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“Also, I’ll be in Chicago this weekend visiting family and I want to have a meet up!” Ian exclaimed into the camera, “Details will come out later this week, so keep updated on my twitter,” he pointed to his left, “and my Instagram,” he pointed to the right, “As that is where I’ll put all the information. Can’t wait to see you this weekend, or if you’re not in Chicago, next Monday!” He waved into the lens for a few more seconds then immediately dropped both his arm and smile and regrettably thought about the next few hours of editing he had to endure to get the video up on time. Ian loved making videos, but Sunday nights were the worst time to make them.
‘Serves me for keeping it to the last minute,’ he bitterly thought. Turning off the camera, lights and taking out the SD card, he checked the time on his phone.
“1:34am?” he cried out loud, really hating himself now for procrastinating for so long. He sighed angrily as he bitterly walked away from his comfortable queen bed and favourite pillows, out of his bedroom, and moved to the next room, his studio. Getting comfortable in the office chair was difficult. It was old, creaky and too tall to fit his obnoxiously muscled legs under the desk.
‘But,’ he remembered, ‘it was the sacrifice for a better camera and editing software’. He booted up his Mac desktop and inserted his SD card into the reader opening up Final Cut Pro from the menu bar. As the footage that he had just captured was busy importing he got up and went to the kitchen, getting a beer from the fridge. He had always liked editing while he was slightly intoxicated, it made the footage seem funnier and he was happier with it. It also reminded him of home and his teenage years where most of the short videos that he was first uploading to YouTube were him and his family drunk and filming the stupid shit that was happening that night. He was surprised no one had ever arrested his sister about those, he was obviously a minor and drunk on the internet, but they only had about 12 views each, so no one had ever paid attention to them.
By the time Ian had finally edited and exported the new video it was 3:46am, so before he had any second thoughts about what he had created, he quickly stripped to his boxers and climbed into bed hoping for a long sleep in.
Ian’s’ stomach woke him up the next morning, ‘Or should I say afternoon,’ he quickly corrected as he checked his phone that read 12:06pm. He laid in bed for a few minutes, quickly going through his notifications on Twitter, then making a tweet himself.
‘New video out today!! Get excited it’s a #funnyone xx’ his tweet read. By the time he had gotten showered, dressed and began making lunch it had been retweeted over 2,000 times.
He sat down at his uncomfortable desk again to finally upload the video. Eating his lunch, he went through his own subscriptions finding something to pass the horribly long time it takes YouTube to upload a video. He was about to give up and marathon a show, ‘Friends, maybe?’ when he saw a video from his favourite account, Fcuk-U-Up a channel that only uploaded semi-regularly, well more like a few times a year. Ian loved it because the guy who owned the account made short silent films that always packed a really emotional message that would almost always make Ian cry. The music, the cinematography, even just the titles of the videos made Ian extreamly jealous of the guys’ creative mind. The channel was also based in Ian’s home town in Chicago, so seeing the familiar surroundings, but in this artistic way always made him excited to watch.
Ian tried to get as comfortable as possible in his cramped chair as the video loaded and then his body was momentarily frozen in place as the first chord of the video began. The music and visuals accompanied each other so beautifully that Ian was almost crying in the first minute.
He was so invested in the turf war that was happening on his screen that he didn’t even notice that 14 minutes had passed until the video ended. He also didn’t notice the tears running down his face until he heard soft plop’s on his empty plate.
‘God that was fucking emotional,’ Ian thought as he quickly wiped his eyes and moved the plate onto the desk, ‘who would have thought a gang war would make me cry?’ After writing his very first comment on the channel, a short good job under the emotional latest video, he looked at it stupidly. Ian didn’t know how to describe what he had just went through emotionally into one comment, but he felt like he needed to say something. He spent a few more moments trying to think of what to say, but finally gave up on making it sound better, pressed enter and quickly checked the progress on his uploading video which had just finished. Writing his description was a basic copy and paste from his last video, then he went about choosing an appropriate screenshot to make the thumbnail, and naming the video before he finished. Ian quickly opened up Twitter and pasted the URL for the new video into a new tweet, urging his 2 million followers to watch.
