Chapter 66

Owen drew in a breath, calming himself down. His wrist didn't hurt as much as he thought it did. The scars on his chest did. He decided not to take too long and opened the door. He kept the tension to himself. 

Ophelia and Mary looked over. Isabella remained occupied by her laptop. 

"Something wrong?" Mary asked as soon as he stepped in. "Was it the owner?"

"No, someone else. He wanted me to donate to a charity."

"Hm, okay." Mary looked away and so did Ophelia. They believed his answer. They didn't see a reason for him to lie. Plus, they had a drama to watch. 

Suddenly, there was an eerie, glitchy sound coming from Isabella's laptop. The screen went white. Frustration boiled in Isabella, jaw clenching and fingers tightening into a fist, Isabella slammed her fist down on the armrest and swore.

"That shit better be saved…" Isabella seethed. "God dammit…"

Isabella got up and rushed to her room, brushing past Owen. He saw the tinge of fear in her eyes. This went beyond frustrating. The laptop was old and it took so damn long for her to write.

If only he had the money to buy her a new laptop…

"Sheesh. Anger issues," Mary remarked. 

"Can't blame her," Owen replied, replacing Isabella in her spot. He watched the Turkish drama alongside Mary and Ophelia. "The laptop is really shit."

"Hm, I see. I would offer to get her another one but…" Mary tossed popcorn into her mouth. "My current funds are purely for myself."

"I don't expect you to. That expensive dinner was good enough for me."

"And the gifts," Mary added. "I hope you like my gift, Phelia."

"Oh, um, of course!" The blonde in the giraffe onesie didn't have the heart to admit that she wasn't a purse-type. "I will cherish it. For sure."

The Turkish drama started off with a tense scene and everyone went quiet. Owen was partially not interested. He thought about Isabella and the laptop. No, not just that, her PC too. It needed to be replaced soon. Even his own set-up was good enough. 

With the way Isabella worked, switching between PC and laptop, he figured he needed to buy both. Bare-minimum, that was going to be a thousand dollars. He was already struggling to pay rent and support his girlfriends. The logistics just weren't there.

He didn't know what to do. 

'Should I just do more overtime…?' 

He wasn't sure if Boss Mike would allow that. The tower's completion was imminent with maybe six months remaining. For the last stretch, an outsourced team was going to come that specialized in machinery. As a result, their hours were going to be cut. They were already warned of this.

That day wasn't today but it was coming close. Money, money, money…

'At the end of the day, whether it's WuTuber or streaming, money means everything. I can't be comfortable or at one hundred percent when I'm stressed because of my living conditions.'

The larger problem at hand was the economy itself. Everything was so damn expensive. Moving out wasn't an option. The time and effort for moving too…ugh, Ophelia was just beginning to consider this place home. He couldn't leave right when she was making progress in her life.

'Screw it. It's not like I have anything to lose.'

That day, Owen decided to stream for the first time in a long, long while.

***

He didn't what was carrying him. He knew earning money from a hobby on the internet was a far-fetched dream. Even still, he wanted to persist. He wanted to talk to others. Whenever he was on WuTube and videos of friends laughing together, a pang of jealousy always struck his heart. He wished that his life could be like theirs. He wished he had made the same decisions that allowed those WuTubers to become rich, famous, and happy.

Why hadn't he made those decisions? He berated himself for that every day. If only he had joined the game early-on. If only he knew how amazing WuTube would be in the future...

But it was too late. Now, he was competing against thousands. Now, everything was different. 

Owen closed the door behind him, sat in his chair, and booted up his computer. What popped up was the editing for Isabella's next video. She often came into his room to do it since her PC struggled to run video editing applications.

He knew Mary was going to be agitated over this but whatever. He had to do something. Better something than nothing. Sitting there and wallowing in his anxiety wasn't going to help. Rushing Isabella into videos wouldn't help either. She was just starting her career—her rhythm. Trying to force ideas and scripts out of her was going to backfire.

Owen sat there, the mouse clicker right about to start the stream. His channel name was "Aloof_Heart" which didn't mean much of anything. It was a name he picked out a long time ago from an online name generator. He considered changing it.

On his streaming channel, he had three followers and a total of three hundred views. He had streamed over five hundred times. Five hundred VODs that were each nearly six hours long. Most were gaming streams. 

'So if not gaming, then what? What can I do to garner views fast?' 

Something viral. Something cheap. But what? The era of personalities was clashing against money in WuTube. On Glitch, it was still largely about personalities. The landscape was simply different. 

But what made one streaming personality stand out from another? What could make Owen stand out?

'What am I good at? What is it that I have fun doing other than playing video games? I love that stuff but clearly I'm not charismatic enough to draw in people. I could click-bait but…that just feels not like me. It feels too desperate. But…aren't I that desperate?' 

Streaming was spontaneous and energy-draining. If Owen didn't have a big ass scar on his chest, he would have been fine with streaming for hours on end. But when every little movement hurt, the pain was bound to show on his face.

'What the hell am I complaining about? I'm Owen. I should just suck it up and do it.'

So, "Aloof_Heart" went live and elected to do a "Just Chatting" stream. The title—REACTING TO ANYTHING & EVERYTHING. 

Because reaction streamers seemed to be trending on Just Chatting.