in the middle of june

jack manifold, stream extraordinaire

i then hear my phone ping, i open it to see a text from my mum.

"oh shit- "

"what's wrong?"

"my mum text me..."

"ok, well i'll sort your drink while you answer it then, if you want."

"ok, thank you jack."

i open my messages and look at the text.

birth giver😒
where the fuck are you!? why aren't you at y/bsf/n's house!? you were told to stay there you stupid thing!! where are you!?

problem child.
i'm at my friend's house, i'm fine.
i was a little too drunk and they offered to keep an eye on me and make sure that i'm actually ok.

am i gonna tell her that said friend is a guy that i technically met online?
no.
why?
because she'll kill me.

birth giver😒
fine.
don't come home until at least six tonight. i've got a friend coming round and i don't want you to get in the way.

problem child.
ok, i'll stay here for a little longer then. bye.

birth giver😒
bye.

i close my phone and follow where jack went, an annoyed and pissed off look remaining on my face from the messaging interaction with my mother.

"are you ok? you look a bit pissed off."

"i'm fine, my mum's just being my mum, that's all, am i ok to stay here until at least six?" i ask, hopeful.

"yeah, of course you are!" jack says, enthusiasm lacing his tone, "we can stream later if you want!"

"that sounds great! thank you so much jack!"

"well drink this," he says, handing me a glass of water. "then, we can make our way upstairs and start streaming something."

i take the glass and drink it. then i hand jack back the glass and we walk upstairs.

"jack, it's only like half 12, one o'clock. isn't it a bit early for us to stream?" i ask.

"not too early, but yeah, you wanna watch an episode or two of 'the umbrella academy' and then stream, it might give you a little time to feel better and eat something."

"oooo, yeah, sounds great." i say.

jack then walks over to his bed and sits on it, turning on his tv and setting up netflix. i stand there kind of awkwardly, not fully knowing what to do.

"you can sit down you know." jack laughs.

"i know, i just- "

"just come here." he laughs again and nods his head towards the bed next to him.

"ok," i laugh.

i walk over to the bed and sit down, putting at least a little distance between us both.
he presses play on the show and we start watching. about half an hour later, i start to drift off to sleep.

"hey y/n, wake up," i hear jack say.

i slowly open my eyes to see that my head had been rested on his lap, i quickly lift my head and look at him apologetically.

(it's 11:11 for me rn, make a wiiisssshhhhhhh)

"sorry for falling asleep on you, didn't mean too." i quickly say.

"it's alright, i don't mind." he smiled back, "you hungry yet?"

"i think so actually, yeah."

"come on then, we've got fruit, cereal, pancakes, waffles and umm...i think that we might have some toast and some jam and stuff." he explains.

"oh wow, umm, i'm not sure, uh, some cereal maybe or some fruit?"

"you can have both you know right?"

"i can?"

"yeah of course!"

we walk downstairs and it down at the dining table. he watches me eat, which was kinda weird - i have to admit, and then we went back upstairs and sit in front of his desk. he went to his brother's room to go and get me a spare chair and we discussed what we were going to do for the stream.
soon after, we were ready to go and jack clicked the 'go live' button, with me just out of the face cam.

"hello! everyone!" jack starts, with alot of enthusiasm, "welcome to the stream." he laughs, "today, it's another you laugh you lose, this time with y/n!"

"hi guys," i say off camera.

i look to the chat on his second monitor, there were quite a few people already saying that they thought we were in the same room by the sound of my voice. i laugh a little at the comments being made in chat.

"you know, for a you laugh you lose, you're doing an awful lot of laughing." jack points out.

"sorry, chat was making me laugh." i explain.

"yes chat, y/n is here, y/nnn, come into view." jack adds, addressing chat's claims.

i move my chair over into frame, look towards the webcam and wave.

"hi chat! i am here! with jackmanifoldtv. stream extraordinaire." i laugh.

"yeah, umm, thanks? anyways, uh, turns out we live super close to each other and y/n is now at my house!" he laughs.

"how come y/n ended up at your house?" i say, reading chat aloud. "well, umm, i- "

"i asked her to come round, so that we could do this collab." jack cuts in, nodding at me ever so slightly.

i mouthed the words 'thank you' to jack before i started talking again.

"yeah, so mediashare donations will be on i think, umm..."

"yeah they are, like usual !donate in chat and attach a video that you want to play, we're gonna start with three lives and depending on how it goes, depends on how much i'll change that." jack explains to chat.

jack and i were streaming for almost two hours, when i got another text. i check my phone and answer, my expression quickly changing.

birth giver😒
my friend is staying over tonight, i don't want you in, so you can get some extra over night stuff later and then stay at a friend's house.

problem child.
what about y/s/n?

birth giver😒
she's at her dad's, what time are you getting your stuff?

problem child.
i don't know. i'll be round later.

i look back over to jack who looked back at me, brows furrowed. i subtly give him my phone under the desk for him to read the messages, whilst turning back to watch the mediashare donos.
jack gives me back my phone and rests his hand on mine, squeezing it comfortingly. i feel small amounts of heat rush to my cheeks.

"chat, i am not blushing and i have no reason to be." i say whilst trying not to laugh and lose our last life.

"wait, huh? i was watching the donos, what happened?" jack asks, clueless.

"nothing jack, nothing." i say whilst smiling and tapping his shoulder in disappointment.

"oh, ok," jack shrugged and we carried on.

it took another 30 minutes of streaming before either of us laugh, probably because my mood was dragged down by the texts from my mum, or maybe because i'm good at 'you laugh you loses'.
we ended the stream and then jack turned to look at me.

"you can stay here." he says, looking me dead in the eyes.

~~~
a.n.:
yoooo, thanks for reading guys.
thanks to anyone that has voted for the story, i really appreciate it, and to the two wonderful people that added this to their public reading lists as well.
i didn't know if any of you want to be named or not, so i won't name you, but thank you so much i really appreciate it and you <3

xoxo