Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

STORM

A YEAR LATER

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Perry asks. “You don’t have to do it, you know.”

I link my hand with Zephyr’s and smile. That’s sweet, but “I’m sure. People have been asking a lot, and it’s starting to distract from the content. It’s time to share.”

He shrugs. “Your call. Okay, so I hit the Live button, right? That’s all?”

“And then read out the questions and comments,” Zephyr informs him gravely. “Only the nice ones, though. This is a safe space.”

I give his hand a little squeeze. He and the other guys have gotten a lot of traction since they started doing live Q&As. We set a lot of them up during school hours so classes can participate, and that turned out to be so popular that we trialed doing them during school hours in different time zones around the world. My favorite outcome from that has been the number of new adult followers who say their kids came home and talked about us.

In the last few months, the guys have been approached individually and together to appear on various talk shows, some of them more serious than others. We agree with strict guidelines about what can be discussed: nobody here is interested in celebrity, only in raising awareness of the damage being done to the environment. Unfortunately, with the increased platform comes the haters and trolls, and Zeph got pretty upset when I had to tell him why I sometimes frowned when reading comments or questions during a live. He hadn’t realized before then, since I always skip them, of course.

The thing is, with me leveraging platforms like Instagram and TikTok, and the guys all looking the way they do… I make them wear shirts in all the videos, with the exception of when Aqua and River took me diving with them, and then they wore dive suits with one very brief bare chest moment in the boat after. Aqua unzipped his suit while he was explaining something we’d seen for the camera, and what he was saying was important enough that I decided not to edit it out. I had to police the comments in that video hard .

Even with shirts on and talking about environmental science, they’ve attracted attention from a subset of social media people who usually only watch thirst traps. And also, weirdly, BookTok and Bookstagram. I’m still not sure how it works, but there’s a viral video of a woman playing short clips of the guys and saying, “This is why I’m bisexual and not a lesbian. This! Men, this is the kind of man women want.”

We’ve picked up a whole lot more followers since then.

Everyone’s welcome, of course, and a lot of the new people have commented about stuff they never knew before watching our content, and how they’ve started sending emails to their local representatives, or that they switched brands of a certain product to one they know has more sustainable practices. Then there are the comments asking personal but inoffensive questions about the guys. Bran largely stays off camera, but Flame has mentioned that his boyfriend is a firefighter, and of course River is in most of Aqua’s videos and some of his own. Perry even pops in occasionally. But people have been asking a lot lately about “the voice behind the camera,” i.e., me. They know my name is Storm, because it’s come up a few times, and I’m identified on all accounts as the admin/moderator, but I’ve never had the camera pointed at me. That hasn’t stopped a lot of speculation about whether I just work for the team or if I’m with one of them, though—some of it is even right. Group orgy theories pop up on a semiregular basis, and I always delete those. Sometimes I think people forget the guys—and me, by extension—are real people.

Hence, today. My big introduction to the world. We decided on a TikTok live, since that’s where most of the speculation is, and then we’ll also post videos on other platforms and add a bio for me on the website. I’m definitely not going anywhere.

I take a deep breath—not used to being on this side of the camera—and nod to Perry. “Do it.”

He taps the screen with one hand and gives us a thumbs-up with the other.

“Hi, everyone,” Zephyr says. “Today’s a special day. Storm has finally agreed to show his face!”

I start to lift my hand in a wave, then realize it’s still holding Zeph’s—on camera, oh my god—and wave the other one instead. “Hey! You all probably know my voice by now. I’m the Marketing and Social Media Manager for the Conservation Kings, aka the guy who runs the website, asks the questions while filming, and replies to—or deletes—your comments.” I pause, then add, “I’m also Zephyr’s boyfriend. We’ve been together a year.”

Perry holds up a finger to indicate the questions and comments are already coming in.

“Zeph and I will answer a few questions—the respectful ones. Perry’s moderating, and from the look on his face right now, he’s a lot stricter than I am.”

“Is this really what people ask while we’re doing these lives?” he exclaims on cue. “No wonder you won’t let us see the comments until you’ve had time to go through them.”

Zephyr’s eyes widen, and he looks at me. “Really?” He turns back to the camera. “Be nice to Storm, everyone. Nice questions only.”

Perry winces. “Not that kind of nice, koderie567. I’m definitely deleting that one. Okay, there are a lot of really kind wishes. Do you want me to read everyone’s names?”

“If they’re not questions, Zeph and I will go through and like and reply later. Let’s not drag this on too long. But thank you to everyone who’s being nice enough to impress Perry, the most cynical person I know.”

