The video finished playing back on Cody’s computer monitor, returning to the default editing panel of Windows Movie Maker. Cody, who had been leaned over intensely, like a detective watching security footage of a murder. Finally let himself relax a little, taking a deep breath before turning over to Mike and asking him “You think this’ll do it?”

“Do what?”

“Y’know, get as popular as the last one.” Cody elaborated. “Or more.” He added on hopefully.

Mike shrugged. “It’s fine, but…” He took a moment to consider his words before continuing. “I don’t think anyone’s gonna believe that you’re really drunk.”

“I drank like, a whole 12 pack before sending that voicemail. If I do that for every video I’ll be dead by 40.” Cody justified.

“Fine, but let’s be honest here. No-one watched that voicemail for your well thought out criticisms.”

Cody exhaled long and deep from his nose. “God damn it, he’s right.” He thought to himself. But what else was he supposed to do? He liked to believe that he had some self-respect left, and God knew it would all go flying out the window the minute he tried to make a career out of getting shitfaced on camera. But the simple fact of the matter was that that was what made the voicemail do so well in the first place. Would he really be willing to sacrifice his dignity for a shot at fame?

No. Not yet at least. The video hadn’t even been uploaded yet and here he was thinking like he had already lost all the credibility the first one gave him. He sat up a little and replied to Mike “Look, you can go home. I’ll get this edited, cut out some of the dead air, maybe put in a few clips from the trailer, then I’ll e-mail it to you to upload. Let’s strike while the iron’s hot at least.”

“Why do I have to upload it?” Mike asked, less annoyed than he was curious.

“Your channel’s the one that’s got all the views from the voicemail video. If I put this out on my own, no one will ever see it.” Cody explained.

Finding no objection to this line of reasoning, Mike gave a brief farewell before leaving the apartment, stealing the tepid, half-empty can of beer from off Cody’s coffee table as he left. Having taken no notice of his friend’s thievery, Cody quickly got to work putting something presentable together out of the footage they’d shot. A few hours later, feeling that he’d accomplished the job as best as he could, he sent the video file off to Mike before collapsing onto his couch in exhaustion.

Cody didn’t so much sleep that night as he did lay on the couch, waiting for it to be a socially acceptable time to get up. The entirety of his mind was consumed with anxieties regarding the video and how it would perform. There were multiple times over the night where he had the urge to get up and rush over to the computer to see how it was performing, only barely stopping himself by reasoning that not enough time had passed for him to make a reasonable judgement on its performance.

Finally, at around 10 in the morning, Cody had had enough. Making his way off the couch, Cody walked over to his computer with all the excitement of a prisoner heading to the electric chair. Sitting down, he opened up YouTube and could feel a knot beginning to form in his stomach as he entered the words “Drunk Critic” into the search bar. As he hit enter, the (hopeful?) thought briefly crossed his mind that Mike may not have uploaded the video yet, having gotten sidetracked by something else before he had the opportunity to check his email.

As soon as the page had finished loading, however, these thoughts were quickly put to rest. Second result on the page (right under the video of the original voicemail) was a video simply titled “DRUNK CRITIC REVIEWS: THE INVASION”, the thumbnail simply depicting his shabby visage, a sight Cody had grown much familiar with over the past day. Looking at the video’s statistics, Cody could feel the knot in his gut begin to undo itself. While not quite as successful as the voicemail was, the video was still doing quite well for itself, having already accumulated 1,500 views with an average rating of 3.5 stars. Clicking on the video, Cody immediately scrolled down to the comments section to gauge the viewer’s reactions.

Tadpole-Warrior (4 Minutes Ago)

Pretty sure i read they brought the matrix guys in for reshoots. talk about desperate.

Sephrin (15 Minutes Ago)

i see ads for this movie everywhere but I don’t know a single person whos actually gone to see it. guess now I know why.

XjokerX (30 Minutes Ago)

lmao is he pretending to slur his words?

Quebecboy3 (50 Minutes Ago)

Surprised he didn’t bring up how bad of a title “The Invasion” is. I literally had no clue this was a “Bodysnatchers” remake until I watched this video.

           Cody’s face remained expressionless as he read through the comments. Everyone seemed to enjoy the video well enough, but it was clear that there was a certain something from the first video that was missing from this one. That Mike’s apprehension toward his performance was apparently justified did little to comfort him either. Taking a moment to think on it further, Cody supposed that him performing at all may have something to do with why it didn’t do as well as the voicemail. It lacked authenticity, and, while it may have been unscripted, he’d gone over it in his head beforehand enough times that he had a pretty good idea what he was going to say once the camera started rolling. 

           Cody sighed and got up from his desk, grabbing his cell phone from off the coffee table. He didn’t know whether Mike already knew how the video was doing, but he figured it couldn’t hurt to give him a call. After all, he couldn’t’ve even made the video without his help. Cody dialed Mike’s number, after around 30 seconds of dialtone, he was prepared to be met with his voicemail again, but with a soft click, Mike picked up.

           “Yeah?” Mike asked. It was obvious from the sound of his voice that he’d been sleeping before Cody called. He felt a little bad about waking him up, but he didn’t seem to be too irritated, so he figured it best to move onto the subject at hand.

           “You seen the views for the new video?”

           “No, what’s it at? 10k?” Mike guessed. He seemed fairly disinterested, but at the very least willing to play along for Cody’s sake.

           “Try 15.”

           “Oh yeah?” Mike said in feigned fascination.

