"okay, but hear me out, when i become a famous streamer, i'll make overwatch more popular again," my best friend, lindsay, rambles to me. i nod, half tuning her out. "it's such a good game and people don't play it anymore. at least, hardly anyone streams it."

"mhm," i say, nodding. "hey, where's matthew and paige? they said they'd meet us for lunch." i look up, scanning the large campus.

"i don't know, but do you think my overwatch idea is possible?" lindsay peeks up from her phone to look for our friends with me.

"time will tell." i catch sight of matthew and paige and wave them over, silently pleading for them to get over here quickly. i don't know how much more of lindsay's rambling i can take. the two speed walk over, and we sit at our lunch table.

"how'd the history test go, val?" paige asks me, pulling a salad out of her backpack.

"not too bad," i reply, wiping peanut butter from the corner of my mouth. "i hardly studied, though."

"god, i'm definitely going to fail. what grade do you think you got?"

"probably an a or b. you'll be alright, it's mostly multiple choice."

"matthew," lindsay pipes in, interrupting the flow of me and paige's banter. "did you see the new csgo update?"

"hell yeah," he says, flashing his bright colgate smile. "it's dope."

"why is it that you two only care about video games and youtube?" paige asks, rolling her eyes.

"we don't JUST care about that. we also watch twitch," lindsay says smugly. i let out a light chuckle.

"what do you guys like so much about that stuff? how are you able to watch someone play video games for hours straight?" i ask.

"once you find the right streamer, you'll understand," matthew says, peeling an orange.

"right streamer?" i ask, eyebrow raised.

"yeah. it's like a favorite youtuber, or favorite band. someone you can watch or listen to for hours on end and not get bored because you love the way they talk, the content they post, their energy, stuff like that. like twenty one pilots for you, val. we don't get the hype (no pun intended), but obviously you do. and that's your thing. find someone like that on twitch, and you'll love it, too."

"twenty one pilots is nothing like someone who sits in front of their computer for hours and makes money off of it. your streamer people are weird. and that app makes no sense."

"one man's trash is another one's treasure." matthew shrugs as he throws away his orange peel.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ

the bell rings for my final class and i zip up my backpack quickly. it's friday, and i'm going to spend the night at lindsay's house. i meet up with lindsay in the parking lot, and we walk to her house together. she only lives a few blocks away from school, so it isn't too tortuous.

once we get to the house, lindsay's mother greets us quickly, and lindsay grabs my hands and swiftly pulls me up the stairs. we enter her room.

"please never change your room theme," i say, placing my hand on her mint green wall.

"i don't plan to," lindsay responds, flopping onto her bed. she grabs her dolphin squishmallow and hugs it against her chest, burying her face in it.

"so, what do you want to do?" i ask, making my way over to her bed. her phone screen lights up. "you got a notification."

"let me see what it is." lindsay sits up and grabs her phone off her bedside table. after reading the notification, her jaw drops. she drops her phone, puts her hands on top of her mouth, and starts shrieking quietly.

"holy sh- are you okay?" i put my hands on lindsay's shoulders and rub them gently. she breaks free from my hold to grab a pillow, and buries her face in it.

"OH MY GOD!" she screams into her pillow. she looks up from her pillow, beaming brightly. "i've been WAITING for this one!" she pumps her fist in the air and claps loudly.

"what are you talking about?" i say, more confused than nervous. lindsay shows me her phone and i squint to read what's on it. she's on twitter, on a page called "austinontwitter."

"@tommyinnit love or host on january 29th. auditions held this sunday. join the call or dm @getonaustinshow to apply. must be eighteen or older to enter," i read out loud. i look up from the phone and bite my lip. "who's tommyinnit?"

lindsay's jaw drops.

"i know you're clueless about streamers, but come on, valerie. you have got to know who tommyinnit is," she pleads. i shake my head and toss lindsay her phone.

"not a clue."

"he's one of the most popular streamers on twitch! he has millions of subscribers on youtube and millions of followers on twitch, instagram, and twitter. he practically became a celebrity in the gaming community at sixteen years old."

"oh. that's actually kind of cool." i move a strand of dark brown hair out of my face. "what's love or host?"

