A/N: So... I didn't plan on updating again this soon, but I already had most of this chapter written and then I saw the photo of Jimmy and his new girlfriend, Maddy Spidell, on Instagram. This story's about to go in a different direction for the next 1-2 chapters, and then we'll go back to our regularly scheduled "MrBeast x Reader" programming. 😂 I truly hope they're happy and I wish them all the best in their new relationship... but for the sake of my story, I'm going to have to destroy Jimmy and Maddy's relationship. #SorryNotSorry 🤷

~*~

After the challenge, we had all gone out to eat for lunch at a nearby pizzeria, which Jimmy treated us to.

"I'm so full," I mumbled as I took another bite of pizza.

Everyone chuckled.

"You did really good in the challenge today, by the way--way better than I would've done," Chandler said to me.

Chris snorted. "That's not hard to beat, though."

I chuckled. "Thanks, Chandler."

I had such a great time with these guys the last few hours. I really hoped that they liked me too, so maybe they'd invite me to hang out with them again to do more videos. I didn't want to get my hopes up, but I was hoping that I'd at least made a good impression.

Eventually, it was time to head out. Jimmy left a crazy tip of $1,000 to our server at the pizzeria, which warmed my heart. He seemed like such a genuine and generous guy.

The rest of the guys left.

As promised, Jimmy insisted that I let him drive me home.

I got into the passenger's seat of his car and suddenly felt kind of awkward as I put on my seatbelt. Here I was, alone in the car with this very attractive and very wealthy guy. It felt surreal.

He put in my address on his GPS and it was about half an hour from the pizzeria. We had a long drive ahead of us.

He started driving and glanced over in my direction. "How'd you like today?"

"I had so much fun with you guys, even though I didn't win."

He smiled. "I'm glad to hear it. We all loved having you there."

I blushed. "Really?" He was so sweet.

"Yeah." He scratched the back of his head nervously. "You seem really cool. I'd really like to have you in more videos if you wanted... or even just you coming over to hang out."

His last few words lingered in the air as I sat there, stunned. He kept his eyes on the road as I could tell he was nervously anticipating what I was about to say next.

"That'd be amazing."

He let out a sigh of relief. "Awesome."

~*~

We sat in a comfortable silence for the next few minutes, just listening to some of the songs on the radio. I leaned back in my seat, closed my eyes, and began singing along to the songs that I knew.

Even though my eyes appeared closed, I kept them open a crack and I saw that Jimmy kept looking over at me with this beautiful subtle smile on his face. He was so freaking cute. I felt butterflies in my stomach just from the way he was looking at me.

A few minutes later, I sat up and "opened" my eyes. Jimmy's eyes darted immediately back towards the road in front of him.

I'd always been pretty oblivious to knowing whether a guy liked me. I liked Jimmy, and he at least definitely liked me as a person, but it was hard to tell if he seemed so nervous because he liked me or if it was just because we didn't know each other very well yet.

I felt a little embarrassed as we pulled up into my apartment complex. I lived in a very modest apartment building, which paled in comparison to Jimmy's huge, likely very expensive, house.

He pulled into a parking spot and I froze in my seat. He had just driven me all the way home, and it felt awkward to just get out right away.

"Thanks so much for the ride... Thanks for everything today," I said shyly.

"Anytime." He grinned.

Silence.

I could feel it: neither of us wanted to say goodbye quite yet. I felt the crazy butterflies in my stomach again. I have no idea where the courage to say these words came from, but before I could catch myself, I said, "I saw that Black Panther was on Netflix and I was about to go watch it again, if you wanted to join me."

I was screaming internally. Why the hell did I just say that? What if he says no? What if he thinks I'm weird?

"That sounds great. I love that movie."

We both got out of the car and went up to my apartment building. I was shaking as I started to dig through my purse to find my key.

I was extremely nervous, and it took me several seconds longer than normal to find my key and then put it in the lock.

He looked like he was trying to hold back laughter as I struggled, but eventually, I was able to unlock the door.

~*~

The whole time we were watching the movie, I was wondering (and was slightly terrified) whether or not this would become a "Netflix and Chill" moment. Much to my relief, it did not. Jimmy was very respectful during the movie.

I didn't have much (see: barely any) experience with guys, so I wasn't sure if Jimmy was interested in me or if he considered me "one of the guys" and just wanted to be friends. I wasn't about to ruin this blossoming friendship with an amazing guy like him because of my stupid raging hormones.

We were sitting on my faux leather sectional couch to watch the movie. I was sitting cross-legged with a blanket over my legs, and Jimmy was sitting with his long legs stretched out in front of him. I had some cans of soda in my fridge that I had set down on the coffee table along with some Doritos for us to munch on during the movie.

We had both seen the movie before, so we kept talking and giggling during the movie. It was so fun, though, watching it with him. I really enjoyed his company.

Before I knew it, the end credits started rolling and I felt my heart drop. This meant he was going to leave soon, and I felt so disappointed.

He hesitantly stood up, but when he did, he said, "I'd better go."

"Okay." I stood up with him, and we both headed towards the door.

