F i v e

A  S o c i a l  C i r c l e

Someone had been knocking on my door.

"I'm sorry, but if you look above my head there is a red alarm-" I paused once I gazed my eyes over to George, who couldn't help but smirk back once I'd been shouting the past sentence.

My friend passed through the door whilst I shut it in a huff. He was waiting for me to pause my game as I hopped onto my office chair and swiveled around. I guessed he thought: since I was his best friend: he could easily pass my shade and freely enter my personal space. It was likely, though, considering we had been sharing space since the start of university.

George yawned, "Can you do me a favour?"

"No." I simply replied, crossing my arms. There I looked back at his face, which pulled the most persuasive expression that I would always give in to. Groaning, I felt my face relax once I spoke, "If it's something where I'd have to get involved, I'm a bit busy at the moment."

I had zoned out quickly, noticing his dark lids under his eyes. George had leaned his body against the door frame, and his clothing seemed out of place. Creases were visible on his plaid shirt and I knew he had worn those jeans yesterday. And yesterday had a turn of events, including the editor's night out at the pub.

In conclusion, I raised an eyebrow: "Who was it?"

"Who was what?" His eyebrows furrowed. And after a couple of seconds, George had finally caught up once I spotted his annoyed face.

"Can you not 'Sherlock' me, [Y/N]! Why can't I easily go through one simple night stand without getting interrogated?" George hissed and I there I burst out chuckling.

I replied, "I'd say Craig, but he lacks the certain zest; but Tom on the other hand..."

"[Y/N]!" He growled and I waited for his anger to pass by. Feeling a little bit of guilt, I changed the subject back to the original. Luckily he had returned a passive persona and explained about having to monitor tonight's stream. 

He pleaded, "Why can't I got through one fucking night where you just don't know what I did."

"Because we're friends," I simply responded.

"Yeah, friends that are assholes."

"Good assholes...well not mine obviously, not when that happened."

It had been a week since I moved in, and majority of my interaction was either Sam, Martyn, George and Turps. In any case of wondering, George would gently shove me to greet another co-worker of ours. I knew he wanted to be a good friend, though I would always be sneaky enough to find something to dodge the bullet once more.

The only person I knew that did not dodge my introverted attitude was Kim: and I would never regret my encounter with the petite woman. A very bubbly and enthusiastic person, Kim was by means someone who knew how to work within an environment of other people. She liked to cook by noticing the cook book on her shelving area; Kim was Malaysian too due to the types of ingredients the cook book included.

There was also Hannah. She had the spite to clearly keep the men in this place at bay and take some serious pointers about working environments. I've heard multiple things from various people about her. Though it hadn't alarmed me. It wasn't too worrying for my involvement.

As a result, the more I deduced: the more how intriguing and individual the Yogscast members were. I guess that was why they found George and I  who seemed to fit their agenda.

"So you'll do it? Take Sam's place whilst he's away?" He tilted his head.

I nodded and hummed before I simply said, "Of course. He's a nice man, terribly shy though."

"Guessing you know more than him being shy..." George was the one who'd raised the eyebrow. "Anyways: it'll be the Deck Rippers stream tonight. Lewis and Turps will go over with you on what to do. And I believe that Steve will be there too, but he's off for the afternoon really."

Once he knew I understood, I was left watching him wave off down the corridor. And in the glint of my eye, I swore he had skipped a bit as he exited the doors. Shaking my head, I shut my door and returned back to recording - implying the rest of the office as I lit my red alarm back on.

____

The morning lasted quite peacefully after George had come up to my office and much rambled on his discussion. However, I did wave through the slim windows of my door. The blonde man I considered a friend had walked pass by during the hours near midday. And by his pause by the door and his awfully perfect stance: Martyn was going to invite me to lunch.

"Great job, [Y/N]." I grumbled. My head was leaning onto my desk, my arms wrapped around as I slumped myself over into a heap of exhaustion. "Four hours ago, you could have actually got some social interaction." I took a deep sigh and pulled my body back up, re-tidying my hair back and taking another yawn.

My eyes began to gaze over to my bag, and saw the un-touched lunch I had made.