Mickey loved Mondays. He would wake up late, usually after 3pm, and watch the new video Ian Gallagher had uploaded. Mickey wasn’t a fan of vloggers, especially the young, pretty boy type, but Ian was different. He made his audience think about actual issues, not just 6 minute challenge videos, and Mickey respected that. He appreciated the fact that Ian was taking vlogging in a new direction and sticking it to the mainstream YouTubers who only did the exact same video every week. But what Mickey loved the most was that Ian was punctual, he never missed a Monday and almost always uploaded before the time Mickey woke up.
He sat up leaning against the wall his bed was pushed against and opened his laptop looking at his subscriptions. Ian’s video this week was about what he had learnt in his childhood and how much he appreciates everything he has now living in LA. Mickey completely understood everything Ian said in the 6 minute video, Mickey was living that life Ian had so luckily gotten out of, the poverty of Southside Chicago, the thugs, the crime.
Mickey was about to close his laptop when he continued hearing Ian’s voice, even after Mickey was certain the video had finished.
“Also, I’ll be in Chicago this weekend visiting family and I want to have a meet up!” Ian’s deep voice shouted through Mickey’s earphones. Mickey felt butterflies in his stomach as Ian shamelessly plugged his social media sites, claiming he will use those to release the information on the meet up later this week.
Mickey began thinking on how he could meet Ian this weekend, he and his brothers were out on runs every weekend and he wouldn’t be home til late Sunday night, like usual.
‘Fuck,’ he thought as he started moved from his bed to get dressed, ‘How will meet this fucking asshole?’
He thought long and hard about it as he ate his breakfast, two pop tarts he had stolen from his sister’s plate
“Hey, fuck you!” Mandy flipped him off as he greedily pushed to two pop tarts in his mouth at once, showing her he was thoroughly enjoying it by the massive smirk on his face. After he finished breakfast and washed his mouth with a mouthful of vodka, he went back into his room to see the response from his latest video.
Even though he only had 12,000 subscribers on Fcuk-U-Up, he got thousands of comments on his videos, usually asking about the next video, which he would reply with a blunt, ‘whenever the fuck I make it’, or they would comment stating that the video made them cry, which were a lot nicer to read. Mickey use to think those who were so open about their feeling on his videos and the internet were weak, why the fuck were they crying at the stupid shit he made, but he had gotten so used to it now that even the male viewers who were stating that they cried didn’t make Mickey want to punch their faces through the screen.
He was scrolling through his comments on the latest video, the same shit of crying idiots when he found a particular idiot that caught his eye.
Ian Gallagher it read besides a small icon of Ian’s smiling face. Mickey felt his face flush and his breathing shorten. Even though he would never admit it to anyone, because he definitely didn’t have a death wish, he had a big crush on the ginger and it had been lasting for a long time, ever since Mickey was 8 years old and Ian had started in his Little League team.
Great job on the video, it was so beautifully shot and the music really complimented the visuals for this one. Cried like a little girl :)
Mickey could not believe what he was reading. He quickly clicked on the profile, making sure it wasn’t one of those stupid fake accounts people seemed to enjoy making, then read the comment a few more times.
‘For this one?’ Mickey questioned, ‘Does this mean he had seen more of my videos?’ He began to feel really self-conscious of every single video he had ever uploaded, all 12 of them, and began to think of how many Ian had seen. ‘I hope it wasn’t any of those fucking old ones I made, they were fucking stupid, he would probably hate them, fuck.’
Mickey was too concerned with this new information that he didn’t even hear his sister walk into his room.
“How did people like the video?” She asked jumping into bed next to him.
