You Are My Light (Chapter 5)
Title: You Are My Light
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Ian and Anthony finally arrive to L.A. for the YouTube commercial. During their first night there, Mitchell, a used-to-be close friend of Ian, asks Anthony some uncomfortable questions.
A/N: Hey hey! Here's another chapter for you~ I apologize for the wait. Tell me what you guys think! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Smosh and none of this happened! (Some of their recent videos say otherwise LOL.)
Chapter Five
It was around quarter to 5 in the morning and Ian was in no mood whatsoever. He was upset that Anthony broke his promise about not drinking at Kevin's party the night before, he felt confused and anxious of Anthony's reckless behavior towards him, and he felt tired because he barely got enough sleep. Ian demanded Anthony to drink water and rest in the car while he packs up everything for their business trip to L.A. Ian would do everything by himself rather than to have extra stress on his shoulders from Anthony's terrible hangover issue. Ian had a hard time focusing from lack of sleep so he took 5-hour energy pills to stay awake throughout the entire drive up to L.A
It was still dark outside and the crickets were singing like they have been through the whole night. Ian took a moment to calm himself down by looking at millions of stars twinkling in the night sky. He learned that meditating really made him feel at peace. Even 5 minutes of silence can ease the tension in his mind and body. Even though Anthony was not cooperating with him at all, Ian felt at least relieved that only one of them was drunk. It would have been so bad if both of them were drunk because this commercial was super important to them. This opportunity could be taken away in a blink of an eye. Ian got into his car and turned his key in the ignition. He tuned in to his favorite radio station and turned the volume down. His eyes drew to Anthony's laid body on the passenger seat. His head was leaning against the window and his black and white hoodie served its purpose as a cozy blanket. His hair was cutely messed up, his cheeks were as bright as freshly grown tomatoes, and his snore was soothing and comforting. Ian thought to himself, even with a hangover, you manage to look so adorable. Ian shook his head and focused on getting to the hotel they were staying at for a week.
The 5-hour energy pill finally kicked in after getting on the highway. Ian hasn't slept so bad since the time he experienced a traumatizing event that involved a ball pit and a clown at a friend's birthday party when he was a kid. So much has been going through his head he just couldn't sleep with a busied mind. The fact that Anthony forced intense mouth to mouth action on him made him contemplate whether that was real or a very bad dream. Ian wouldn't stop thinking about how hot Anthony was or the way he said I want you. One thing he surely, most definitely couldn't stop thinking about was Anthony's attempt to get into his jeans. He would shake his head every time that thought came across his mind. He felt so embarrassed and weird about it. He always thought Anthony had a forceful personality, but nothing like this. However, at the same time, Ian had a liking to Anthony's aggressive behavior. Ian never had this kind of action in his life before and it was pretty exciting. But as always, Ian shook his head to release those extreme thoughts out of his mind.
Ian glanced over at Anthony as he shifted in his sleep. He looked like a prince in his sleep; his lips were shining pink and his long eyelashes laid delicately on his cheekbones. Ian noticed a small smile appearing on Anthony's face as he continued to snore. He thought to himself, I wonder what he's dreaming about.
After hours of driving through L.A. traffic, the boys finally arrived at a hotel along the boardwalks of Venice Beach. Luckily they had hours before they had to meet up with other YouTubers for a meeting, so Ian parked his car and got their bags.
It was about 9 in the morning when the boys settled in their hotel room that had a million dollar view of the ocean, the crowded boardwalks, and the tall green palm trees. The room had a sweet smell of fresh fruit, plants, and honey.
"That was a great nap." Anthony placed his duffel bag on one of two queen size beds and stretched. Ian threw his bag by the bedside table and plopped down on the other bed. The energy pill was wearing off just in time.
"Thanks for your help this morning. I really appreciate it." Ian muffled sarcastically into the pillow.
"Ah." Anthony finally recovered from his hangover. He sat down on the edge of the bed with Ian. "I'm sorry."
"Dude." Ian turned his head to face Anthony. He still wasn't happy with Anthony about breaking his promise. "I told you not to drink. This commercial is really important, you know."
"I know." Anthony scratched the back of his neck. "It's been a while since I had that much fun."
"Fine." Ian understood that Anthony had been cooped up in the house for weeks because of his sprained ankle. "Just don't drink too much during this week, alright? We don't want to give a bad impression on the producers."
