Almost Famous

By Ryan Bartlett

Chapter 13

Wiley canceled his training for the week. After everything that happened in Dubai he felt like he’d earned a break and took the time to let his shoulder rest. He visited his apartment briefly to get clean clothes but then threw himself into domestic life, cooking and cleaning, basically doing everything he could to take care of Cameron and his roommates. The guys told him he didn’t have to go to all that trouble, but the truth of the matter was Wiley enjoyed it. Ok, cleaning wasn’t his favorite thing in the world, but he enjoyed cooking and took pleasure in the satisfied smiles and compliments he got from the guys after each meal he prepared.

Wiley did a lot of pondering that week. He always knew he wanted to have a family one day, people to fill the holes left when his parents were tragically ripped away from him. The Wilsons took up a lot of space in his heart, but there was room for so much more, and Wiley began to wonder what the future looked like for him and Cameron.

Cameron was all he’d ever wanted in a man. He was smart, funny, compassionate, kind, caring, cute, everything Wiley had ever hoped for. Sure, they were young and their romance had been something of a whirlwind, but that week really got Wiley thinking, and he concluded that the world was full of wonderful possibilities.

As the week came to a close, the guys began to prepare for Playlist Live. Wiley had never been to the annual event before—he still didn’t quite understand what it was all about—but he couldn’t fail to notice the excitement that began to bubble around the apartment. On Thursday night they loaded their bags in Wiley’s car and he, Cameron, Bobby and Tucker headed south to Anaheim.

A little over thirty miles from LA, Anaheim is home to Disneyland, and given the traffic that comes with that distinction, the guys opted to stay at a hotel for the weekend rather than commute every day. Playlist Live wouldn’t start until Friday, but everyone wanted to be there early, so after making the drive they checked into the Anaheim Hilton half a block from the convention center.

“Would you relax already?” asked Wiley once he and Cameron were alone in their room. Cameron was bouncing around the room like Tigger.

“I can’t help it. This is going to be so much fun. I love being with my fans, and I’m looking forward to sharing them with you,” Cameron gushed.

“I’m curious to see what happens, but I still don’t quite get what this whole thing is about,” said Wiley.

“It’s a chance to explore the internet as if it were a real place. It brings together all the content creators with the fans. There are panel discussions, meet and greets; it’s total bedlam,” said Cameron.

“I guess I just don’t have a frame of reference,” said Wiley. “I mean even at the biggest tennis events things are kind of, well, sedate.”

“Ok, put it this way. You remember what it felt like when we went to the charity tournament and those fans showed up?”

“Sure.” Wiley smiled at the memory.

“Imagine that times a hundred,” said Cameron. “God I’m so pumped up!”

“Anything I can do to calm you down?”

“I don’t know, I’m so excited…Oh, this might work.” Cameron giggled as he reached out and yanked Wiley’s pants down.

“Hey, I need those pants for…not being naked.” Wiley laughed.

“Sit down,” Cameron ordered as he pushed his boyfriend down on the bed. “This is the only way we’re going to get any sleep tonight.”

“Ok, I surrender,” Wiley giggled then gasped as Cameron took him into his mouth. He ran his fingers through his boyfriend’s soft brown hair while enjoying Cameron’s machinations.

“Much better,” Cameron sighed when he finished. He wiped his mouth and took a seat on the bed next to Wiley.

“Slurp all the excitement out of your system?” Wiley teased.

“No, but I’m calmer now. That’s better than a stiff drink.”

“What am I going to do with you,” Wiley shook his head and put his arms around Cameron.

“I’m sure you have a few ideas.” Cameron smiled.

“One or two,” Wiley replied then kissed him. They made out until they were exhausted and fell asleep in each other’s arms.




Despite Cameron’s excitement Wiley was still the first to wake the next morning. He thought about waking Cameron, but they’d been up late, they weren’t meeting up with Bobby and Tucker until 9am, and he liked watching Cameron sleep. There was something about Cameron’s face when he slept—he was so peaceful, so angelic, Wiley could have watched him for hours. Eventually though he did get out of bed, did his morning push-ups and sit-ups, then headed for the shower. He found Cameron rubbing the sleep from his eyes when he came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist.

“Morning,” said Wiley.

“Ugh,” Cameron groaned, ever the anti-morning person.

“Why don’t you take a shower and I’ll put on some coffee?”

“You’re a life-saver,” Cameron yawned as he padded into the bathroom.

Wiley dressed quickly then stepped into the bathroom to get water for the small coffee pot that came with the room.

