knj imagines

stressed out || c. seavey

I took a second to just sit in my car in the Seavey's driveway and breath deeply. I knew as soon as I stepped foot inside that house it would be chaos, and I just wanted another minute to myself before I had to deal with the many moods of Christian.

Christian and I had decided, seeing as I was his best friend and also a professional control freak, that it would be a good idea for him to have some kind of assistant to keep his crazy schedule organized. It seemed like I was hanging out at his house every day anyway and I thought this would be a fun thing for us; he could get work done and we could still hang out, probably more than normal. It was becoming increasingly more clear, however, that this was not a fun thing for us.

My last moments of peace were interrupted by Daniel knocking on my window and I whined to myself before rolling it down and acting as though loitering in his driveway was a completely normal thing to do. "Good morning, thank you for interrupting me as I tried to prepare myself for whatever he has in store for me today."

Daniel smiled uneasily and I could tell he was about to tell me something I didn't want to hear. "In that case I would maybe suggest taking another couple of minutes, just to make sure you're really prepared."

"Oh no, why? Daniel, I swear if you tell me he is in a worse mood than usual I might just quit. I didn't even think that was possible!" I rested my head on my steering wheel and waited for him to give me whatever bad news he had.

"Well, I don't know if it's any worse than normal but you know that brand deal that you guys worked on last week for a really long time?" My stomach sank and I gave the slightest nod. "Yeah, they rejected it and asked him to do something completely different."

I groaned before unlatching my seatbelt and figuratively puttIng on my positive pants. Daniel followed me up the driveway and held the door open for me but I stalled before stepping inside. I could immediately hear Christian grumbling somewhere not far away and we exchanged a look before going in.

I kept my tone light as I dropped all of my stuff at the door. "Your partner i. Crime has arrived and I'm armed with coffee and positivity!"

I rounded the corner and saw Christian with his head in his hands, already glaring at me from the table. He had a script for an upcoming audition, the contract for the dreaded brand deal, and a half-finished Twitch schedule scattered around him. "I'm going to lose my mind."

"Now, that would not be the best thing to do. You need that to function," I said, pushing his coffee into his hand and patting his head. He dodged from my hand away and shoved the coffee back at me. I frowned and sat down, nudging the cup toward him. "You wanted that five minutes ago when you asked me to pick it up for you."

"Yeah, well now I don't," he grumbled, looking back down at the script and viscously scribbling things in the margins.

I saw Daniel eyeing the cup from the corner of my eye and I held it out to him. If I couldn't make Christian happy, at least I could make one of the other Seaveys happy. He gave me a grateful smile and went to his room to avoid any more of Christian's grumpiness. Lucky guy. "So, what's the gameplan for today?"

"You're the assistant, shouldn't you have that all figured out?" His snappy tone and attitude made me frown a bit; Christian was never so short and rude with me, and I knew it was because he was stressed but it still hurt. He didn't seem to notice and continued mumbling to himself.

"Daniel said the brand deal fell through, so maybe we should redo that?" Christian acted as if I didn't say anything and wrote something down, continuing to focus his attention on the script and act as if I wasn't trying to help him. "So let's stop doing that and focus on the more important thing," I suggested, laying my hand on the paper and pulling it away from him.

He yanked back harder on it and looked at me like I was bothering him rather than literally doing my job. "I have to get this done! Can you stop being annoying and let me work!"

"Christian, I think the brand deal is more important right now," I replied, letting his comment roll off my back. There was no use in worrying about something like that now when I was watching Christian lose his mind. "Actually, I think a break would be the best thing."

He scoffed at the suggestion and shook his head. "You have no clue what I am going through. I have a million things going on and I should be able to have an assistant to rely on to help me with all of it but instead I have you!" Christian's screaming had attracted both of his brothers out of their rooms and they looked cautiously between us.

"You're right, I don't have a clue what to do right bow but I can't help you if you don't keep me in the loop. You take on too much and you don't let me help," I said calmly, watching him roll his eyes and scoff. "Seriously, just breath for a second."

"You keep acting like my mother and trying to baby me when all I need is someone reliable, which clearly isn't you!"

"Okay woah, let's take a deep breath and not verbally assault her," Tyler said, but Christian shoved his chair back and breezed past both of us into his room, slamming the door behind him. I stared in shock after him and felt Tyler's hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Daniel moved towards me as well, wrapping me in a hug. "He didn't mean any of that. You know how he gets when he's stressed, not that that makes any of what he said about you okay. You're an amazing assistant and an even better friend for him."

"Yeah, anyone else would have quit awhile ago," I mumbled into his shoulder before pulling away and walking to open Christian's door, which was locked of course. "Christian, open the door."

"Just leave me alone!"

Tyler frowned at his tone and gave me an apologetic smile. "Why don't you just go home? There's no reasoning with him when he's acting like a child."

"Nope. We have things to do and letting him on his own is the worst idea. He's going to have an aneurism." I grabbed my laptop from the table and sat down right outside his door, much to Daniel and Tyler's confusion. "He has to come out eventually."

Christian had waited until it was quiet for awhile before opening his door and he sighed at the sight of me right at his feet. "Why are you still here?"

"I work here," I mumbled back, scooting over so he could pass. I watched him grab Tylenol from the kitchen and followed him into the room before he could lock me out again. He gave another exasperated sigh and flopped into his chair at his desk. "What are you doing now?"

"Everything," he said, and this time instead of sounding mad, he sounded tired. Really tired. "I have to get everything done and I just don't see how that's going to happen. Plus I have to stream tonight and I'm just so exhausted."

He was on the verge of tears and I knew there was no way he was going to be able to function for his stream tonight if he kept going like this all day. This time when I pulled the script away from him, he let it happen. "Please lay down and just chill for a second. You have an assistant for a reason. I'm supposed to be the one to fix all the problems, but you always make it your job."

"I'm really sorry I've been awful to you. I didn't mean any of that stuff I said." He tried to continue but I pulled him up and steered him towards his bed, tucking the comforter around him. "But what about the brand deal and my stream?"

I smiled and took his phone that was still clutched in his grip. "Like I said, I'm the one that's supposed to fix all the problems. I'll wake you up before the stream, but I think you should take a break for tonight. I'll talk to the boys and see what they say, okay?"

He hesitated but knew that I was right. "Thank you, seriously. You're a rockstar."

"I would say you are too, but that's more Daniel's thing. Now sleep, please. You're mean when you're tired." I smiled so he knew I wasn't mad and let the door quietly click shut behind me, finding Tyler on the other side. "The bear is sleeping and I wouldn't advise waking him. You know the saying."

He smiled and nodded. "Need any help?"

"Nope, I have everything under control. That's what an assistant is for."