"I promise." Anthony smiled.
"For real?"
"Yeah." Anthony held out his pinky finger. "I promise."
Ian looked at his pinky then back at him. "I don't believe it."
"I'm legit this time." Anthony said. "Promises become legit with the pinky."
"Nope." Ian looked hard at Anthony's big brown eyes. "Even with the pinky, you can't resist a drop of beer."
"Oh, yeah?" Anthony smirked. "I'll prove to you I'm worthy of my promise."
Ian mocked his smirk and turned his face back to the pillow. For a moment, there was no movement or sound coming from Anthony so Ian turned his face back to see Anthony's face really close to his. As an automatic reflex, and with the assumption of another hot surprise attack from Anthony, Ian grabbed his pillow and smacked Anthony's face away, sending him to the carpeted floor. Ian didn't realize how strong he was.
Anthony dramatically rubbed his face as if it really hurt. "Oh, you're gonna get it now."
Ian fled the bed as soon as Anthony grabbed a pillow from his bed and threw it at him. Anthony chased Ian around the hotel room with two pillows in his hands as ammunition. The room was filled with laughter, threats, and Ian's mastery of comebacks. Ian escaped to the bathroom and locked himself in.
"You can run, but you can't hide!" Anthony laughed on the other side of the door.
Ian took a moment to catch his breath. "I will! Forever if I have to!"
Ian finally got out of the bathroom and they settled their disputes. Ian allowed Anthony one free hit to the face with a pillow. They both agreed that if beer was offered during the weekend, Anthony will only have a one bottle or can. And beer was not a problem with Ian, since he wasn't a person who really drinks at special occasions. The meeting was scheduled after lunchtime and they met up with a lot of their YouTube friends they haven't seen for a while. They met up with iJustine, Shay Carl, kevjumba, Nigahiga, KassemG, MysteryGuitarMan and many others. They all met in a really fancy conference room in the hotel with the director, camera and sound crew, editors, and the producers. The director's plan was to let the YouTubers pick one of their earliest videos when YouTube just started then shoot the way they act to this day. It was going to be a compilation of the YouTubers' progression over the years they've been entertaining the world-wide internet audience, which will promote users all over the world to create their own channels and become entertainers themselves.
The meeting lasted the whole afternoon and everyone was exhausted from work. But they were all excited to start shooting the next day. Most of them thought it was all business during this L.A. trip, but the director rewarded them to a mini private party in the hotel's pool. Everyone took out their Flip cameras and camcorders and filmed their fist pumping to loud music and epic tricks into the pool. Ian got out of the pool, dried himself and put a T-shirt on.
"Where are you going?" Ryan Higa called out. "We're about to play marco polo!"
"I gotta go pee!" Ian said.
"Okay!"
Ian sprinted to the bathroom house when he bumped into someone coming from a different direction. What seemed like a large body almost knocked Ian to the ground, but was quickly saved by a hand catching his arm. "Ah, sorry!"
"Ian?"
Ian looked up and saw Mitchell standing before him. "Mitchell!"
"Hey." Mitchell smiled. He helped Ian balance again.
"What are you doing here?" Ian happily inquired.
"I'm here for the YouTube commercial." Mitchell answered.
"You're part of it?" Ian asked surprised.
"Yup." Mitchell said. "I'm editing the music with the other guys."
"Why weren't you at the meeting today?" Ian asked.
"I had to take care of some business downtown L.A." Mitchell answered.
Ian couldn't hold his bladder for too long. "Ah, I'll catch you later. I gotta go pee!"
"I gotta go, too." Mitchell followed Ian to the bathroom.
After a moment of awkwardness and the only sound emitting throughout the bathroom were waterfalls, Mitchell took his chance to speak. "So, did anything happen last night?"
"What do you mean?" Ian focused on peeing as fast as possible.
"It's been a while since I seen Anthony that drunk." Mitchell commented.
"Yeah." Ian laughed. He walked over to the fancy circular golden sink.
"He didn't do anything crazy, did he?" Mitchell flushed the urinal.
Ian started to remember what happened the night before. He totally forgot about it when the meeting started today. He can feel his face getting hot. "Um. No. He pretended he was a macho WWE wrestler." That was sort of true.
