Sidelines

X. FOLLOW BACK

After my classes Mahina and I wait for Eden to come back from her classes in my house. On Wednesdays I finish school late in the afternoon and the three of us decide to finish our work together.

I take a short break from trying to think of any inspiration that comes to mind for my poetry class.

It's annoying when it seems like you're locked in with writer's block.

I don't really open my Instagram as much since I get pretty occupied with writing. But now seems like an exception because I'm bored.

I have a few highlights with places, music, pictures of me, and my friends. Then there's a pic of Atlas and I when we were younger, pictures from the places I've been to, the Met, and a bunch of random pictures mixed in from the stuff I encounter.

Then there's a few pictures of me, one with me in a suit, another with me in a corset top, and a selfie during golden hour from a while ago that make up 24 posts on my feed.

The moment I open the app there's loads of notifications where I have 10k followers.

I immediately sit up from my bed "Mahina what the fuck is this" I speak while showing her what I'm seeing on my screen.

"Holy shit that's so random?" she responds.

I quickly go to my settings and make my account private.

"Check your Twitter right now" she instructs as I open the bird app.

I'm mentioned and tagged in a bunch of tweets and I have 4K more followers on here which I immediately make my account private as well until everything's sorted out.

"What the fuck" I mutter as I scroll down.

They all have to do with Jack.

I reopen Instagram to see that I'm tagged in a bunch of photos and videos that have to do with Jack. There's a whole bunch of likes and comments on my posts dating back to when I first posted.

"Mahina-" I panic.

"Bae just calm down" she says in her soothing tone.

I search up his name to see that he follows me because his profile is giving me the option to follow back. I never gave him my number or my social media or anything before.

"I never gave him anything of mine, he only knows my first and last name" I explain.

"Then how? Does he follow Eden?" she questions.

"Never nor would he find her socials too" I answer with certainty.

I think back trying to remember if anything came up or if I ever said anything. Maybe I was drunk? I wouldn't have- I turn into Shakespeare when I'm drunk.

"Wait what's your password? I can check when he followed you" she explains before I give her my password and she plugs it into an app on her phone.

"It says that he followed you last night at 11:09pm" she talks showing me the screen.

"And you were at that party last night Rory" she adds.

"Nothing happened. I only saw him for split second" I stress out. "And Atlas and Eden only saw him for that short moment too but that was it" I add.

Phoenix

Fuck Phoenix stayed back.

"Phoenix"

"What about Phoenix?" Mahina questions.

"He stayed back. Fuck"

I immediately FaceTime him and pray he answers.