"think of it like the bachelor, but online. in this one, ten girls will compete against each other to try to win over tommy. they get to choose between two options, love or host. love means they are looking to fulfill a relationship with tommy, and host means they joined the show for clout, or to get there name out there, stuff like that. if tommy chooses a girl that chose love, they win the show. if he chooses someone that picked host, then he loses."

"do people actually start dating if they win the show?"

"honestly, no. i'm not sure if a single stream i've seen has a couple that stays together. obviously there are people that remain friends, like niki and wilbur, even though i'm totally convinced they dated at one point, minx with schlatt, george, and quackity, karl and tricia..."

"i have no idea who any of those people are, but okay. cool."

"i know you're probably not interested, but-"

"i'm actually very interested." lindsay raises an eyebrow at me, and gives me a look that says "come on, be serious." i laugh lightly and shake my head. "i know that sounds sarcastic, but it's not. that sounds really cool. are you going to apply?"

"please." it's lindsay's turn to laugh. "i would if i could. but you know i'm only seventeen. even though it would be kind of weird for me to enter, since i've been watching him since he was fifteen. i practically grew up with him." her phone displays a notification. "wow, speak of the devil. he just went live."

"let's watch," i say, sitting next to her on the bed. lindsay looks up at me, gawking.

"you've got to be joking," she says, but doesn't seem to give me a chance to change my mind, since she taps her notification and the twitch app pulls up.

"nah, i guess i want to see what the hype is about." lindsay nods and connects her phone to her tv, so the app is streaming on her tv.

"who are you and what have you done with valerie davis?" she asks while giggling. she pulls up tommy's stream, that currently has 180,000 viewers.

"damn, he's popular," i mutter under my breath.

"please, his top viewer count is 650,000. this is nothing," lindsay says.

"are you kidding? over half a million people tune in to watch someone play minecraft?"

"over half a million people tune in to watch the lore of the dream smp. don't even get me started on that, because my god, i could go on about it for hours. it doesn't even feel like a minecraft roleplay, it feels like a real tv show. i'm manifesting for it to become a tv series or a movie, or maybe even a book series." i laugh and turn my head to the tv. it's currently showing a purple screen that has "stream starting soon" written in bold white letters.

"it should start any minute now," lindsay says, drumming her fingers on the remote control.

about a minute later, the purple screen fades to reveal someone's face. the person on the screen has messy blonde hair, and the most gorgeous crystal blue eyes i've ever seen. he has fair skin with a slight pink undertone to it. he's wearing a slightly wrinkly red and white t-shirt and black headphones on top of his head.

holy crap. he's beautiful.

"SUP CHAT!" he shouts, popping open a can of coca cola.

beautiful and extremely loud.

"welcome back to the stream boys!" he lets out a laugh, revealing his beautiful smile. he has perfect straight white teeth and a bright, wide smile. his smile isn't quite the same colgate level as matthew's, but i love it even more. "it's great to be back, today we're going to be on the dream smp with friends, and i guess we'll see what happens... no lore planned for today, just hanging out." he finishes off his soda and tosses it into a trash can across his room. he has a thick british accent which tells me he's from the united kingdom. on the other side of the world. an eight hour time difference. yet, somehow, he still intrigues me.

we finish the stream within two and a half hours and i'm sold. tommy's funny, cute, has a great personality, great energy, and the best laugh i've ever heard.

"how'd you like it?" lindsay asks, turning to me. "it wasn't a lore stream, so it definitely wasn't as interesting, but-"

"it was cool," i interrupt. "he's cool. i might tune into his love or host, actually."

"oh, pog!" i shoot her a confused glance. she scratches her head. "pog basically means 'cool' in the twitch community." i nod slowly.

"so, uh, i'm going to go to the bathroom. i'll be right back." lindasy nods, pulling out her phone, probably to scroll on twitter while she waits for me. i exit her room and head towards the bathroom.

so i downplayed my reaction. this guy isn't just cool, he seems amazing. i enter the bathroom and lock the door behind me. i put my back against the door and slide to the floor, curled up in a ball on the cold tile. i take out my phone, download twitter and log into my old account (lindsay forced me to create a twitter account when she first got into gaming about three years ago. i deleted the app the next day) and search up "austinontwitter" to read the tweet over again. auditions this sunday. videos due this sunday. i sigh, and exit out of twitter, opening up safari.

was i really about to do this?

i sigh, and with trembling fingers type in "how to make a video audition."