           “Yeah, not quite as good as the last video.” Cody paused, before deciding to give Mike some credit where it was due. “You were definitely right about the fake slurring. I think next time I might have a beer or two beforehand to loosen myself up a little. I’ll let you know when I need you down here again to shoot.”

           “Woah, Woah, Woah, what do you mean when you need me?” Cody could hear the sound of Mike’s bed creaking in the background, presumably from him sitting up.

           “You know, to film.”

           “What, so you just expect me to drop everything and come rushing over to help you with this?” If Mike wasn’t already upset from being woken up, then he definitely was now.

           ‘What the fuck? You were the one that put up the voicemail in the first place.”

           “Yeah, but I didn’t expect it to end with me having to run all over town to hold up a camera for you.”

           Cody’s brow furrowed. “Don’t try and make this into a time thing. You work 20 hours a week selling cell phones, I’m sure you can find the time.”

           “I don’t work 20 hours a week so I can spend the rest of them filming you rambling about movies.”

           ‘So you’re just lazy then, that’s it.”

The next few seconds passed in a thick, uncomfortable silence. As his words lingered in the air. Cody began to worry that Mike may have taken his words harder than he’d intended him to. Fearing any long-tern consequences, Cody decided to compromise. “Look, we’ll make a night out of it, I’ll pick up a case of beer, you’ll come over, we’ll knock something out in half an hour then spend the rest of the night playing PlayStation or something. How’s that sound?”

“Like bullshit.” Mike flatly stated. “You’re not gonna have it edited in half an hour.”

“I’ll do the editing the next day! I’m between jobs right now, remember?”

Mike went silent on the other end of the line. It was obvious that he was giving some serious thought to Cody’s offer. Cody continued on, hoping to push Mike in the right direction. “Look, we’ve been friends for most of our lives at this point, I don’t want it to fall apart over something as stupid as this. Just give it another shot.”

Mike exhaled deeply, his breath being sent through the phone as a burst of soft static. “Fine, if it means that much to you.” He reluctantly replied.

“Great! I knew you’d come around.”

“Yeah.” Mike said, already struggling to accept the consequences of his decision. “Is that all?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll let you know as soon as you can come over.”

“Right.” With that, Mike hung up, doing so fast enough it took Cody a good few seconds to realize the call had ended. Putting the phone in his pocket, Cody pondered his next move, He figured that the smart thing to do would be to get back to searching for a job online, but at the same time, he felt that convincing Mike to continue taking part in his scheme was something that deserved some sort of celebration.

As Cody got up and made his way over to the fridge for a beer, he spotted the plastic bag full of movies he’d been meaning to sell sitting beside his dresser. With how frantic the last week had proven to be, Cody had never managed to find the time to bring them down to the pawn shop. Cody walked over to the bag with a slight grin. Truth be told, it was the perfect excuse for him to put off sending applications, the mere fact that it was quick, easy money meant he had no reason to feel as if it were a waste of time. His mind made up, Cody slipped on his shoes, grabbed the bag, and made his way out the front door, Grateful he wouldn’t have to spend a few hours writing emails just yet.

Two hours and a short walk later, Cody exited the pawn shop $90 richer. Frankly, Cody felt that what he’d brought in was worth at least twice that, but he knew better than to cause a scene. He was in the middle of debating whether or not to use some of the cash to call a cab back to his place when his phone rang. Taking it out of his pocket half-expecting it to be Mike walking back his earlier decision, Cody was instead surprised to find it coming from an unknown number. Figuring there to be little risk to be had, Cody answered. “Hello?”

“Hi, this is Will Stinson.” The man on the other end of the line said, speaking in an over-rehearsed, unsettlingly cheery tone of voice. “I’m the head supervisor at the Wal-Mart down on North Ave.”

“Ah, right.” Cody said, now vaguely remembering applying for a position there sometime a few weeks back.

“I’ve just taken a look at the resume that you’ve sent in for the store clerk position, and you seem like you’d be a good fit. Do you think you could come in Friday for an interview?” Cody only needed to hear the first few words out of the man’s mouth to figure out what was going on. He’d barely even bothered listening past the word “resume”, instead dedicating most of his brainpower towards weighing the pros and cons of taking the job. Sure, he needed the money, but the thought of recommitting himself to a full-time job just as he seemed poised to gain some artistic success put a damper on any sort of joy cash may have brought him. If he went back to working 40 hours a week, he might as well have given up right then and there.

So, with that, Cody made a decision that he knew he would probably regret in the near future. “Thanks, but… I think I’ll pass.”

“Oh?” the man on the other side of the phone said, seeming to be caught off guard.

“Yeah, there’s… an opportunity somewhere else I have lined up that I don’t want to miss out on.” Cody explained, taking care to word himself in such a way that was vague enough to prevent the man on the other end from breaking out in laughter.

“…Well then, I apologize for taking up your time, I hope whatever you have lined up ends up working out for you.” The man said, seeming sincere enough.

“Yeah, thanks.” Cody said, before ending the call. While he still had his concerns about how things were going to work out, It would be a lie to say he didn’t feel a little relieved about not having to take up a job bagging groceries for six dollars an hour. Sure, it’d be a pain not having a regular income, but he figured he still had enough lousy DVDs left at home to sell off that he could make it another few months on his own, provided he cut back on everything but the essentials. Cody made his way over to the crosswalk and waited for the signal to change. As he did, it occurred to him that this was the first time in a long while that he had hope for what his future held.