Simon wanted so badly to glare at her.Ĭhuckling somewhat nervously, he said, “Well, I don’t know if you noticed, but our videos aren’t exactly alike.” “Yeah, Simon, why haven’t you?” Leah asked. Ethan? Simon used to think he was pretty good at names and faces, but that was before he met hundreds of people in the span of two days. “Why haven’t you guys ever collabbed?” someone else asked. Simon returned with what he hoped was a totally platonic grin. But who would really care? Plus, it wasn’t really anyone’s business.īram gave him a shy smile. Sort of, but they’d only met a few days ago. Simon’s first instinct was to answer truthfully. One of the people he’d been chatting with (was her name Marissa?) asked, “Omigod, are you guys friends?” “I had some time to kill, I thought I’d say hi.” “Hey, what are you doing here?” he asked, super aware that everyone in the near vicinity (and the camera) was watching him.īram shrugged. She was grinning entirely too widely for Simon’s liking. Abby was deep in conversation with a couple girls, and Leah was on camera duty. Nick had stolen Simon’s ukulele and was playing for a somewhat entranced audience off to one side. A decent chunk of the people there freaked out and bombarded him for pictures and autographs, which Bram took fairly in stride, then he sat down near Simon. The most surprising thing was Thursday afternoon, when Bram showed up to one of Simon’s meetups. Then Thursday morning, somehow Leah roped Simon into going to a fandom discourse panel where Bram was speaking. On Wednesday, after they had all registered and had very little to do until the concert started that evening, Garrett and Nick decided that they’d all go out to lunch. He assumed that their paths wouldn’t cross much, since he and Bram had very little in common, vlogging wise. Besides, he had plenty to occupy him to keep his mind off things-like the weirdly high number of times he and his friends ran into Bram and Garrett. Thinking about Blue at Vidcon was guaranteed to bring him down, and Simon had no desire to feel down at Vidcon. Not that he wasn’t great, it just didn’t seem much like him.īut maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. Besides, he felt weird speculating about who Blue could be when Blue so clearly didn’t want Simon to know who he was.Īnyway, the more time he spent with Bram, the harder it was to believe that he could send secret, anonymous, flirty emails to anyone. It would only make him feel awkward around Bram. That was 100% Simon Logic, as Alice would say. The thought had crossed his mind, for a split second, that Bram might be Blue, but he dismissed it immediately. Wondering if Bram might be gay felt too much like wishful thinking, and he still couldn’t shake the lingering guilt over having a crush on someone else. He also found himself actively trying to not think about Bram. It was entirely possible he’d come to a panel or meetup. After all, he knew Blue watched his videos. He didn’t really have the heart anymore to email Blue, but he kept wondering if he ever passed or met him. He sent what felt like dozens of snaps an hour to Maddie and his other friends, he posted a bunch of photos on Instagram and Twitter, and his camera got passed around between him and all his friends, collecting footage that would be compiled into a vlog (or several) later.Īs much fun as he was having, Simon couldn’t help but overanalyze every encounter he had with guys around his age who could conceivably be gay. But the whole thing was completely amazing. His cheeks actually hurt from smiling so much, and his throat was sore from all the talking and cheering he was doing. There were panels and concerts and networking events and meetups, where Simon gave out so many hugs and autographs that he thought his arms were going to fall off. An incredible, colorful, sweaty, heart pounding whirlwind.