The Wattpad Game

5. Anna Todd

"What did you think?" This is his answer to my DM. "You posted a story on Wattpad, and the next thing you think you're Anna Todd?"

"Who is Anna Todd?"

I can just imagine Paul's eyes rolling at my stupidity as I stare at my computer screen. This is what he answers: "Look her up on Google, Dildo!"

It has been a week now that my chapter has been up, and I have received no votes or comments, and any new views are just my own.

Pathetic.

At least my name brought me some followers, but we all know why. That's silly, isn't it?

Paul is right. What was I thinking!

I should close this chapter of my life as I close the door to school. I saved Mom some huge debt, but still, something in me tells me not to give up, and this is when the arrow of my mouse hoovers over a book named "Of Tears and Fire."

The cover is stunning. Really, it catches my eye straight away with the drawing of that beautiful princess crying over her inflamed dress, snared in a forest of dragon scales. She is like the prisoner of a ritual or something. Then the font was not too big or too curvy for me to still be able to read it, while the author's name is just a letter, the simple letter "M."

I forgot that Wattpad is a huge library. Bigger than the one in Beauty and the Beast, and that book takes me on a journey. I meet Princess Adaline, whose parents has been cursed to live in a burning pyre within their palace by an evil witch. Only Adaline could save them. She needs to find a crystal in a secret forest guarded by dragons.

Without knowing it, I read nineteen chapters in a row and put over a thousand comments up until a notification come up at the bottom left of my screen. M has just tagged me on her message board.

"Thank you for reading my book and leaving comments on nearly all of the chapters, Dildo. I'm glad you enjoyed my story, and I hope you'll vote on them next time ;)."

That is so sweet of her, and what does she mean by vote? Then, with wide eyes, I realize: Silly me, I forgot to vote on the chapters I'd read. I hurry to do it when a DM pops up on my screen; it's M again.

"Hey, I just checked out your book, and I didn't want to seem rude, but you have no cover on it. It's well written, but it's written in a script format rather than a book format."

She is so kind; she did check my book and gave me my first ever vote, and not only that, she didn't want to embarrass me, so she gave me some advice by DM.

What can I say to her? I mean, I'm already nervous talking to people in real life after dropping out of school, so talking to someone online should be easier, right?

So here I go:

"Hey, Dildo here"—that sounds wrong.

"Hey, Dildo at your service"—that sounds even worse! Concentrate Diallo.

"Hey, I'm Denzel Washington." Okay, that sounds pretentious now.

This is what I typed instead:

"Hey, I'm D'alfa." Stupid autocorrector. I typed "Daldo" and it changes it to that.

"That can't be your real name."

"Of course not. My name is Diallo, and yours is Emilie. Why the -ie at the end? It is because you want to make it look fancy."

That is one stupid thing to write from a guy whose name on Wattpad is Dildo.

"Emil-ie, because I'm French and this is how it is spelled in my home country."

Right, now I sound racist on top of being stupid!

"Great, you're French!"

And she wrote better than I did in my own language. I'm embarrassed, seriously.

"You know what, because you read nineteen chapters of my book in a row, I'll make you a cover free of charge? Is that alright?"

Emilie, author of "Of Tears And Fire," the book with over 1k reads and 500 vote on Wattpad. That Emilie wants to help me for nothing.