Chapter 2: Bonding Time

The next day:

Olivia's pov:

I woke up after a great night of rest. I was super excited today as I was supposed to go to Sam's house to collab for his channel with him and his two friends who lived with him.

I stretched my hands to awaken me fully, and looked at the view from my hotel room which looked so gorgeous! It was night and day compared to my apartment back home. where all you could see is building after building covering up the trees and the sky.

After brushing my teeth, taking a shower and blow drying my hair, I headed down to the lobby, ready to start the day. According to the schedule given by Vidcon, the whole afternoon was booked for sightseeing LA. Since we were free to do whatever we want in the evening, yesterday, Sam and I decided to meet up at the lobby at 6pm to go to his house for the video collab.

So after everyone assembled near the entrance of the hotel, we boarded a huge bus that had the YouTube and Vidcon logo all over it! I looked at the sky to see the LA sun shining bright. It was so warm but I wasn't sweating up a storm that easily like I did back home.

After the bus driver took his seat, we were off to visit major attractions like Universal Studios, the Hollywood sign and more! My mind was engulfed with the beauty of LA.

In the bus, I was sitting with two YouTubers, Phil who was sitting in the aisle seat and Nikita who was sitting in the middle seat. I did not know them at all but after some exchange of details about each other, we connected really well.

We mostly talked about our lives and how YouTube eventually changed it for the better. I was so happy to make so many new friends on this journey. Being an introvert, it wasn't my cup of tea but I genuinely enjoyed their company so it wasn't that hard to befriend them. I was quite proud of myself to be honest! On a side note, I can't believe that, that was my biggest life achievement! Says a lot about me but moving on.....

Nikita's pov:

(Nikita is an extremely competitive and selfish person. She runs a drama channel  and often tries to start drama for content and views)

"Ugh" I thought to myself while rolling my eyes subtlety so Olivia and Phil wouldn't notice, these buffoons bored me to death!

The only thing I paid attention to is when Olivia mentioned that she had '10M subscribers' while I only have 900k!

"No hunny, this has to change", I thought to myself while looking at Olivia with disgust while she was busy admiring the city. She did look pretty but obviously not as pretty as me.

As Phil and Olivia continued to chat, I thought to devise a plan that would get Olivia down and me to the top! I smirked while giving them a death stare for a few seconds. I love giving people death stares, its my specialty. I will squash anyone who gets in the way of my success.

After a few minutes of brainstorming, I came to the conclusion that in order for my plan to work, I'll need to get some dirt on her. This won't be difficult at all as along with having a drama channel, I have a natural born talent of finding people's nasty secrets! I began to smile at myself, "Im such a genius" such compliments began circulating in my mind. I was as excited to carry out my plan as a 5 year old getting some candy.

Olivia's pov:

After briefly looking out the window of the bus, I noticed Nikita lost in her own thoughts. I was confused as she was just smiling while looking at the ceiling of the bus. Even Phil looked as confused as I was.

We both gave ourselves a subtle gesture, indicating our confusion. I eventually snapped my fingers near Nikita's face. She lowered her head looking at me.

She looked bit annoyed to be honest. "Wha- I mean yesss what happened you guys?" she questioned with a huge smile on her face!

Was it a fake smile? I thought to myself but immediately disregarded that.

I asked, "What happened? What are you thinking about?" while raising both my eyebrows.

Nikita looking a bit annoyed for some reason but quickly looked outside the window, avoiding eye contact with me and replied "Oh nothing, LA looks beautiful, right?" again with the same smile as before. I didn't think much about this and continued the conversation with them.

After chatting a bit and admiring the streets of LA, the bus reached its destinations.

"We have arrived at our stop" the guide who was assigned to be with us mentioned at every stop. She was extremely sweet and very informative.

The entire trip was super fun. Nikita, Phil and I formed a group for the entire trip. We took a lot of pictures mainly for Instagram, ate a lot of delicious food and enjoyed the rides at the amusement parks. It was quite a day!

The only downside was when Nikita got extremely angry when she chipped off her acrylic nails during the roller coaster ride but we won't go into detail on that as it wasn't a pretty site.

Hours later~

Still Olivia's pov:

The sun was setting, leaving its orangey hue scattered around the sky. The bus returned to the hotel, we got off feeling super tired and beat. Almost everyone including my new friends, Nikita and Phil went back to their rooms to relax while some hung out at the lobby. However, I waited at the fountain that was lit up in the evenings near the front gate, to wait for Sam to arrive to pick me up for the collab.

As I was waiting while sitting on the chair near the fountain, in my mind I was revisiting the beautiful places I went today. All of them were really amazing! I never had so much fun as I did today. Nikita and Phil were really fun people! I was happy to meet  them.

After listening to some music on my phone while wearing my AirPods and scrolling through Instagram, I noticed Sam walking into the hotel. He wore a grey shirt with a black jacket over it and a pair of black jeans. I waved at him smilingly and got up from my chair.

"Hey!! How was LA?" Sam asked while trying to adjust his smooth silky hair.

I replied, "It was amazing! Much more beautiful than I imagined. I made "some" friends on the way which is very new to me.."

Sam's pov:

"Well I'm glad that your day went well. Shall we leave before it gets late?" I asked.

She nodded and we proceeded to go to my car. As she entered the car, her floral perfume filled the air.

In the car, we talked about how each of us influenced our lives. She mainly talked about her excitement to meet me. I could tell by her expression how happy she was to be this close to me. I looked at my reflection in the car mirror and I think I was blushing for some reason. Was I?

Nah....

A few minutes into the chat, I mentioned a lot of personal details that I didn't even tell my YouTube audience. It had to do with the day both my parents committed suicide due to financial issues and how that incident still haunts me to this day.

After my parents passed away, things have been pretty rough mentally and physically for me.

As I was talking, I paused as I saw a very sad look on her face.

I kinda tried to lighten up the mood by telling Olivia how her videos lightened me up. They were actually really helpful to me.

Olivia's pov:

When Sam told me all about this, I was extremely broken apart. This guy had gone through so much trauma.

I could never imagine going through such a thing in life. I was happy though, that he is trying his best to come out of this and live life happily. I am optimistic so I had full faith that Sam would eventually become fully happy again.

I sighed with relief and pushed a strand of hair that was bugging my face, behind my ear and said, "I'm so grateful to know that I made a difference in your life. You will be able to confront your fears and be mentally strong"

I steered the conversation into a completely light hearted one for the rest of the journey.

Meanwhile in the hotel~

Nikita's pov:

I was sitting in front of my laptop which was on the coffee table in my room.

"Aah, this is extremely frustrating! How can one person have such a clean past? I have found nothing to use against Olivia and ruin her reputation online." I thought to myself while clenching my hand into a fist.

Just then I suddenly loosened the tension inside my mind as I had come up with a devious idea.

What if I sneak into Olivia's room to find anything at all to use against her and since she went out for some pathetic collab in the evening, it will be much easier for me to execute the plan.

Since I can't find anything online, maybe there could be something here.

"Oh Olivia, you are not ready for what is going to come at you." I said with a huge smile.

"Nikita how can you be such a genius?" I praised myself with immense anticipation to carry out my plan.