Mitchell laughed. "Bet he was totally aggressive."
"Yeah." Ian half smiled because that was true as well.
"I'd be concerned if he took advantage of you." Mitchell said as he washed his hands and checked his reflection in the mirror.
"Why?" Ian asked confused. "I mean, sometimes Anthony takes advantage of me. It's never a big deal anyway."
"Hm." Mitchell looked at Ian. Mitchell had a puzzling look on his face, but quickly disappeared with a smile. "Nevermind. Forget I mentioned it. It's weird."
"Okay." Ian was still confused, but decided not be concerned. "Are you going to be at the shoot tomorrow?"
"Yeah." Mitchell said. "I'll see you there."
The lifeguards told everyone to leave the pool by the time it was midnight. Everyone had to get up bright and early for the shoot the next day. Everyone said goodnight and departed to their hotel rooms.
"I am beat." Ian yawned. He grabbed a towel hanging from a chair and headed to the bathroom. "I'm gonna take a shower."
"I'm gonna go get something to drink." Anthony grabbed his wallet from his bed. "Want anything?"
"Pepsi please!" Ian said from the bathroom.
Anthony grabbed the room key and headed to the vending machines that was just by the pool. Children were running up and down the hallways with a soccer ball and a woman who looked like their mother told them to go inside their hotel room. It brought back memories when Anthony used to run up and down the endless hallways in hotels screaming with his brother when they were younger. Their mother would always yell at them to be quiet and they would laugh because she was being just as loud.
Anthony pressed the button for a bottle of root beer when he felt a presence behind his back. He turned his head to see Mitchell staring at him oddly. "Oh, hey, Mitch."
"Hey." Mitchell smirked.
Anthony inserted another dollar into the machine. Anthony wasn't as close to Mitchell as he was to Ian but they were mere acquaintances. To make it less awkward, Anthony decided to be kind. "I heard you're editing the music for the commercial."
"Yeah." Mitchell said slowly. "I'm very excited. This is my very first project and I hope nothing goes wrong."
"Everything will go great." Anthony smiled.
"Thank you." Mitchell said. Anthony gathered the two bottles of soda and slowly moved out of Mitchell's way. But Mitchell stepped in front of him, mimicking his movement.
"You know." Mitchell began. "You and Ian make a great team."
Anthony didn't know exactly how to respond so he smiled and said, "We get that a lot."
"Anthony." Mitchell rustled in his bag. "There's been something I've been meaning to ask."
"Sure." Anthony said.
"Can you explain to me what this is?" Mitchell held up a Polaroid picture to him. The picture was a bit blurry, but Anthony was able to make out what it was instantly. It was a picture of him and Ian on top of a bright lighted Ferris Wheel with their faces close together.
"What is it..?" Anthony asked as if he didn't know.
"It seems to be a picture of you and Ian." Mitchell said. "My niece, who's a very big fan of you guys, took it on a sky lift. She wanted to know if this picture is actually you guys."
"Yeah, that's us." Anthony could have lied, but he didn't want to explain anything if Mitchell was going to accuse him of lying. Anthony could have told the truth, but he didn't want to awkwardly clarify anything either and then attempt to lie. Thank goodness the picture was blurry. "We were just hanging out."
"What were you guys doing?" Mitchell asked curiously.
Anthony didn't like questions that made him feel uncomfortable. So he decided to turn the awkward situation around. "What do you think we were doing?"
"Kissing." Mitchell said immediately.
Backfired. "Well, sorry to disappoint you, Mitch." Anthony joked. "But Ian and I are nothing like that. At all."
"You don't have to lie to me, Anthony." Mitchell stated. "You can lie to your fans and your YouTube buddies, but not to me."
"I'm not lying, man." Anthony said. He looked at the clock tower by the pool. It was past midnight and he needed to get some sleep. "I don't know what your deal is, but there's nothing going on between me and Ian."
"Just warning you, Anthony." Mitchell announced. "If I see anything, I'm going to have to report it to the director."
"Mitchell." Anthony said impatiently. He had to make sure he didn't tell him off or he would suspect something. "You're definitely over thinking things, dude. You should rest. We have a big week ahead of us."
Anthony quickly left to his room before Mitchell had the chance to say anything else.
"You can run." Mitchell said under his breath. A devious smirk appeared on his face. "But you can't hide."
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