Chapter 1
Amanda has never been so excited for something in her life. A few weeks ago after an episode of Smosh Mouth, Shayne jokingly suggested a cast trip to somewhere fun and tropical, which immediately caught Amanda’s attention. This was her thing, tropical beach vacations had a special place in her heart and when Shayne offered this idea, it wouldn’t leave her mind for a second. It happened after the episode with Garrett, where they all shared travel stories and reminisced on great adventures, and after the cameras cut Shayne turned to her with a mischievous grin.
“What if this summer, we all took a vacation somewhere? I know it would be crazy but I feel like everyone would enjoy it, it would also help us make some new fresh content and I think it would help us bond as a cast to greater lengths than we have.”
“Shayne, are you joking? That would be so amazing!”
“I mean I kind of half am/half not, it would be a lot of fun but it would be very expensive.”
“I’m sure if we come up with a plan before we propose we could get some people on our side!” Amanda was giddy with excitement, her mind racing with places to go and see. “We definitely should go somewhere tropical, I want to get a tan and lay on the beach. I want to not worry about anything but the sun on my skin, and the wind in my hair,” Amanda’s eyes quite literally sparkled as she dreamed about her friend-cation.
Shayne lightly tapped Amanda to bring her back into reality before meeting her gaze, “Don’t get all sappy yet, we still have to figure out when to go, who all can come, how much it’s going to be, and where we are going to stay and so much more.”
“Pshhh that stuff is easy, you are talking to a master traveler.” Amanda already pulled up AirBnb, looking through all the different houses. “Are we wanting to stay in-country or go somewhere beyond?”
“I think we’d be able to convince everyone better if we stayed here in the states, if we are wanting to get sponsored by the company anyway, somewhere out of state we’d be paying a lot of money out of our own pockets.”
“What about Hawaii? Or maybe a beach in Florida? The bare minimum is that I get to swim in some kind of ocean.”
“Yeah we could probably get one of those. Let me pitch the idea to a couple of our execs and I’ll keep you in the loop.”
“You better! Don’t play with my heart Shayne.”
The two of them left the set, and Amanda’s heart buzzed with anticipation. She needed to tell someone other than Shayne about their idea, she couldn’t help herself, she thought to herself that secrets are best let out than in. And to her fortune, one of her most favorite people in the world was taking a little nap on the couch. Amanda slowly creeped towards the couch, trying not to wake up the sleeping woman, she tried to lower herself as lightly as possible, sliding in between the space between sleeping Angela and the couch pillows. Angela rustled at the movement for a slight second, but went straight back to sleep.
Amanda could not help but wonder what she was dreaming about, and for a moment she hoped Angela was dreaming about her. Amanda rested her head between Angela’s neck and her shoulder, lightly twirling a few strands of brown hair between her fingers. Amanda was grateful that no one else was in the room, even though physical touch wasn’t out of the ordinary for Amanda, holding someone while they were asleep would definitely cross a line for most.
She started to rub tiny circles on Angela’s back, and before too long she started to feel drowsy herself, completely forgetting the whole reason she wanted to talk to Angela. Before her eyelids collapsed into sleep, she picked up on Angela;s slight movements, and she knew that Angela would be awake soon. Should she get up? She wasn’t sure how Angela would feel if she found herself sleeping in Amanda’s arms. Amanda attempted to make a quick exit, but as soon as she started to lift herself she was greeted by Angela’s tired eyes.
“Hey Mandy, how long have you been here?” Angela yawned and rested her head on Amanda, just to keep “resting” her eyes.
“Only a little bit, I saw you sleeping and you looked so peaceful and I thought I could join in… I did have something I wanted to tell you though.”
“Oh, what is it?” Angela’s eyes were still closed, and a little bit of drool started to form at the corner of her mouth.
Without Angela noticing Amanda took the sleeve of her shirt and wiped Angela’s face quickly, “Shayne and I had a really great idea, and he told me to keep it a secret but I NEED to tell someone sooo, I thought I would tell you. Can you keep it a secret though?”
