Lexi hated being late. Maybe it was from her mom, who was late to every event she attended. School events, doctor appointments, movies, you name it, she was never there on time. Lexi remembered "Bring your Parent to School Day," in which her mother somehow managed to be 2 hours late and come almost halfway through the school day. Her classmates teased her about it for a long time after that. Elementary schoolers really find any excuse they can to pick on each other...
She also overthinks literally everything, like that one time in middle school when she spilled mustard on her new white band shirt and washed it 5 times the night before her concert. But it didn't even matter anyways, since she was in one of the back rows and her trumpet blocked the already faded stain anyways.
Maybe I shouldn't have worn this Van Halen shirt. Was it bad to be too edgy? Oh god, will they think I'm trying to be cool?
As she sat there twiddling her coffee cup and nervously checking her phone every couple of seconds out of anxiety, she couldn't help but overthink every single little detail. Was her makeup off today? Did she forget to turn off the oven before she left?
I really should have stayed home for a couple more minutes... Lexi grimaced. Though she was meeting Mark and one of his editors at 3, she decided to show up at 2:30 out of the fear of being late.
She thought about whether or not Mark liked the edits she sent him. Would he come in just to be nice and tell her that she wasn't what they were looking for? Or would he not even show up? She wouldn't be mad if he didn't. After all, he's a busy man.
Or, what if he did like them? What if... she really did end up becoming one of his editors?
Nah. She figured that that would never happen.
Out of boredom, Lexi glanced around at everyone else in the coffee shop. She saw the baristas making coffees at lightning fast speeds, like always. She saw a couple businessmen discussing god-knows-what, and she saw the typical high schoolers who had just gotten out of school loudly arguing over which Tik Tok dance to learn next.
Just as she was about to get up and order another drink, she heard the door bell ring and looked up to see a familiar face walk in. "Hey! It's Lexi, right?" Mark smiled that classic goofy smile at her, and Lexi stood up to shook his hand.
"That's me! It's good to meet you!" She smiled excitedly, shocked that he was actually here.
Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod I think im gonna pass out
"And this is Ethan, one of my friends and former editor. You probably don't know him, no one really does." Mark chuckled.
"Hey, what the hell Mark! Lexi, you know who I am, right?" Ethan stared wide-eyed at her.
"Of course I do! I've been watching Unus Annus since the beginning!" Mark rolled his eyes and mumbled something to himself. Ethan smiled, and laughed in Mark's face, "Ha! She does know me! I knew it." Ethan held up his hand for a high five, and Lexi eagerly obliged.
Mark pulled out a laptop and struck up a conversation, "So, how's your day been?"
Should I say that I've been ready since 9 o'clock this morning?
"Honestly, it's been great! I just can't believe that I'm here right now meeting you guys. And like, Mark, I've been watching your videos forever-" Lexi was cut off by Mark gloating in Ethan's face.
"Ha! See, Ethan? She's been watching my videos for longer." He puffed up his chest as his eyes darted across the laptop screen.
"Well, I haven't been posting for 10 years! Besides, I have more subscribers than you did when you were 23! That means that by the time I'm your age, I'll have more than you do now!" Ethan laughed and poked Mark's arm.
Mark, with a confused look on his face, looked over at Ethan, "That's not- okay, you know what? Just believe whatever you want. Now, Lexi," he flipped his computer over to her. "We watched the edits you sent us, and they were really good! But we've had problems with people stealing other people's edits, and so we just wanna see what you can do right now.
"So we recorded a video, it's like, what, 3 minutes long?" He looked at Ethan.
"Yeah, like 3, 4 minutes." Ethan replied.
"Right. So, we're gonna give you like, 15 minutes?" Mark pulled out his phone.
"Nah, nah, 15 minutes is too long," Ethan started giggling. "How about 10?"
Mark started chuckling as well, "I think that's the best idea you've ever had!" He looked up at Lexi, who had already begun. "Alright, well, we're gonna go order some stuff, have fun!" The two stood up and walked over to the counter and Lexi hopelessly wondered if she would ever be able to finish.
Sure, it was a short video, but perfection takes time!
~~~~~~9 and a half minutes later~~~~~~
"Okay! Time's up! Let's see whatcha got." Lexi handed the computer back over to Mark. Ethan looked excitedly over his shoulder, and the two began laughing and giggling, almost a little too loudly. Lexi was unsure of if it was because of her editing or just because of how the two are naturally hilarious together.
Through a fit of giggles and a few tears, Mark looked up at Lexi and said, "That... was absolutely.. hilarious. You're hired!"
"O-oh my gosh, are you serious?" She placed s hand over her mouth and shook Mark's hand.
"Yeah that was pretty awesome," Ethan said in between giggles. "This is a meme gold mine!" He looked at Mark and they both burst out laughing again.
Once they finally calmed down, Mark and Lexi exchanged phone numbers and soon left.
As she was driving home, Lexi went over every little detail of the meeting in her head.
I can't believe they actually like my editing. Me, of all people. Me!
Maybe I'll get to be in one of Mark's videos? Or even one of the Unus Annus videos? Nah, nevermind. There's no way..
And that's it for this first chapter! I really hope you guys enjoyed. If you have any suggestions or comments, please leave them below! And if you liked it, please give this a star, it would mean a lot to me :)
Also, I'd like to mention that this story is also on Wattpad! If you would prefer to read this on there, then go check it out :) my username is xc-astro.