“Uh,” Mickey was startled as he quickly tried to close his laptop and move it off the bed, but Mandy was too quick.
“What, did they hate me?” She asked as she grabbed the laptop out of her brothers’ sweaty hands. Mandy usually played the main character in his videos, she loved to act and he didn’t have much choice, but there had never been a bad comment about her on any one of his videos. She looked at him questioning as she opened the laptop and read the first comment on the screen, “Oh my fucking god.”
“Give that back,” Mickey half-heartedly threatened her. He was still just getting over the initial shook Ian had given on him.
“Fucking Ian Gallagher commented on the video,” She whispered to him, “Fucking Ian Gallagher!” She then screamed turning to her brother with the biggest smile Mickey had ever seen.
“What about Gallagher?” Iggy yelled from the front room, obviously hearing the commotion going on in Mickey’s room.
“Nothing fuck head,” Mickey retorted back, yelling even louder, giving the clear signal that the conversation was finished.
“Sorry,” Mandy went back to her whisper, leaning her head onto Mickeys shoulder, “I just got excited.” She looked remorseful enough. Mickey trusted her with this YouTube information, no one else in their family, let alone their town knew Mickey was into making videos, and if anyone found out Mandy and himself knew that would be the end. She knew that YouTube was their secret and that it made her older brother so happy to have a creative outlet, she would never intentionally tell anyone.
“Whatever,” he shrugged his sisters’ head off and she understood that was forgiveness for the apology.
“But Ian Gallagher,” she jumped straight back into that huge grin and turned back towards the screen, “I haven’t heard that name in years!”
“Yeah, he’s actually some massive fucking superstar on YouTube,” Mickey replied as he tried to play his voice and actions calmly. She had clicked on his profile and was going through his videos.
“Wow, you’ve watched every single one of these?” She noticed as every single thumbnail read watched.
“Yeah, he’s not that fucking bad.” He retorted as she clicked on his latest video. She grabbed one earphone and offered the other to Mickey.
“Hey, my name is Ian Gallagher and I want to talk to you guys about being grateful for whatever you have,” His intro started. Mickey looked towards his sister and could see that his sister was remembering the Ian that she knew, her best friend through all of her high school years. Her face looked softer as she tried to remember the old Ian in this new one.
Ian continued as he began retelling a story from his childhood involving his drunk dad and his crazy mom in a very imaginable, almost unrealistic way. “Yeah I lived a pretty rough childhood, you could say,” Ian laughed as the story finished.
“It’s like he’s making living here a joke,” Mandy noted, that smile quickly turning into a frown, “like his life before LA is a fucking fictitious story.”
“Wouldn’t you think this was all some fucked up dream too if you got out?” Mickey reacted, defending the YouTuber.
“I’ll never get out,” she said looking at him with a confronting honesty that was only saved for moments between the two.
“Hey if that scrawny ginger Gallagher could fucking get out, why the fuck can’t you?” He tried to reason, but he knew deep down that all the Milkovich’s would be stuck here forever.
“Maybe…” she trailed off as she continued watching the video as Ian made his announcement on his meet and greet. “Wow, we should totally go!” She almost screamed into Mickey’s ear.
“You changed your tune fucking quickly” Mickey noted as he tried to massage the ringing out of his ear.
“He’s coming here! I haven’t seen him since school,” Mandy tried to persuade her brother. “He was my best friend!”
“Can’t,” he grabbed the laptop back from Mandy, “I need to fucking work this weekend, you know? Make some fucking money”
“Can’t you take this weekend off,” she pleaded, “We’ll make some fucking excuse up, and Iggy’ll believe anything.”
“Like what?” Mickey would be lying if he said he didn’t get a bit excited at his sisters plan.
“I don’t know,” Mandy huffed, “Say you have fucking diarrhea or something.”
“He would believe that wouldn’t he?” Mickey smiled, both at the thought of his brother face after hearing that and at the thought that he might actually see Ian after all this time.