It was a bit rude of her to answer the phone while talking to Warren, Max knew that. But it wasn't as if he hadn't done the same in the past, and- in general- he was a pretty nice guy. Giving him an apologetic smile, she greeted Kate and made sure she was comfortable in her seat. For someone who was typically meeker than your average mouse, Kate Marsh could go on and on and on for longer than most people could without breathing. Maybe it was some secret Christian thing- the secret of how to breathe while talking. She'd have to ask her one day.
"Hi, Max. I hope this isn't a bad time, but I was looking at the comments of, uhm, the vlog I did last week- the one where I asked you for some help?" Max remembered it fairly well. Kate was pretty good at giving advice, but when it came to the likes of dating, romancing and anything that would involve her pastor mumbling about "Leaving space for Jesus", Kate was out of her depth, without even armbands to help keep her afloat. Faced with a surprising amount of questions on how to ask someone out, she ended up having Max pop in on the video. She had more experience than Kate, and... Well, she didn't fight with Victoria, but things were still tense between the two. Max had been the easiest person for her to talk to.
"Yeah, I remember. I didn't... Oh jeeze, nobody got hurt from my advice, did they?" Of course, while Max did have more experience with dating than Kate, most people did. So, whilst Max did her best, it wasn't as if she could cover every issue on the questions she'd focused on. A pan girl who'd only dated two people wasn't the Dating Expert, after all. If one even existed. Max quietly suspected that everyone was nervous when going on a date, even if they'd been on a dozen in the past month alone.
"Not at all! They, uhm, the viewers? They really liked you." Kate had the cutest habit of pausing when she was nervous, filler inserting itself into her sentences. She knew she shouldn't find it cute with how Kate hated it, but Max found most things Kate did cute. Not... That she was going to mention it. Kate still needed to work on accepting compliments without melting into a puddle of adorably embarrassed goo, let alone compliments from a girl who was into her. Which, in and of itself, was another kettle of fish. A complex kettle of fish that involved uncertain orientation, religious issues and plain naivety on one end, and an unwillingness to jeopardize a friendship on the other.
"Like, they really liked you Max. I got about double my usual views on that video." A pang of guilt went through Max at how she never really watched Kate's videos, rather obvious on her face given by the confusion on Warren's. Max raised her hand to let him know it was alright. If she could point out a flaw in Warren, it was the fact that any time his friends seemed worried, he'd assume the worst. He was probably thinking that Kate was talking about how she was attacked by a Facehugger the night before or something.
"That's… That's great, Kate!"
"Mmhmm. Which is why I was, uh, wondering if you'd be okay with being in another video? Like, for the whole thing, not just a… A consulting role…" Trailing off, filler, general nervousness… Kate was worried about asking Max this, beyond the general fact that she probably felt like she was imposing- despite Max repeatedly telling her she'd never been bothered by offers to be in a video.
"I'd love to, Kate. Do you mind if we talk about this a bit later? Me and Warren are over at the Whales right now, an-"
"Oh gosh, I'm sorry, I didn't know! I'm so, so sorry for interrupting! W-We can talk later, yeah! Sorry, sorry!" Aaaand she was gone. Damn it. Max sighed, slipping her phone into her bag. Knowing Kate, she'd now be either fussing on Alice or burying her face in her pillows, consumed with mortification over something incredibly trivial. Not that Warren was trivial.
"Is everything alright? I could hear Kate there, and…" Warren paused, shrugging. "Well. I could hear Kate. She's never that loud, except for when there was that spider. her parents aren't getting on her case again, are they?" For someone who, frankly, was about as sturdy as a twig, Warren could be incredibly defensive of his friends. Something he needed to probably cool down on, Max thought.
"No, nothing like that. She was just asking me to be in another video and kinda went into panic mode when I said we were here." She was probably okay, yeah. The worst case scenario was that Kate was now shovelling herself full of ice cream, and that was hardly a terrible fate for most people, Kate included.
"Oh, right. You were in one last week, right? Her views were insane!" Instantly, they were back to happy Warren. "I mean, she normally gets pretty good views- good looking girl, good sounding advice, why wouldn't she? But with you… Damn, Mighty Max. If she had those things monetized, she'd be making mad bank." One day, Warren would realize a big reason of why she called him a dork was the outdated slang. Probably some day in the far flung future. Maybe when he was a ghost, calling things radical and talking about gnarly skating.
"Wait. What do you mean, mad… How many views did she get?" If she could remember right- which was unlikely, coming from the girl who often mixed up left and right when she woke up- then Kate averaged around about three thousand views a video. Not monetized, of course. Even if it was just from ads, she'd feel guilty about taking money for simple advice. Again, Max thought- she was far too nice for her own good.
"I only checked a few hours after it went up, but if I remember right, it was around… Like, fifteen thousand views, Max. You two were a hit!" That was after one day?! Not a week of a popular video, but after a day? Hell, not even a day if Warren was telling the truth. And Kate'd only just brought it up now, despite them seeing each other every day? Not just nice. Humble.
"Oh, wowsers. That's… Intense." Even her most popular cover had only managed to break seven thousand views, and Max knew she shouldn't be saying it "only" broke that. "I get why she'd want me to be in another video, then. And… It'd be fun, y'know?" She viewed answering the questions last time as a guided conversation, bouncing ideas off of Kate to find what was best for what people were asking. It'd be just like that."
"Yeah, you should totally do it! Hell, rope in Chloe. Three hot girls? You'll be the most popular vloggers in a small Oregon town ever!" It was nice that they'd graduated from cute to hot, but… Well, she barely knew Chloe. She'd acted like a tit in front of her, too…
"Warren? Let's… Keep it realistic, 'kay?" She smiled gently, sighting a waitress coming over with their orders. "Eat, go back, and then we'll see. Food's the priority here, man."
"Fine. Just, promote me in the video, okay? I'm a catch, there'll be loads of people dying for a guy like me."
"Dork."
