The Boyfriend Tag - Prologue. A Favour

"Kyle, can I ask you something? A favour."

Em poked his head round the door to the bathroom where I was brushing my teeth in my boxers and t-shirt. The last time he asked me for a favor was when he wanted me to go home to his parent's house for Christmas. I sure didn't enjoy that. His dad scares me, but his mom's nice.

"Depends. If I don't like it, I ain't doin' it." I grinned through a mouthful of toothpaste, but stopped as I noticed how serious he looked. Feeling concerned, I spat and asked. "Sup buddy, you okay?"

"Oh, nothing's wrong. It's just that—I want to show you something. Come when you're done, okay." He ran off, grabbed his laptop, and flopped on the bed. I quickly finished up, scrubbed my face and ruffled my dark, wet mop with a towel and then joined him, lying side by side on our bellies. I saw he was already on YouTube. Okay...so he wants me to watch a video, no biggie. I wondered what all the fuss was about.

"A vlog? Really? Whose is it?" I asked, as a video titled 'Sup, YouTube' buffered.

"Uhm... You'll know when you see it." Em said rather nervously, which added to my curiosity. Before I could ask him any more, a voice boomed from the screen yelling 'What is up YouTube?'. It pulled my attention away from him immediately, mainly because I was scared shitless, and I recognized that voice. I stared in disbelief at the person in the video. An excited blond boy with bright blue eyes, and a smile to die for, was waving frantically at the camera acting all cute and innocent.

"You're joking me, right?" I couldn't take my eyes off the screen as the boy began a silly dance. "Are you serious? Since when?"

"Uhm...well, I started a few months ago. Sorry I didn't tell you." Em said sheepishly, not meeting my eyes.

"Oh my God, Em, haha. You know I have a love/hate thing going on when it comes to this sort of video. It's like cute at first, but then it gets pretty annoying. I don't know, Em, this is awesome, but... really?" It was the truth. I've seen a few people on YouTube doing it. Honestly, I've enjoyed it... at first. It was all cute and funny, but got really annoying when you realized how fake those people were. I regretted saying and thinking all that when Em finally looked up at me with what seemed like disappointment and hurt in his gorgeous azure eyes.

"So, I'm guessing you don't like it? And you don't want to help me out with it?" Em stuck his bottom lip out in an attempt to make a sad puppy face, which instantly made me feel like the biggest shithole on Earth.

"Aww, come on, Em. I don't hate it," I said, putting my arm around him and planting a kiss on his cheek. "I think it's cool. My boyfriend, a YouTube celebrity! But how am I supposed to help you with this? Oh wait, I get it. You want us to do this together, don't you? And make one of those boyfriend vlogs." I should've seen this coming.

"You, young man, can certainly read me," Em rubbed my nose with his. "Well, you see, I kinda promised my viewers I'd introduce my boyfriend to them sometime soon." Em clicked on his channel and selected a video with the title 'Coming Out Story' and we both watched.

I've seen this kind of video too. Some were inspirational, some were sad and some were even funny. Em was smiling and goofing around in the first half of the video, but was soon sniffling and sobbing in the other half. It hurt me to see him so sad and vulnerable; soon I was crying too.

"Wow, that was pretty brave," I said after the video was over. I leaned onto Em and kissed the top of his head. "I'm so proud of you, babe."

"That was nothing; I've done worse. Imagine coming out to my parents. You know what I mean." Actually, I didn't know what he meant, and probably never would. I’ve never actually came out to anybody.

My family found out when I brought Em home with me for dinner one night and introduced him as my boyfriend. I didn't even have to say I'm gay. Of course, my parents were shocked at first, but carried on with dinner like nothing happened. All they said after was they’d like to see more of Em in the near future. I mean straight people don't have to confess they're straight when they bring their date home right? So I didn't see the need to do that either. I'm normal too. And my parents wanted nothing more than for me to be happy. My mom doesn't mind-or maybe she doesn't care, and my dad, I could tell he's a bit disappointed. He never actually said so, but I knew. Although, he didn't object either 'cause I could say I was the perfect son. I did everything he expects me to. Hunt, camp, play sports. Don’t get me wrong. I did all that not because I was pressured to, but because I enjoyed it. These things all seemed natural to me. Em on the other hand, had to come out to his strict father who by the way has a huge reputation as a senator. Of course that was a challenge. The good thing is his mom and I are always there to back him up. From what I heard from Em, his dad didn't take it too well, but eventually gave in, all thanks to his mom.

So yeah, I wouldn't understand.

"Yeah. but, this is like—you're able to share that with the world and I think it's inspiring. I bet a lot of people do too. You could save a person's life with this." I convinced him.

"You're exaggerating." Em chuckled. "It's not that noble of a deed."

"Still, though, it's really inspiring."

"I guess." Em looked away and I knew I had tickled the right spot. Even after being best friends for so long, he'd still blush every time things got 'fluffy' between us, and he always avoided my eyes when he was blushing or sulking. "So, you think you can make a special appearance? Just for one video, although I'm positive the viewers would be asking for more once they see how hot you are." He winked.

"Of course, no problem," I said, earning myself a kiss. "But still, if I don't like it, I ain't doin' it no more, okay. You know I'm not much of a socialite; I haven't tweeted in like forever. I see you have tons of followers and I didn't know you have Instagram. You have tons of followers there too. Hey, you are a celebrity." I, on the other hand, never bothered with social media. I was actually pretty impressed.

"Huh, I guess I am." Em smiled, dreamily, as he checked how many followers he had. "Wow, the last time I checked I’d only have a few hundred, now it's almost fifteen thousand!"

"Who wouldn't love you, you're the sweetest lil' brat anyone could ever know," This time I got myself a playful slap on the back of my head. "So, when do we start filming?"

"How 'bout tonight? That'll leave me plenty of time to edit. We'll do a short, simple introduction."

"Sounds good. Oh! Then we can do the boyfriend tag for the next video. You know, where we take turns answering some questions about each other like: where did we first meet, what's our first impression of each other, and all that." Now, I was really getting excited. Em started snorting and giggling. I nudge him and he burst out laughing. "What's so damn funny?" I demanded.

"Oh, nothing. It's just that I'm pretty sure someone said he wasn't a social butterfly a while ago, and now that someone is already suggesting what we should do for the next video."

Okay, now I'm embarrassed.

"True. But I was just trying to help. You asked for my help, and here I am helping." I growled in mock anger, and then started laughing myself. It didn't help either when Em started poking my side. "Okay, okay. Stop it! For real, man. I can't breathe. But really though, we should totally do that. Or do you think it's too soon?"

"I think it's awesome, my partner is being so supportive and wants to assist me in my online journey to fame. Aw, I am touched," Em said, mockingly, head tilted with a hand pressed to his chest. His theatrics caused both of us to burst out laughing once more. "Of course we can do that!"

We watched a couple more of Em’s vlogs; one with him answering random questions about himself. That’s when I realized, I don't know him as well as I thought I did. The other showed him doing a sweet dance cover to some dubstep. We finally set up the camera after a few more videos and connected it to the laptop.

"You ready, Kyle?" Em asked, intently.

"Uhm—do I have to like, dress up or something? I mean, I know I have to put some pants on but do I need to like, change out of my t-shirt to something more---I don't know, appropriate?" I know that was stupid, but hey, it was my first time vlogging.

"Don't be silly, you look fine." Em assured me. "But you're right about the pants though, put some on. Now!"