slow burn; sapnap

twenty eight

"is this working? type 1 if you can hear me," hadden looked at her phone rather confused as she was attempting to stream from it for the first time. "hi loves! how is everyone?"

she propped her phone up on one of the tables in a creator lounge while she also watched her laptop which was open with the chat.

"i'm hanging out with a couple of other people right now honestly just killing time. i have the women creator panel in around an hour or two i think? we were gonna go find something to do but only some of us got invited to a fancy creator input meeting so now we have to wait."

"yeah, let's call them out," george said scooting his chair into frame. "karl and dream were asked to join. same dream who may as well have forgotten his login with how little he streams."

"i don't think we were supposed to say their names." hadden said trying to keep serious but wanting to laugh.

"what are y'all doing?" nick came over and grabbed the back of hadden's chair, leaning over her shoulder to look at her set up.

"say hi to my stream."

"hi stream." he reached over hadden to grab a water bottle in front of her, causing her face to heat up a bit from how close he was.

"someone asked who all is here, george do you wanna give the run down?" hadden leaned back in her chair to let george better lean into frame and take in the whole room.

"lets see. we have aimsey and ranboo. sneeg was here a bit ago but i guess he left. austin is here, by the way be sure and watch me on name your price. niki and hannah are here. and i'll be honest i don't know many of these other streamers. my knowledge is pretty limited." george said and finished in a whisper.

"who am i cheering for in foodbeast? oh thats a tough one." hadden teased knowing both george and nick would be playing.

"don't let her fool you guys. august is team sapnap all day." nick said nonchalantly before crossing his arms.

they continued to stream for maybe another 20 minutes until their friends were done with a meeting. with the bit of spare time they had until hadden's panel, she went with nick, george, dream, and karl to find something to eat and enjoy their time of peace.

"did you have a good time on your date last night?" dream asked hadden genuinely.

she looked up and watched karl, george, and nick were attempting to make a tiktok that george begged them to do.

"we did. i had a really good time." she watched in admiration as nick kept messing up their takes by laughing.

"i like you guys together. it makes sense."

"it feels like it makes sense too."

"are one of you," a man walked into the empty room they had found and immediately looked at his clipboard. "august?"

"yeah, that's me." hadden smiled and began standing up.

"i'm here to escort you to your panel. follow me."

"you've got this." dream smiled at her as she started to part from her friends.

"have fun, augy!" nick cheered while karl and george both waved and said their byes.

hadden had gone into this panel less nervous than the dsmp one. she assumed this would be easier and that she would feel excited to be a part, that was until it actually began.

about 15 minutes in to the panel beginning, during a moment of applause for an answer that hannah had given to a question, someone in the back of the room stood up and began to yell.

"august is a whore! we know you are using everyone!" the voice screamed before a security guard quickly came and took them out of the room.

the applause was loud enough that not too much attention was drawn to it, but august heard it. it was so unprovoked. she had spent the last few days with such positive reactions. she didn't know why this was prompted.

tina reached over and held her hand under the table, knowing she was clearly upset by the statement.

"reminder that every woman up here is equal and had equal earned their spot and their success and deserve to be built up rather than torn down. okay, sorry you can resume." aimsey quickly said into her microphone in response.

this was met with applause and a few 'we love you august' which should have made her feel better, but it almost made it worse. it meant it was heard and she couldn't just ignore it. she gave a soft smile as a thank you and hoped they could just move on.

she continued to crack her knuckles under the table and anxiously bounced her leg. she answered questions when prompted but prayed this would be over sooner rather than later.

as soon as they dismissed, she practically ran off the stage to escape the situation, not realizing niki and tina were following closely behind.

"august, wait up." tina said as they followed her into a bathroom backstage.

august went in and sat on the floor and instantly collapsed her head into her hands, niki sitting by her side and tina squatting in front of her.

"oh sweetie, i'm so sorry." niki's voice soothed.

"you don't have to listen to them. they don't know you. you're friends know who the real you is and thats all that matters." tina said softly as she pushed her hair out of her face.

"i thought i could make it the whole weekend without having to hear anything like that." hadden sniffled as she wiped under her eyes.

her phone started buzzing in her pocket.

nicky
i just saw on twitter what happened

are you okay?

where are you at?

"do you wanna go find him?" niki asked as she glanced at her phone.

all hadden did was nod. she wiped her face and grabbed tina's hands to stand. she pulled both of her friends into a tight hug as they all left the bathroom only to find nick walking down the hallway.

niki softly patted her back to let her know to go over to him.

nick's heart instantly sank as he saw how red her eyes were and a few stray tears still on her cheeks.

"hey," he pulled his hoodie sleeve over his hand and carefully wiped her cheek. "i'm really sorry. you know that if it wasn't some insignificant probably fourteen year old girl i would go beat the crap out of them, right?"

hadden let out a sad laugh as he pulled her into his chest.

"yeah, you'd probably get in trouble for that."

he placed a hand under her chin, tilting it up to make eye contact with him. his eyes were so light and gentle in this moment.

"they seriously don't know what they are talking. you're the most perfect person and most deserving person i know. you are so far from anything they said."