F o u r t e e n

I n  A  R o o m

"Duncan," I knocked on the blonde man's office and he immediately stopped playing his editing and place down his headphones to glance at me from the door.

He waved and said, "Hey. Need something, [Y/N]?"

"Tom wanted you down now... for Games Night," I pursed my lips and he grinned.

Duncan answered, "You paused then; for a second I thought you were going to say Tom had wanted me down now in his dungeon."

I could not help but roll my eyes, but I grinned and said, "Maybe...you will never know if don't go."

"Then let's go see." He wiggled his eyebrows back.

He soon got his room locked up and I walked back to mine. I hadn't really done much today, only a chunk of videos to edit and the vlogs I had done from the previous convention. My viewers had comments and tweets requesting me for more videos with the Yogscast, and it stunned me that they were beginning to adjust to my choices.

George and mine's combined fans were still a bit hasty. We knew it was going to take a toll, but it was probably due to their want for us to move to the Americas. We decided to not to say anything at all, and continued our work as normal.

Sam as usual, carried on asking for my consultancy and I obliged when we planned on improving the whole office systems and computers. I came in today even thought it was my day off. We had completed half of it, but Hannah and Caff had gone to stream. Which meant: I was left fiddling around my office - or nagging other people.

Martyn came around just a few minutes after I got back. He was wearing the most relieved expression, with a glint of pride and happiness. He looked as if his head was over the clouds, probably by the fact that he just gone on a date with his new girlfriend.

"So how was it?" I tried to come up with a conversation. So I asked the simple question.

Martyn nervously laughed and spoke, "Oh god. I should have expected this."

"We've known each other for three months, Martyn." I raised an eyebrow.

And then Martyn added, "Yeah...she was amazing...I mean it was amazing. The date I mean, nothing else."

"Well I wasn't implying anything else." I frowned a little, somehow a bit confused. I hadn't really thought of anything else, just wondering if Martyn and his girlfriend enjoyed their time at the new restaurant opening down by the quay.

Once I mentioned it, he groaned and hit his forehead against the door frame as a joking matter. Martyn laughed along with me and our conversation turned around - mostly talking about what we've edited and played recently. Minecraft was our usual topic, and we discussed on new mods and the new summer camp Kim was planning to do.

George and I had agreed to play, which was an addition to our videos in our channel. That way, our fans know that we're cooperating with other close friends.

But by the time he checked his phone with a crease on his forehead, I knew it was Martyn's time to leave. We both knew to see each other later, so he shut the door for me to let the silent dwell in again. It was a gentle pull, so all I heard was the ringing in my head. There was an urge to go back to my head, think thoroughly of what had just happened. Because for the past couple of weeks, I had no time to think.

Sleep was the worse. I tossed and turn, only to see the girl and the teenager boy. 

The sound of the rustling of leaves and the wind. It was on-going - and I thought I was losing my fucking mind. Even traces of the familiar friend of mine tread upon my thoughts. It was subtle, but it made me feel my fingers go numb: and my chest to grow cold and push my weight down to the depths of my head.

George was naive of it, and always just shook his head and told me off for constantly be awake at five in the morning. There was no use, since as well as that: Pippa and Lola recorded during those times.

When I blinked, I found myself focusing once more on the mug in front of me, left to cool after my mind blanked out. I quickly panned around my office and took control of my hands to click on the hard drive I'd came with today. It was the project again, and I still had more plans to develop even though there was a growing sense of doubt. I've never doubted my work in my life, but it more on the confusion as to why I was doing it in the first place.

'This doesn't seem right; there should be more security placed within the system.' I furrowed my eyebrows, mentally taking a note to talk to my manager about this. But I was caught off track once I heard my phone ping from my bag.

I took it out and pulled back my hair as I did, unlocking it to check the message.

{Tom - Beard Tom} - Guess who wants to meet you.

{Y/N} - Definitely not the Prime Minister.

{Tom - Beard Tom} - You're as bad as him. Why do I text you... I don't even know why.

{Y/N} - Because I take care all of you boys alongside Kim, Hannah, Katie, Anna and Nina.

{Tom - Beard Tom} - Lewis is a terrible influence to you.

'Not when he hasn't spoken with me for the past weeks,' I pressed my lips to feel the grim sentence carry out and echo. It was almost suffocating me, and in the end: I decided to go down to the ground floor - to see who had wanted to meet me.

____

Their recording session for the new Games Night ended just as I entered the ground floor corridor, and my body paused once I spotted two people by the door. Soon Tom finally noticed me, and he grinned down at me - arm folded as if he looked very smug. It seemed from his face that the person who wanted to meet me would have some impact on me.

I spoke, "Considering your awfully smug face: I'm assuming it's someone I haven't met in the office. But everyone else knows him... I believe it is..."

Interrupted, I was paused when the door open and I heard the loudest 'aw' at my face.

My body was engulfed in a massive hug, and I almost had the tendency to escape due to the lack of oxygen getting up to my mouth. Simon Lane had greeted me with a suffocating hug just as they finished recording - earning a few laughs from the rest of the boys around me. My eyelids were shut, but I felt my lips twitch to a smile once he placed me down.

"You're quite tall to what they said," He chuckled and I felt myself force out a smile.