“Here’s a question I can actually ask,” Perry announces. “Storm, does this mean you’ll be appearing in Zephyr’s videos from now on?”

“Probably not,” I say honestly. “For one thing, he’s the expert, not me. I also need to do my job, which is mostly behind the camera. But you’ll see me occasionally.”

“I promise to make him show his face sometimes,” Zeph adds.

“How did you get your job?” Perry reads. “Was it because— Yeah, I’m not reading the rest of that question.”

I tsk at the camera. “Be good for Perry, everyone. I’ll answer the first part, though. Before I started, the social media manager here was Flame’s brother-in-law, Cody. He’s awesome, and he managed everything while he was still in high school, but when he left for college, the guys advertised for a marketing manager who could take what Cody had built and grow it. Enter, me. I have a degree in marketing and web design and a master’s in social media management. Plus I worked for years with a team of experienced branding and PR professionals. I got this job because I’m qualified for it… I just didn’t realize the bonus would be falling in love.”

“Aww,” Perry says. “Lots of likes for that.”

“It was a bonus for me too,” Zeph says softly, and I smile at him, breaking my own rule, which is not to look away from the camera during a live. He’s got that look in his eyes that says he wants to kiss me, and I rub my thumb over the back of his hand, part warning, part promise for later.

“Are you hiring?” Perry reads, then answers, “We’re not, are we?”

“Not right now,” I confirm. “It’s not off the table for the future. As we’ve said before, Conservation Kings is a not-for-profit with the aim of raising awareness and improving education about the planet and the current environmental situation. The guys are really private, and before Cody convinced them to bring me on board, they really did prefer to run things themselves.” I make a face. “It honestly wasn’t planned for me to end up with Zephyr, I swear. When I told my best friend I had a vibe with one of my new bosses, I got a lecture like nobody’s business, and I agreed with every word.”

Zeph snorts. “What’s a little hypocrisy every once in a while? It worked out for me.”

I elbow him as Perry laughs. “Okay, you said you wanted to keep this really short, and it’s already nearly four minutes. One more question?”

“One more,” I agree. Under five minutes is the goal—I don’t need this video stealing attention from our other content.

“Are we actually helping or making a difference? How do you guys not get discouraged by how bad things are for the environment?” Perry shoots me wide eyes. “That ended up being darker than I thought.”

If I do this again, I’m going to have to teach him to read the whole question to himself before saying it out loud.

“I’ll take this one,” Zeph says confidently. “Yes, we’re all helping and making a difference. All of you, especially. It’s easy to be discouraged when every day there’s news of climate-change-impacted natural disasters or weather events, or of an oil spill, or that another species is endangered. Yes, we do sometimes get discouraged too. But you need to think of the change that’s been effected in just the last few decades, as we learn and share new information. Conservation awareness is at its peak right now, and every new generation is more informed and more idealistic about what’s going on and what needs to be done. Educate yourself, and gently correct misinformation when you hear it from friends and family, and then use that knowledge to show your elected representatives how you want them to legislate. Write letters and make phone calls. Share information on social media.”

“After you’ve fact-checked it,” I add, and Zeph nods.

“Yes, definitely that. Change might be slow, but it’s happening, and it will speed up as education increases. There are still a lot of things that can be done, and even though we get discouraged some days, it’s important to carry on the next day.”

I’m definitely going to be using parts of that speech for other videos.

“Our goals are to let awareness and education drive better environmental practices,” I add. “The fact that you’re watching this video and maybe follow us means we’re making progress on that. One step at a time.”

“And on that after-school special note,” Perry says, “I think it’s time to say bye-bye.”

“Zeph will be back tomorrow,” I promise the camera. “Bye, everyone!”

“Thanks for watching,” Zephyr adds, and then Perry taps the button to end the live.

I heave a sigh of relief. “That went pretty well.”

“Easy for you to say,” Perry complains. “You didn’t have to read some of those comments. I need a shower.”

I read them for every post, but then, that’s my job. “Aether will console you,” I tease, then turn to Zephyr. “The way you handled that last question was perfect. You were perfect.”

He leans in and kisses me. “The only reason I can do any of this is because of you. It’s not me that’s perfect, it’s us. Together.”

I’m never going to argue with that.

Thanks for reading Zephyr ! George’s book is up next, and you can find it here: https://readerlinks.com/l/4227393

If this was your intro to the series, you’ve missed out! Start at the beginning with Aether and Perry’s story: https://readerlinks.com/l/4227297

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