wanted to admit it would come to an end.
A kid randomly came around the corner.
"Katie! We've got 2 minutes until we leave and who the fuck is this creeper?" she trailed off.
"Caitlin- he's someone I know. It's all right anyway. I was pretty much done talking to him." Katie stood up from next to Cry and started to walk towards Caitlin. She turned around quickly though and pointed to him.
"Oh, and when you're planning on quitting, please post your last video ever as your face. Everyone is dying to know. It's the least you could do for your fans before you leave the YouTube community as a worker for the last time." She smiled softly. You could see the hint of sadness and tears forming in her eyes as she dropped her arm.
"Caitlin, we should go. Say hello to your brother for me, Ryan," Katie called out softly as she and Caitlin walked towards the busses.
Cry's little brother came running out of the gas station bathroom and stopped in front of Ryan.
"Why do you look sad and focused?" He asked. Ryan turned to face his brother.
"No reason. I just met an interesting fan."
"Oh, cool! You met a fan?! What was their name? What did they look like? C'mon, Ryan! You've gotta let me know the lucky fan who saw your face!" His brother exclaimed excitedly.
"I'll tell you on our way to Indianapolis. Maybe we'll even see her there."
Wow. I'm so weird. Yes- this trip happened. No- I did not meet Cry. I did however go see Grand Nationals. Yes, these are all people I know. Yes, I hate my real name. Yes, these are my real fears.
This was just random.
BYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEE~~~~