“Baby you light up my world like nobody else, the way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed, but when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell, you don't know, oh, oh, you don't know you're beautiful,” Cameron sang.

Wiley held back a snicker and watched him for a moment. Cameron had his back turned away from the door as he shook his ass under the shower head.

“What the hell is it with these YouTube guys and freaking One Direction?” Wiley mumbled to himself. He couldn’t stand boy bands, but that didn’t stop Cameron, Bobby and Tucker from singing along with their CD the whole way down from LA.

Before filling the coffee pot, Wiley was struck with a wicked idea and ran back into the room to grab the ice bucket. They’d gotten ice and a few sodas when they checked in, but now the ice was melted, leaving behind freezing cold water. Wiley took the bucket into the bathroom and dumped it on Cameron’s head.

“Ah my balls!” Cameron screamed in a high falsetto.

“Morning, love,” said Wiley between giggles.

“I’ma kill you when I get out of here,” Cameron threatened, drawing more laughter from his boyfriend.

With his joke played, Wiley got the water for the coffee and set it to brewing. While he waited for Cameron to finish his shower, Wiley grabbed his camera bag and started giving his Nikon a quick cleaning. He was just finishing up when Cameron came out giggling.

“What’s with the frat boy outfit?”

“What are you talking about?” Wiley retorted. He didn’t see anything wrong with his t-shirt, cargo pants and backwards baseball cap.

“You’re going to wear that?”

“Um, I was wearing almost the exact same thing when you met me,” said Wiley.

“I know. Imagine my relief when you showed up dressed all sexy for our date.” Cameron grinned.

“Hey…”

“Wiley, honey, that’s fine for when you’re out taking pictures but…”

“Well, that’s what I was going to do while you guys are at your panels and stuff. I thought I’d roam around with my camera and see if I can get any shots to sell to a news wire,” said Wiley.

“Wiley, you can’t do that,” said Cameron.

“But…”

“Awww, honey,” said Cameron as he stepped up and put his arms around Wiley’s neck. “You can’t just blend in here. You’ve been in my videos; you even did one with Bobby. You’re part of the Reality Bites family now. People are going to want to see you and talk to you.”

“Whoa, wait, what?”

“You’ve got fans here. You’ve seen the comments on my channel and on Twitter. People are going to be excited to meet you.”

“Yeah, I knew about the comments and stuff, but I guess I didn’t really connect the dots on this one,” Wiley admitted.

“So you see you can’t dress like, I don’t know, a YouTube roadie. Keep it casual, but let the fans see what a pretty boy you are,” Cameron cooed.

“Ok, ok, I get it.” Wiley laughed.

Wiley rifled through his bag for a moment and then dressed in a dark gray button down, faded jeans and a pair of black Vans. He left his shirt un-tucked, rolled up his sleeves and presented himself to Cam for inspection.

“Better?”

“Much.” Cameron smiled and kissed the tip of his nose. “I’ve always loved what a nice dresser you are.”

“Thanks.” Wiley blushed. “Can I still bring my camera with me?”

“You bet. I’m sorry if I sounded like I was coming down on you. I just…”

“No, it’s ok. This is your world and you know how it works.”

“Shall we get going?” Cameron smiled.

“You bet,” said Wiley, taking his hand and leading him to the door.

They met Bobby and Tucker at the elevator and rode down to find the lobby in chaos. There were people everywhere. They’d just stepped off the elevator when someone shouted, “Oh my God! You guys!”

The group turned to find a short blond with electric blue highlights running towards them. Kevin Wilder was YouTube royalty, 7 million subscribers, his own tour, TV appearances; he was a cottage industry that the Reality Bites crew aspired to be like.

“Kevin!” Bobby exclaimed as they hugged, then suddenly everyone was hugging.

“Did you guys just get here?” asked Kevin.

“We checked in last night,” said Tucker.

“Why didn’t you bitches call me?” Kevin exclaimed.

“We didn’t know when you were getting in,” said Cameron.

“Yeah, it was pretty late,” Kevin admitted, then he eyed Wiley and his voice turned all syrupy. “Cameron, introduce me to your guy.”

“Right, sorry,” said Cameron. “Wiley, this is our good friend, Kevin Wi…”

“I know, I’ve seen his videos too.” Wiley smiled and offered Kevin his hand.

“Uh uh, big boy, YouTuber’s hug,” said Kevin as he put his arms around Wiley. Kevin was so short his head barely came up to Wiley’s chest. He rested his cheek against it and rubbed up on Wiley’s pec. “Woof, hello Mr. Coyote.”

