The Switch - jschlatt

16

"GO LEFT!" Schlatt shouted at me. "LEFT, MIKI!"

"There's a wall there!" I yelled back over Discord. We were playing GTA, and we were on the run. I was driving the car as fast as possible, and Schlatt was back seat driving as much as possible.

"LEFT!" He shouted again.

"Fine!" I gave in, turning left into the wall, killing us both with a car explosion.

"Finally, we're done with this dumbass game," Schlatt said, leaving the party. "Wanna do Just Chatting for a bit?"

"Sure," I said, changing my stream. Schlatt no longer streamed on his own channel, but he streamed a lot with me on mine. It brought my viewers up, but it was also just legitimately fun. Whether or not we were streaming, we would probably be talking over Discord anyway, so we might as well make money while we were at it.

"Tell me a joke, Miki," Schlatt said rather quietly. He sounded like the real Schlatt, not his persona.

"I don't know any jokes," I giggled.

"Think of something," he begged.

"Why do seagulls fly over the sea? Because if they flew over the bay, they'd be bay-gulls!" I laughed. Schlatt had absolutely no response, which only caused me to laugh harder. Schlatt let out a small laugh, which caused tears to start falling down my face from laughing, and he followed suit.

"You are so goddamn cute, Miki," he said. My eyes widened as a smile slowly formed on my face.

"I'm still streaming, Schlatt," I informed him. I looked over to chat, which was flying with cute messages about us.

"Oh, shit. Well that's the end then," he said quickly. I couldn't see him, but I knew his face was getting red. I said goodbye to chat once more before ending.

"So, what was that about?" I asked.

"Just sorta came out," Schlatt admitted. "I didn't mean to say that out loud."

'That's okay," I said. And it was. I had accepted by now there was no chance of me being with Schlatt, but a small part of me would always love him. I knew he would never like me though.

"Miki, I like you," he blurted out. So I was wrong, but most of all, I was in shock. I couldn't think of anything to say but he started talking again before I had the chance. "I want to tell you because that's how I'm feeling, but I also feel like I'm betraying the old Miki. I'm not sure what to do."

"Take your time," I told him. I was getting used to dealing with the unexpected, so I stayed pretty calm. "I appreciate your honesty."

He sighed. "Goodnight, Miki. I'll talk to you tomorrow," he whispered.

"Goodnight, Schlatt."

As I laid in bed, waiting for sleep to take over me, I thought about Schlatt and what he had said. Although a part of me hoped maybe we could be together again, it was overshadowed by the truth that we never would. As I finally fell asleep, I dreamed of all the memories we had, knowing they would never happen again.

-

The next day was the same as usual. I went to the gym, did some video work, and then it was streaming time. Before I started, I got into a call with Schlatt.

"People shipping us is gonna be annoying," he said.

"Chat is always annoying," I countered, starting stream with our mics muted.

We played some COD, bantering as usual and ignoring all of chat's questions about our relationship. It felt normal, like nothing had even happened yesterday, and I was relieved that we were still friends. This went on for a long time. Weeks and weeks of us streaming and hanging out over Discord to the point I almost forgot about his confession in the first place. Chat forgot too. We were just friends, streaming partners, and the possibility of us being anything else had escaped my mind.

"Thanks for coming guys, see you tomorrow!" I said turning off stream. I yawned into the mic, alerting Schlatt the stream was over. He yawned back half-assedly.

"You okay?" I asked him.

"I've been better," he admitted quietly.

"What's going on?" I asked. He took a breath.

"I still really like you, Mik. I want to be in a relationship with you again." My mind went blank. I had never seen this coming, but all of a sudden here it was, out in the open.

"So, what are you saying?" I asked for his clarification.

"Will you move back to New York with me?" Wow. It seemed fast paced, but it wouldn't be the first time we lived together, and although we weren't officially dating, we had been best friends for months. In that moment, it felt all too perfect, so when I took my time to respond, I smiled.

"Yes."