It had reminded me very much of the second day at Yog Towers: when I had tried to sneak down to the small kitchenette for a mug of tea. There I took another breath whilst I shut my eyes at the thought.

'Why is this so much harder.' I mentally groaned to myself. 'It's been over a week. Pull yourself together [Y/N]'

I knew I was planned to meet up with Steve at the time, knowing as well that the man had plans for this afternoon. With some self-persuasion: I shut down most of my desktop and monitors - preparing to make myself home into the livestream monitor room.

Steve was already there, chatting with Turps about the stream until I had knocked onto the open door. My body began to tense, but I held back a panicked face once they had both taken notice of me.

Turps was the first to say, "Oh hey, [Y/N], right on time. Just discussing with Steve, here, about what we usually do during Deck Rippers."

I nodded in response and led me to drop my bag down by the spare chair before I stood by Turps. Watching the monitors and sound and light editing softwares, Steve directed me the basic instructions. My head kept nodding as I filled my head with the new information; sometimes I added some odd looks at some of them. Mentally slapping myself, I knew then that I shouldn't question how they really stream.

Steve then paused. "Actually, that's quite an issue at the moment. It is a bit buggy, but maybe you can help out with Same changing some of the set arrangement."

"Um, it's fine. I was just thinking, you don't really have to-" I was stopped by Turps, who even grinned back.

He spoke: "No, no: that's actually great. That's the great thing with having people like Sam and you: you're always there to point out some of the flaws and fix them."

"Oh..." I simply answered, forcing myself not to draw in my embarrassment of the compliment.

Steve added, "Plus I'm just the plus one here. I'll be off in a few minutes."

Turps nudged me with a smile on his face, and I could not resist but faintly smile back in appreciation.

"You'll do fine, [Y/N]." Turps reassured me, patting my shoulder. Steve had already left after twenty minutes and the two of us were wrapping up the little tweaks we had adjusted to run the stream more smoothly on Twitch.

I huffed, and said: "Thank you, just please don't make it hard for me."

He only retorted back. "I don't know...Lewis is pretty salty and open when it come to HearthStone." 

Yes: the infamous duo and their very interesting stream was usually mentioned whenever the day comes. If it wasn't Deck Rippers on Twitch, it would be the DnD session Kim had mentioned once I asked about the drawings on her office wall.

Even then, I had not even talked with Lewis Brindley, ever since he had come and checked out the server room after it had been fixed. The man was pretty busy, though he would always gave me a simple gesture or a greeting in the mornings. Sometimes, he'd just stop and ask if I was settling well into the office.

Though whenever I looked at his face entirely, there a pang in the back of my head. Self assuring, I knew it was probably the overload of work, and the heavy amounts of coffee and tea.

"If you would be kind not to start a trend, it'll make my life easier." I cheekily added, and Turps smirked back before he had gone off to probably grab a drink or more.

Turps replied: "No promises." I thanked him with a smile once he quietly shut the door, letting the last half hour for me to prepare the stream.

I tried to feel as comfortable as possible, swinging helplessly on my chair - book in one hand whilst the other was subconsciously on the mouse. My lip was pursed whilst I focused more on the text. It was about a girl, travelling down the river Amazon. Meeting her relatives who only swoon on riches and their selfish greed on using others below them. In the end, I knew that it was slightly a bit boring, though I focused quite a lot on the relationships and social interactions.

Luckily, I remembered that it was five more minutes til the stream was going to begin. And I quickly opened the Yogscast Twitch channel, allowing a flood of viewers bombarding the comments section. By the time Deck Rippers began, I was relieved that the Moderators had calmed majority of them. I knew they were fans or viewers, but sometimes it was struggling to not have a headache most of the time.

"Hello, and welcome back to Dick Rippers!" 

I heard Lewis shout from my headset, chuckling to myself at those two adults shouting.

Turps gasped and then, "You can't say dick, it's Deck Rippers. There are children watching this!"

There banter continued until they began reading the comments, adding on some jokes and mentioning about some inside jokes I clearly did not know.