“Ok, that’s enough, back off, whore,” Cameron threatened in jest.

“Hey, I’m just appreciating the goods,” Kevin retorted.

“Babe, he hits on everyone. You get used to it after a while.” Cameron rolled his eyes.

“It’s true, I’m such a ho-bag.” Kevin giggled, and then turned his attention back to the others. “So how have you guys been? I haven’t seen you in ages!”

Cameron leaned into Wiley and whispered in his ear, “You ok? You look a little overwhelmed.”

“Fine, just didn’t see that coming,” Wiley whispered back.

“Well now that it’s over with you don’t have to worry. After Kevin the rest of the people here are a walk in the park.” Cameron laughed.

“What’s so funny?” asked Kevin.

“Besides your shoes?” Cameron retorted.

“Whateve’s.” Kevin laughed and went back to talking a mile a minute.

Wiley started to enjoy the banter between friends. It was a lot like a tennis tournament, the players always gave each other a bad time even though most of them were fairly good friends. Granted, the banter on the tennis tour wasn’t as flamboyant as Kevin Wilder.

After saying hello to a few more friends they found milling about the lobby, the guys walked down to the convention center with Kevin. As one of the biggest stars on YouTube, Kevin was playing several roles at the convention, and first on the list was a series of interviews with various other YouTube celebrities. The Reality Bites crew was first on the list, and while Kevin met with the convention staff to prepare for the interview, Wiley, Cameron and the guys wandered the convention floor.

Wiley was struck by how many people were in attendance. He knew YouTube had a wide reach, but it was something else entirely to see so many fans in one place. The sheer volume of attendees reminded him of Comic Con. The fans were incredibly polite and friendly. Many of them came up to Cameron and the guys, even to Wiley, and waited patiently for autographs and pictures. Then there were the fan-girls. A majority of the Reality Bites subscribers were teenage girls with a penchant for screaming and, as Wiley was about to find out, crying.

“Oh my God,” a girl, roughly fifteen, wailed as she approached the guys, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Oh my God, oh my God!”

“It’s alright, Amber,” her friend laughed and patted her on the back.

“It’s you! It’s really you,” said Amber through her tears.

“Hi.” Cameron smiled and reached out to give the girl a hug but she pushed right past him and wrapped her arms around Wiley.

“Oh, uh, hello,” said Wiley caught off guard.

“I-I’ve seen your videos,” Amber wept. “You’re so cute. I love you!”

“Oh, er, thanks?”

“Can I take a picture with you?”

“Um yeah, sure,” Wiley agreed.

It wasn’t a great picture. Wiley looked like a deer caught in headlights and the girl, Amber, looked like her dog just died, what with her tearstained face. She had her arms wrapped so tightly around Wiley’s waist she might have been giving him the Heimlich Maneuver.

“Ok, so, thanks,” said Wiley, after the picture was taken but Amber still wouldn’t let go.

“Oh my God,” Amber continued to weep.

“Thank you so much for stopping by, sweetie,” said Cameron as he gently peeled the girl away from his boyfriend.

“Come on, Amber, let’s get going,” her friend giggled.

“I love you,” Amber shouted one last time as her friend dragged her away.

When Wiley turned back to his friends they burst into a fit of laughter.

“What the hell was that?” Wiley exclaimed.

“We should have warned you about the weepers.” Bobby laughed.

“Does that happen a lot?” asked Wiley.

“Sometimes,” said Tucker shrugging his shoulders.

“How do you deal with it?”

“You just be nice, tell them how much you appreciate them and try to be a good sport about it,” said Cameron.

“That was so weird,” said Wiley. “You’d think I was, I don’t know, The Beatles or something.”

“Well, you’ve been in enough videos now, you’re almost famous.” Cameron grinned.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” Wiley asked with a raised eyebrow.

“It was pretty cute how befuddled you got.”

“I’d say I’d get you back the next time you come to one of my matches, but I’ve never had fans react like that. They’d probably offer to do your taxes or something,” said Wiley.

“Come on.” Cameron giggled and put his arm around Wiley’s waist. “Let’s start heading over for the interview.

“Yeah, about that. How’s that going to work?”

“It’s like a talk show,” Cameron explained. “They’ll call us up on stage, and Kevin will ask a bunch of questions. You can just sit there and look pretty until you’re ready to jump in.”

“Ha, thanks.” Wiley laughed.

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