Smooth revelations.

Alice and Noelle went with Isabelle to her room. A part of me felt like I should be there, just in case. But a bigger part of me knew that they had to talk about it amongst themselves, without ‘the boyfriend’ in the way. Honestly, I wasn’t worried about Alice and Noelle. They were in exactly the same situation, afraid to reveal their secret out of fear of being judged by the people they cared about. There would be surprise, sure, maybe some questions like ‘why would you do something like that?’ They’d come to accept it soon enough, though. I was sure of that.

I briefly wondered how Isabelle would react, but then I brushed it aside. If anything, she’d be mildly offended that they’d think she would judge them, but that would be it.

I decided to leave them to their business, so I put on my headphones, plugged them to my amp and picked up my guitar. Cake lay next to me, all curled on herself and licking her paws. It wasn’t the first time it happened. Maybe she liked listening to me play? If so, I won’t lie, it’s kinda flattering.

I got lost in my practice, so I don’t know how much time passed before the three girls broke into my room, startling both me and Cake.

“What!? What!?” I asked, taking off my headphones.

Isabelle had the biggest smirk in the world, followed by Alice with the second biggest. Meanwhile, Noelle’s face was beet red as she stood behind them.

“Computer, now!” Isabelle said, going to turn on my computer.

“Don’t you have your own laptop?” I asked her.

“I’m rendering a video, and if I touch that old thing it’ll probably explode.”

Okay, fair.

I looked towards Alice and Noelle, looking for answers to a question I hadn’t yet asked.

“We want to watch Noelle’s videos,” Alice told me.

“Oh. Then yeah, go ahead,” I told Isabelle.

“No! It’s embarrassing!” Noelle moaned.

“I promised to show you my car later, didn’t I? This is fair,” Alice argued.

“But your thing is cool! Mine isn’t!”

“Says you,” Isabelle said, already searching for a video. “I think it’s amazing, crazy even! You’re an internet celebrity.”

Noelle pouted. “D-Don’t exaggerate! My streams get 500 views tops, and my channel only has like 2.5K subscribers.”

“Girl, do you know how many people at our school are trying to become streamers and tubers?” Isabelle asked. “I know of at least 20. Do you know how many of them have over 50 subs? None. Except you, of course. Noelle, you’re MAKING it!”

I kept my eyes on Noelle. As red as her face was, as much as she fidgeted, as embarrassed as she was… she was still smiling. You could tell Isabelle’s words made her happy.

“I think the use of an avatar is genius, really,” Alice said, nodding in agreement. “You can use that to perfectly separate your online persona from your real life. It’s safer, I think, and I hear V-tubers are super popular right now.” She looked at me, tilting her head. “Aren’t they?”

“Yeah, but it’s also an oversaturated market,” I told her. “Which makes it more impressive that she’s hitting those numbers.”

“T-There are V-Tubers getting like 15K views per stream!” Noelle argued. “My numbers are nothing compared to that.”

“And Brad ‘JusticeLover17’ Ross from Thomas’ class says he had a huge audience of 10 people the other day,” Isabelle told her.

Alice snickered at that.

“Don’t go shaming the guy for giving it a shot,” I warned.

Isabelle shrugged. “I’m not, but Noelle wanted comparisons.” She then saw the first video that appeared when searching for ‘Yuria’. “‘Yuria gently shoots down a simp?’” Isabelle read. Her tone… disbelieving. She turned to Noelle. “Is this you?”

Noelle’s face turned to horror. “That’s STILL up?” She covered her face in pure and utter shame.

“What’s a simp?” Alice asked me.

“...You really don’t use social media, huh?”

“Well, you don’t, either.”

“Yeah, but I go on certain forums and the like. Anyway, it’s a slang insult for guys who show a lot of unwanted attention towards a girl, sometimes even giving them gifts, money or doing big favors for them, in hopes of receiving affection in return.”

“Ah. Oooh, okay, I think I know a few simps, then.”

“Wait, Oliver, you’ve watched this before,” Isabelle said, noticing the mark on the video’s thumbnail.

Noelle looked at me, gaping, eyes wide as plates before she hid her face again. “I want to die.”

“Please don’t,” I told her.

“Well? Click it!” Alice told Isabelle as she stood beside her, staring at the computer screen.

The two girls watched as the Yuria avatar moved and spoke, reacting to the chat member who gave her money as he asked her to marry him.

Alice gasped. “You have to deal with these kind of people?”

“...Not always. Most of my audience is pretty respectful, actually.”

They finished watching the clip, and Isabelle frowned with arms crossed. “God, you really are too nice. Anyone else would’ve shot him down harder. No, scratch that. Anyone else would’ve taken advantage of it and milked the guy for all his money.”

“Do people really do that?” Alice asked.

Isabelle and Noelle sighed. “You have no idea,” the redhead told her.

“Of all the things you could’ve told us, this is by far the least expected,” Alice said. “You’ve always been so shy, and yet here you are, live streaming yourself playing games and doing these toy reviews.”

“And what about you?” Noelle asked her, puffing her cheeks. “To be honest, I can see you being a mechanic, but… racing?”

“Yeah, yeah!” Isabelle nodded fervently in agreement with Noelle. “I mean… Ugh, I don’t know what to think about that! It’s dangerous, but it’s cool, but it’s also dangerous!”

“She takes all the precautions possible,” I told them. “And she drives better than you, sis.”

Isabelle blinked. “Wait, you’ve been in her car?”

“Well… yes? Did you think Alice and I bumped into each other in the street one day and decided to start dating?”

“Of course not, but… When?”

“Wait, Isabelle, you have a license?” Alice asked her.

“Hm? Ah, no, I don’t. But I do know how to drive. Mom taught me.”

“And you, Oliver?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know how to drive.”

I saw Alice’s eyes brighten and her smile widen in pure excitement. “Want me to teach you?”

“Have you ever taught anyone before?” Noelle asked her.

“Of course!” Alice puffed her chest proudly. “Guess who taught Mila, Grace and Sarah.”

That… made a surprising amount of sense.

“You know what? Sure,” I told her. “I’ve been meaning to learn.”

The four of us continued hanging out in my room. We watched more of Noelle’s videos (much to her amusing dismay), Alice told the girls some of the same anecdotes and stories about her racing life that she told me, and I played the guitar for them at their request. We had lunch with mom, and a few hours later, Alice and Noelle left.

We had fun and the girls revealed their secrets to each other without any drama. Everything went great. Everything… except for the one thing.

…

I wanted to have sex with them. Seeing them, having them close… I wanted them.

Dammit.

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