An hour in, I was only left carrying on changing the green screen whilst scribbling quickly on my notes. Most of them were rubbish: ideas that often popped out of my head. They were the usual improvements on PCs and hard drives and different sets. I still felt like I had just graduated; even after university, I still loved learning new variations.

"So if you guys haven't known, Sam isn't actually running this stream." I flicked my head up towards the screen as I heard Turps mention me.

And to my confusion, Lewis' face scrunched up as he said: "Wait what? I thought Sam-"

"Oh no," I watched the CEO almost gave a nervous chuckle and I straightened my posture. "It was a rush. Sam had some emergency business, and Steve usually doesn't do afternoons..."

"Feckin' Steve..." Lewis butted in, "So who's monitoring then?"

"Sam said they were really helpful, so I asked George if he could ask [Y/N] to do it." I raised an eyebrow as I spotted Turps shrug before taking his drink towards his lips.

Patiently, I awaited for the immediate response I was going to get. And by that time, I felt my fingers almost grow heavy on the keyboard - as well as being numb. Though once I knew, I held back the sudden push of emotions. Why did I care for the man to give an opinion? He was the one who had accepted me to join their network.

Lewis didn't say anything, just nodded.

Mentally, I sighed in relief.

"She's great - I mean - [Y/N]'s actually a content creator, but she's fixed majority of our tech equipment with Sam."

I could feel my eyes dart back at the man once Lewis spoke. His face: it showed praise - almost pride. I wasn't so sure about it.

My mind almost wandered to my further deductions, but I was abrupt when Turps then loudly said to the audience. He was recommending them towards my content. I could not help but roll my eyes at that, though a smile urged onto my lips - feeling more embarrassed once the comments began to mention my name. Only a week here: Turps and Lewis had already dropped the [First letter of name] bomb.

It'll be pretty funny once he mentions his sister being engaged to another YouTuber.

The stream overall ran smoothly, and I had began to pack up my satchel before heading off to my office. Turps had reassured me before the stream: that the later stream wouldn't need a stream monitor, so I reluctantly felt relieved for that. I didn't want another sudden responsibility for the evening.

"I didn't know you could do that too." I jumped from the spot, since I had my back turned from the door. Looking back, I took a deep breath before facing the man by the door.

I said in a breathless tone, "Jesus Christ...does everyone in this building scare the living daylights out of people once they enter the room?"

Lewis raised an eyebrow before he chuckled, "Living daylights? Who uses that term anymore?"

Couldn't help but purse my lips, I continued to tidy up the stream monitor room as he tried to put some conversation to stop the silence. I didn't really have anything to retort back in all honesty.

"Anywho, I just wanted to catch up with you, you know..." He paused. "With the stream and everything. I didn't know I'd have a multi-tasking person when I hired you."

Glancing up, I looked at Lewis with a solemn face. "No problem, Lewis. I'm just here to lend any hand." I waved my hands to show some comedic sense back at him, to which he seemed to gave back an amused look. Sighing, I pulled a faint smile as I got my bag and placed it onto my shoulder. "Any issue, feel free to ask."

"I'll take note of that," Lewis smiled.

He gave a way for me to exit, and I thanked the man once he shut the lights off and shut the door. When I was beginning to walk back to my office, my body paused. I knew I had to say something, but my head was retreating back - becoming hostile.

"Hey [Y/N]" I whipped back round when Lewis spoke. His eyes almost seemed to show most of his content, since all he did was smirk back with his lips. "Let me know if you need any help, that's what friends do right?"

A friend.

"Friends," I faltered between my words as I felt my cheeks warm up.

 Pausing, I let my mind control again. And there I finally gave him a genuine smile as I replied his request. "Of course. Friends. I'd like that, Lewis Brindley."

____

A/N: Not gonna lie, I thought this was going to be a filler chapter. I guess not, since now Lewis has now gave [Y/N] a proposition of being friends, even though she doesn't exactly feel very open yet.

But of course: development is gradual, and I've been dying to write the next chapter. A lot of bickering and banter between the two in the next chapter. Hope you guys are enjoying this :)

-SierraOwls