Six Years | Quacksel

Chapter 4

It was homey in a sense. The kind of homey where you feel like you can relate to everyone around you almost as if you came out of a factory in mass production.

Aksel couldn't say that a lot.

His face ached from the sheer amount that he'd smiled over the course of 24 hours. These people, all of these other YouTubers, made him feel at home.

Sure, Estonia was where he most definitely felt like his home was, but there he couldn't just talk about something YouTube related and have everyone jump to bring up more about it and add to the conversation. Yet here, that's exactly what all of them had been doing and it made him smile every time.

The group had all gathered to hang out at a hotel bar. They chose a large table encircling a pebble fire pit that was outside so they could be as loud as they want and act however they wished.

It was cozy, Aksel thought as everyone began sitting down. He placed his stuff down on a far end of the table, delighted when he saw Alex give him a bashful smile and start to place his stuff beside him.

That weird connection they'd had earlier still lingered fresh in their minds and even moreso when their eyes met.

Aksel smiled to himself, about to sit down until someone called Alexis's name.

Brandon, he thought as he watched Alex stand up straight, awkwardly holding his belongings before having a short conversation over the top of everyone else's with Brandon about where he was going to sit. Unfortunately, it didn't take much for him to budge, and without an exchanging of words or looks, Alex waddled over to sit beside Brandon on the complete opposite end of the table.

Aksel's heart fell in his chest but he did his best to show no hard feelings by... completely ignoring the whole movement and sitting down, leaning into his palm.

"Hey, mind if I sit with you?" Asked a much quieter than usual voice. Henry.

Aksel had to double-take and really make sure it was Henry--because that certainly didn't sound like his usual character.

"Go ahead."

Henry smiled down at him, then tossed his stuff down and fell into the chair, a bit more accurately to his normal behavior. Aksel snorted.

At first, things were all laughs and jokes, and it was either one person speaking with everyone listening or a million different conversations going on. There was even a point where he and Henry whipped out their phones and began Discord calling each other for the meme of it all, laughing and taking jabs at each other. Most shocking of all was seeing Ani barely pull out her camera, more pointed towards talking with those around her.

Soon, the conversations began to dim and split off into even smaller groups, and Aksel found himself watching Alex and Brandon talk from across the table, his vision slightly askew from the flames.

He wasn't sure what emotion he felt watching them chat. How it made him feel when Alex would let out a beautiful giggle at something Brandon said. It wasn't a bad feeling but it just felt offputting.

He chalked that down to his own selfishness with a sigh, not noticing the eyes that burned into the side of his head.

"You really care about him, don't you?"

It felt like his spine nearly jumped clean out of his mouth with how quickly Aksel jumped and turned to Henry, who he now saw to be watching him.

"Uhm, yeah--he's my best friend, why wouldn't I?" Aksel answered, a little too fast.

Henry chuckled softly. He reclined further in his chair, looking across the fire that stood between him and the two boys over.

"I know what you mean."