Back Flip Boy [ Ethan Nestor ]

8.

"I uh-"

"It's okay, I only heard that last bit."

Mark tilted his head. "What?"

"I was unmuted that whole time. I butt-unmuted myself and oh God."

"Firstly, take me out of your butt please." I grabbed my phone, looking at him. "Ah- close your mouth, I know you're going to apologize. Don't. Because I want to ruin our friendship too. I really like you, Y/N. From the moment I met you. I didn't want to tell you because I was afraid you didn't like me back."

"What is he saying?" I turned around, walking away from Mark. "Y/N-"

"Shut up Mark, not your conversation!" I closed my door. "Sorry."

"No I uh- I should have told you earlier. I know it's going to be hard with the distance and everything but... I think if we try we can really make this work. I'm willing to try."

"I am too." my voice turned small. "I just don't want you to think that I'm only liking you for the attention, though."

"Why would I think that?" Ethan sounded genuinely surprised. "Who did that to you?"

"Kyle. That's partly why I didn't want to tell you. I didn't want to seem like I was grasping at your attention."

"You always have my attention, no matter what, Y/N." he smiled. "We can take this at whatever pace you want. Whatever you want to do, it's up to you."

"Um... well I need at least one business minute to process this news." I paused for a second. "Okay, news processed. I uh, I don't really know where to go from here if I'm being honest."

"Well, what do you feel comfortable with? Talking stage? Dating stage?"

"Can we... we can go slow, right?"

"Of course."

"Can we just... not jump into anything yet?"

"Whatever you want to do, babe. Oh- are you okay with-"

"Yes, you can call me babe."

We talked for a while after that, both of us switching between doing what we needed to do and actually talking to each other. I got a good amount of planning done, getting the next two weeks worth of video ideas set. The question was if I was going to stick to that list of ideas I had created. I got dinner from Mark later on that night, him wanting to talk to Ethan but I definitely did not let him.

And thus we continued the cycle for at least another three weeks, maybe more. I lost count of how much time we spent on the phone together. I got teased relentlessly by everyone about it, and Mark may have tweeted something about me being on the phone with someone and never getting off, but other than that it seemed to go good. The best part of this month though, was Youtube payday. And this was the day I would have more than enough to buy a ticket to Maine and surprise Ethan. I had already been talking to his parents about it, and we figured it would be a nice little surprise for him. Mark was in on it too, and he was pretty on board with the idea, surprisingly. I checked my bank account while Ethan was taking a nap and silently cheered, realizing I had enough money to stay there for about a week and still have money to get a few souvenirs. I had put a lot of my money in savings as well, so I always had that to dig into if need be.

So I went online and bought the tickets, messaging his parents the entire time to make sure those dates worked for them. The only stipulation they had was that we had to sleep out in the living room, which I didn't mind. I got the tickets set up and started figuring out what we could do up there, realizing I didn't tell Mark. I took out my earbud and ran into the main room, smiling widely as I jumped over the back of the couch and sat next to him.