CalPal

-22-

Chapter Twenty-Two

    It was the last day of the trip and we were getting ready to pack up my car. We let Clay and Nick do all the heavy lifting while George and I laid down next to each other on the bed and filmed silly TikTok videos together that probably wouldn't be seen. He showed me all of his drafts too which were completely ridiculous but I loved them anyway. The ones that made us crack up he sent me over iMessage so I had something to look at when I'm down.

    "No it's okay, we'll do all the work, it's fine," Clay deadpanned when the two got ready for a second trip down to the car.

    "Oh thank you for offering!" I exclaimed. He rolled his eyes and chuckled.

    "You're such a simp Dream," George giggled.

    "And I'm fine admitting that. Only for her."

    "Hehe, I'm special," I boasted, shoving George's shoulders lightly.

    "So you'll proudly admit that you simp for Cali, but the second a fan points out that you're simping for me, you run over and try to kill me?"

    I burst out laughing and buried my head in George's shoulder, "It's okay George, I simp for you," I told him.

    "Thank you, Caelum."

    Clay scoffed and walked out of the room with my bags in his arms. I smiled and continued talking with George about TikTok. I ended up showing him my profile next and all the drafts I have saved. There were also multiple videos I have saved of me attempting to do a face reveal. After thirty different videos, I realized that doing my face reveal on TikTok wasn't the move. Nick tried to give me advice since he did a proper face reveal pretty early. I wasn't sure if a twitch stream was where I wanted to do it the first time either. 

    That's the thing with hiding your face for so long; the fans create unrealistic expectations about you. They start thinking of you as this drop dead gorgeous human being that's perfect and it shows in the fan art they create. Clay has discussed this with me as well. His fans believe that he's the hottest human ever, but in reality, he's just average. And there's nothing wrong with that, but he feels like he'd be letting them down. Which is something you shouldn't feel when it comes to being vulnerable.

    "I think you should just do it," George said.

    "It's not that easy, George," I sighed.

    "I know I'm not one to talk, but you seemed fine meeting Sapnap and I."

    "It's more complicated than that George. Ask Clay. I had a panic attack in his arms the first time we met. It was so bad. But he had a positive reaction to seeing me, so it made revealing what I look like to you two a lot easier the second go-around. Plus, we've been friends for almost a year. We talk everyday. Doing a face reveal to the fans is like going on a stage in front of millions of strangers. They don't know me personally like you lot do."

    "I just don't understand," he huffed.

    "I know, George. It's okay."

    Clay and Nick came back into the room while George and I were in the middle of this heated discussion. I think they could sense that George was getting frustrated about something, and I'm pretty sure Clay sensed that I was getting equally frustrated.

    "Everything okay?" He asked hesitantly as he approached the bed.

    "Uh," I glanced at George and grinned, "Everything's fine."

    He raised his eyebrows in questioning at me, "Okay," he drawled, "If you say so."

    "The car's all packed for you guys, so whenever you're ready to head out."