He gave me a cute little grin and held out his arms for a hug. I felt all the blood rush to my face as I chuckled and held out my arms.

He had to crouch down a bit because he was so much taller than me, but he pulled me into a tight hug where our chests were pressed together and it felt so, so good. His arms were so strong and he made me feel so safe. I didn't want to let go.

Eventually, we had to pull away. He smiled. "Thanks for the movie!"

I walked with him downstairs because I had to go pick up my mail. When I got back up to my apartment and the door had closed behind me, I sank down to the floor and I let out a deep sigh. My heart was pounding.

What a day this was.

I smiled as I realized that he hadn't asked for his Beast hoodie back, so I was still wearing it.

~*~

Two weeks later

It had been about two weeks since I'd last heard from Jimmy, and that had been when he'd left my apartment after watching Black Panther together.

Not having any communication with him during this time made me feel sick in my stomach as I was definitely crushing on him really hard.

Every time my phone buzzed from a notification, I would excitedly unlock my phone to see if it was a text from him.

It wasn't.

I knew that I could message him, but I felt kind of awkward doing that. He was probably extremely busy with creating and filming videos, and I'm sure he had a ton of friends that he invited to stuff.

I wasn't the only person in his life.

I got a text from this guy, Ryan, that was in one of my classes asking if I wanted to get dinner tonight and study a bit for an upcoming exam together. Reluctantly, I agreed. He had shown countless signs of being interested in me, but I wasn't interested in him. I didn't want to lead him on, but I also needed something to distract myself from the fact that I hadn't heard from Jimmy in almost two weeks.

A few hours later, I met up with Ryan at the restaurant he had chosen; it was a small Italian restaurant just a few minutes from our college campus.

"How have your classes been going?" Ryan asked as he picked up a piece of garlic bread. We had both ordered pasta, which had just arrived at the table.

"They're going good! Chemistry might be the death of me, though, but other than that, it's great."

He laughed. "Yeah, I had that last semester. You couldn't pay me to take it again."

The rest of our conversation was similar to that... very "safe" conversation, rarely drifting to any other topic besides our classes and our jobs.

Towards the end of dinner, I saw a familiar face pop into the restaurant: Chandler. He was with another guy that looked very similar to him, just a bit taller. I recognized the guy that was with him as Chandler's brother, since he was in some of MrBeast's videos. His name was Zach.

It took a little while, but eventually, Chandler noticed me just a few tables from him in the restaurant.

I waved to him, and he stood up and came over to our table.

"Hey!" Chandler exclaimed. "We were all talking about you earlier today and how hilarious and fun you were. I asked Jimmy to text you, but he seemed super awkward about it and wouldn't." He suddenly seemed to notice Ryan sitting there across from me. "Sorry if I'm interrupting a date," he added.

I chuckled. "It's not. We're just having dinner together."

Ryan's face fell, which I felt bad about doing, but he had never explicitly said that it was a "date".

"Okay, good! What's your number?" I gave Chandler my number, and then he went back to his table with his brother.

A few minutes later, I got a text from Chandler just saying hey, it's chandler, so now I had his number.

After that, dinner with Ryan was super awkward. We each paid for our meals, and we didn't end up studying together afterward like he had mentioned earlier. I really did feel bad for possibly breaking his heart, but again, he never said it was a date, and I wasn't interested in him.

~*~

Later that night, I was curled up in my bed, mindlessly browsing through Instagram on my phone, when I saw that there was a new post from Jimmy.

It was a picture of him and a blonde girl looking at his phone together. The girl was tagged in the photo as Maddy, and I immediately clicked on her profile and saw a picture of her hugging Jimmy that had just been posted a few hours ago.

She was fairly popular on Instagram, and she was so pretty... way prettier than me.

My heart felt like it was being ripped into a million pieces.

Good for him.

The first thing I thought to do was text Chandler and ask what was going on.

Chandler replied:

Yeah, they just started dating a few days ago, I like you better than her 😔 want me to come over?

I started crying. Chandler could clearly tell how I felt about Jimmy, so I answered yes. Even though I barely knew him, Chandler was already becoming such a good friend.

It was only about thirty minutes later when I heard a knock at my apartment door. I was still in my PJs and crying, but Chandler had just texted me saying that he was here, so I gave him my apartment number.

When I opened the door, Chandler was standing there with a container of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, which he handed to me.

I had to laugh. Chandler sat down on my couch, and we started talking about Maddy as I started digging into the ice cream. Chandler said he didn't think it was that serious of a relationship, but Maddy had been constantly messaging Jimmy and he finally gave in and decided to give her a chance.

Still, I was heartbroken. "Clearly I was reading him wrong. I thought he liked me."

"I know he does--give it a few weeks. He's just being stupid," Chandler said.

"I don't want to be a rebound for him."

"You won't be." Chandler smiled. "We all like you so much more, anyway. He'll realize his mistake soon enough... And then you get to play hard to get."

I had to hug Chandler. He sure knew how to cheer people up.

"Please don't tell Jimmy about any of this and how awful I look."

Chandler chuckled. "I won't."

~*~