“Of course! You better dish because now I am wide awake.” Angela sat up straight, grasping Amanda’s shoulders like she could shake her. “Amanda you have to tell me, like, NOW!”
“Jeez Ang, it really isn’t like anything super special. But we just got off of recording a Smosh Mouth with Garret where we talked about traveling, and Shayne had this crazy idea where we all go on a trip somewhere together as a cast. I told him it was a great idea and he said he’ll pitch it to our higher ups. He told me to not get too excited, but just think! A vacation with all of our best friends, somewhere super pretty and full of sunshine. It would be so great!”
It took Angela a few seconds to catch up on the word vomit Amanda just poured out on her, but when she finally realized everything and put some thoughts together, she smiled. “That would be so fun! Do you actually think it could happen?”
“I don’t see why not! I mean, we may have to cover some of the costs but if we could get sponsored I think we would be able to make it work.”
“Also, when I was asleep, were you twirling my hair?” Angela reached up and flattened a few pieces of hair she could tell were sticking up.
“Um..yeah a little bit.” Amanda felt herself blush, and then smoothed out the rest of Angela’s hair for her. The two of them sat talking for a little bit, and Amanda was so grateful to have a friend she could just be herself around and not have a care in the world. Even when they got silent it was never awkward, and eventually she got a text from Shayne.
Hey! Execs said they will turn our idea over and let us know in a few days if we will be able to go! But our meeting seemed to go well!”
Amanda showed Angela the text, and Angela jumped up and down on the couch. “I really hope this happens, it would be so fun for us all to vacation together.”
Amanda couldn’t agree more, she needed to go on this vacation, and she needed to see Angela in a swimsuit. She let herself sit on that image for a while, before her daydream was interrupted by the actual Angela sitting next to her. “Amandaaaa… are you with me? I lost you for a second.”
“Yes! I’m here. I was just thinking about how great it would be to be sitting on the beach with you, we can just chill and have a good time.”
Amanda got up from the couch and hurried out the door. She tried hard to not think about how she wants nothing more than to lay on the sand with Angela, listening to the sounds of the waves crashing, Angela in nothing but a bikini, and Amanda holding her close as a fire burns off in the distance… Maybe this vacation isn’t a good idea. Amanda has no idea how she’ll be able to control herself.
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Word quickly spread around the office about a “Smosh Vacation” and Amanda’s skin burned with anger. She went around the office in circles trying to find Angela, and shame her for letting their secret get out. Eventually she found her sitting on the corner of Erin’s desk, laughing her head off about some tik tok about a chihuahua that slightly mirrored Spork. “Hey Ang, can I speak to you for just a moment?” Amanda tried her best to keep her temper cool, but her tight lipped expression immediately sent Angela into a panic. “Good luck girl.” Erin waved the two of them off, raising her eyebrows slightly towards Amanda in a “wtf” face.
When they were finally in a more private space, Amanda laid into Angela. “Angela what the hell? Why does everyone seem to know about a Smosh Vacation? I told you to keep it a secret, why couldn’t you just keep your mouth shut about this? You promised!”
“Amanda, I swear to God I did not mention to a single soul about the vacation. I promise you with all of my heart I did not tell anyone.”
“You’re lying.”
“No I am not! Why aren’t you believing me? Maybe it was Shayne! Or, maybe, the Execs approved it and they went ahead and started telling people? But I swear Amanda it was not me, I keep every secret that has ever been told to me.”
Amanda considered this for a moment, letting Angela’s confession simmer, before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. “Okay. I believe you.”
“Thank you. Have you tried talking to Shayne? Or were you more set on killing me first.”
Amanda suddenly felt guilt seep into her stomach. “I didn’t get the chance to talk to Shayne. I’ll text him and see what’s up.”
“Okay, just let me know what’s going on. Maybe we can pack for vacation together.”
“I will, I’m sorry for saying that you lied.”
“It’s okay.” Angela gave her a thumbs up before walking back to Erin’s desk, already pulling up Instagram to see a post Erin shared to her while she was gone for maybe three minutes.
Amanda sent her text to Shayne.
“So, is the vacation on?
“Yes! It is SO on!”