I answered, "They probably feel threatened, considering their strong egos."

Tom Bates whacked me in the arm softly whilst he exited the room with his recording camera. I returned it with a playful wink - sending him to embarrassingly chuckle. The man never stopped making me smile, despite his only preference towards George. But nevertheless, he was like the third company when it came to hanging around our flat. And even though I was mostly the third wheel, he had become a brother to me - majority of the Yogs were like that.

But returning back to Simon, he was delightful man to talk to. Others always spoke of him highly, like almost a legend when it came to his stories during the Yogs' golden years in Minecraft. And since he had returned from his operations, he was recording several series with the boys and George and I. After our meeting, we stayed to help tidy up the board game they had just played. Ben and Duncan had already left to record again and it was just Simon and I chatting.

"It's been a while since we've got any new people... well you of course," Simon talked.

And I faintly smiled. "It's quite a privilege to talk to you, though. I've watched some of the old Shadow of Israphel series. It's pretty amusing."

"You make me feel fucking old, [Y/N]." Simon grumbled the last part and my lips let out a chuckle. "And a reason I met you was to make me feel young, not some old man in a rocking chair."

My response was a bit bitter, and I kind of widened my eyes once it let out of my lips. His reaction was not what I expect, however. He laughed back, saying something that made me feel the crease of my cheeks fade. My smile almost felt lost - wavering. Simon told the truth, after all the weeks of my own head trying to find the solution.

Simon simply said, "You look like you're guilty from hurting someone, was it Lewis?"

I was a bit stunned.

"That was a guess," Simon chuckled. "Fuck. I was right. He's been guilty as much as you have been. I don't really understand why he hasn't talked about it yet."

"He has been ignoring me," I plainly told him, and it was not hard to tell the truth. Simon already noticed the distance between me and Lewis, despite only knowing each other in a few months. He seemed to explain something, but my head was wrapped around the concept of Lewis' guilt. Why would he be guilty of something I've done to embarrass him?

All of a sudden, I blinked back to reality, staring down with wide eyes at the broken glass - my hand empty. I looked back and Simon nodded, which made me purse my lips. Internally I wanted to hit myself for that; I should focus on cleaning the place up instead of pondering.

Simon left me to close the place for the day, reminding me again about Lewis' state. I put on a smile, signalling our goodbyes and I was left to doddle once more in my surroundings.

"Didn't know you'll be in today."

My head looked up once I heard the familiar voice behind me. I wanted to speak, to somehow reconcile with his guilt and mine as well - but it didn't come out well. "I had extra work to do; there's no harm for that." I spoke simply - hinting nothing but a monotone voice.

The door shut closed and I sensed him walking around the room. He usually fiddled with anything - which I've observed - to try and lose his awkward position and situation. I turned around and spotted him carrying two War Hammer figurines in his hands - dancing them around his fingertips.

"Simon told me to talk to you." He spoke.

I replied, "Did he encourage you to make you do it?"

"Encourage..." Lewis shook his head and sighed. "[Y/N]: I've been a big ass. Like really big ass - for not even trying to talk to you for weeks."

I spoke, "I should be the one saying that." There was a surprised look which flickered from his face, but only a matter of time until it died to subtle sympathetic look. My mind was racing, trying to study his face - why would he be guilty of something I did. "You did nothing wrong but be there for me. I've only embarrassed you to majority of unknown people."

"You were having a panic attack," Lewis furrowed his eyebrows. "My friend and colleagues go first in my priorities."

Answering, I placed down the glass that I took from the table. "Then why could I see that you're guilty of me?"

To my expectations, I would have seen him resolve from his frustrations and honestly told me. But then I saw the multiple emotions that flashed before me eyes: and I suddenly paused from my tracks. Lewis was pausing his answer, clenching his hands to a fist as he blinked back. After that: all he did was sigh.

"I feel guilty because I didn't know about it," Those words echoed back into my head. They were not the truth, but not completely lies.

Despite my urge wanting for Lewis to actually tell me, I decided to walk up to him. There was a tug in my chest that I wanted to know why he would hide away a simple truth from me, but another where I should know my boundaries with people's emotions. With an arm, I reached to hug Lewis - trying to find something to make him less tense.

But then I heard, "I think it's best not to, [Y/N]" I stared back, wanting to ask more. Something in my chest tightened.

In the end, I nodded in agreement that it was best. 

Lewis' face still held guilt but it almost died down once he asked if I'd wanted to spend another Saturday lunch with him. I returned a smile and gladly accepted the invitation. At least now: we were in mutual terms. I watched him leave the room, not even glancing back which made my mind even more curious at something he had missed.

My fists curled up and I took a deep breath. 'Why are you mad, [Y/N]? He'd already apologised.' I scolded at myself. However I didn't feel satisfied at his answer.

Lewis knew something about what happened. And I'm planning to find out why I didn't know it myself.

____

A/N: Short chapter, but holy moly that took over a month to finish. I had a bit of a writer's block writing this chapter, since it was just a filler. And I wanted to progress the story a bit more so overall: this chapter was a bit important to know about. It's not my favourite but it was a little thing that could help in the future. :)

I hoped you enjoyed reading :)

-SierraOwls