Ten years ago, I began a career that most dream about.
It was pretty stupid at the beginning, just me and my best friend cracking dumb jokes as we played random shit we found in his collection. Games that everybody’s played once or twice, like Sonic or RE2, just your average run-of-the-mill games.
Derek had the idea to start recording us play one day after school, late into our senior year. I shrugged, before heading upstairs to ask my mom if I could borrow her camera.
Derek got the idea when he started messing around on YouTube. He noticed randos posting videos playing games, so we figured we might as well give it a shot.
Honestly, it was pretty bad quality at the beginning, maybe 360p at best. We posted the first video of our very first playthrough, just the first Mario game on the Nintendo.
We didn’t think anyone would watch, but a week later we began noticing comments and likes blowing up.
We hit our first 1000 subs that month, if I remember correctly, so we posted more and more.
We never hid our face, like some YouTubers I knew, we were just a couple of seniors looking to waste time.
By the end of that year, we hit 10,000, then the following year, it kept climbing.
In two years we hit over 100,000 subs, and we were ecstatic. After graduation we decided to stick around, and rented an apartment downtown. Derek and I went to a little community college in town, got our certification in Business, and that’s when we truly began looking into a possible career of YouTube.
After four years of building this channel, we hit our first million, so we expanded. We found a few friends interested in helping us out, and I took control of making schedules and recording videos ahead of time. Soon, we had a small business, right in our home town.
A friend created silly merch to sell, and we made a nice website. It was incredible, and we never thought it would get this far.
I just need you to know I love my job, I love my best friend for giving us this idea, and I love the fans we made.
But I don’t love the real horrors we had to face the moment we hit five million subscribers.
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D.N.A (Derek N’ Artie) is our channel, and our gaming playthroughs are a hit across YouTube. I remember the five million party we offered online, we live streamed the event as the number climbed to five million. Derek was in tears, gripping my arm fiercely as I stared wide eyed at the screen.
Our friends leaped with joy the moment we passed the threshold, with chat blowing up in the background. We threw our arms around each other and bawled, while our closest friends launched confetti into the air.
It was a moment I’d never truly forget, and a core memory I’ll keep closely to my heart for as long as I live.
We partied late into the evening that day, and that was when Derek declared it was time we truly thought about going on tour across the U.S.
We dabbled about it for years, but were always afraid nobody was going to show. We kept humbling believing we were never quite big enough yet, until we realized five million is a shit ton of people. I officially agreed, and after a lovely hangover the next day, we began planning for the biggest jump of our careers.
Jada planned the tour merch, while Nessa created the poster. We hooked up with a great touring service from Los Angeles’s, and found our tour bus. It was a lengthy process, with fierce promotion and tiring efforts, but we did it.
Three months later, it was finally time for D.N.A to hit the road, and tour fifteen cities over the course of a month.
We kissed our wives goodbye, shook hands with our friends, and began the journey of a lifetime. I felt elated and free, with my best friend by my side. What more could a man ask for?
Our first stop was Los Angeles’s, then moving on to Las Vegas the day after. We created a show with improv and effects shown in our playthroughs across the years.
Derek is a fantastic storyteller, and created his own bit to host at the beginning. I followed up by pretending to rage at a game I kept losing, while he would calm me down by making way too many dick jokes.
The crowd loved it, the screams and laughs from our fans gave me a sort of joy I never knew. We pulled random fans on stage and high fived as many as we could. We probably were going to be sick as hell after, but we didn’t care.
These people gave us a career we didn’t realize we needed, so of course we wanted to see them. We hosted a meet and greet after the show, and took so many photos that my face hurt from smiling after.
We popped immune system pills and vitamins to keep us healthy, and headed back to the tour bus.
Even though with our energy depleted, me and Derek talked excitedly about the show. I laughed as I glanced behind me, noticing one of our security guards angrily talking to someone outside.
I blinked and stopped walking, turning to face the small rant occurring across the lot.
“I told you six fucking times kid, you can’t wander back here. The guys are already gone.” He snapped, pointing a finger at a younger man.
He looked about to be in his twenties, his face hidden by a black hood as he stuck his hands inside his pockets. He adorned a a pair of ripped jeans and converse, looking like any other kid I knew.
He said something in a hushed whisper towards the security guard, before he huffed. He pointed towards us before shaking his head.
Although I was fucking exhausted, I realized this kid may have missed the meet and greet, so I nudged Derek and began walking over. The security guard turned to face me and put his hands out.
“No, don’t-“ he began as I waved him off.
“Its fine, he’s the only one here. I can take one more photo.” I replied, turning to face the dude.
“Hey man, I’m Artie. What’s your name?” I asked, reaching to shake his hand.
I glanced at the kids hooded face, his smile unnaturally wide, teeth gleaming. I grimaced then, before I noticed his hand slightly shaking as he took mine in his own. I forced a smile.
“Jack.” He replied, his eyes obscured from his hood.
“Oh, uh, well good to meet you man. Want a picture?” I asked, albeit a bit nervous.
He started to creep me out, his hand still gripping mine. I gently tugged my hand away before his arm fell limply to the side, his fist clenching and unclenching before he grabbed his phone from his pocket.
The security guard crossed his arms then, moving to the side.
“Derek, buddy, want to get in on this?” I said, holding my voice steady.
Derek was only about a foot or two away from us, he began to move towards me to put his arm around my shoulder. Jack shifted immediately in his spot, almost angrily.
“I don’t want him to.” Jack interrupted, startling me.
“What?” Derek said, confused.
“Uh? Are you sure?” I asked, surprised.
“Just you.” Jack all but whispered.
Jack immediately rose his phone above us, framing us as best as he could. I gave a small peace sign and forced another smile. In the camera, I noticed Jack’s eyes were slightly in view. I felt a weirded out until I noticed. My face fell when I realized he wasn’t looking at the camera at all.
He eyes were darted towards me, just staring. No smile, his lips were pressed into a tight line. I pretended not to notice before he began hitting the button aggressively, taking way too many fucking photos at once.
I shivered and pulled away quickly, pretending to yawn.
“Good to meet you man, uh, have a good night. Glad you enjoyed the show.” I said politely, not even looking at him.
I could feel Jack’s piercing gaze on my back as I grabbed Derek’s arm, and almost pulled him towards the bus.
“Alright kid, you got your picture, now out.” I heard the guard call behind me.
I hurriedly walked with Derek, my hands slightly sweaty and my demeanor changed from excited to creeped out.
“The fuck was that about?” I whispered, concerned.
“He was probably nervous around us, that’s all. And clearly he has a favourite.” Derek smiled, trying to keep the mood light.
We headed onto the tour bus then, before collapsing onto one of the sofas near the bus’ window.
“It was fucking weird man, he didn’t even smile in the pictures. He was…just looking at me. It felt..off.” I shivered.
“Hey, it’s cool Artie. Don’t let it get to you, probably won’t see the kid again. Focus on the fact we put on the best fucking show Los Angeles’s ever saw.” Derek replied grinning, reaching forward for a bag of chips on our table.
I gave a slight smile, trying to agree.
“Yeah man. Yeah.” I muttered.
“Las Vegas, here we come!” Derek said, pumping a quick fist into the air.
I chuckled, glancing back outside. Although dark, I noticed the streetlamps were lit pretty heavily in the parking lot. I glanced around before doing a double take to movement on the far side of the lot.
I heart jumped into my throat as I noticed someone in a hoodie hurriedly running across the lot, trying to dodge the streetlamps.
We’re hitting the road soon.
It’s going to be fine.
Right?