Action (DNF)

Chapter 22: Instagram

George POV

“Hey George!” Wilbur greeted me happily when I had arrived at his apartment and opened the door. “I made Mac’n’cheese for dinner, it’s just out of the oven.”
“Mac’n’cheese?” I responded, still feeling slightly tired from the long bus ride. About half way through the ride I’d fallen asleep and when I woke up we were about to pass my stop.

“Isn’t Mac’n’cheese a bit plain?” I questioned as I moved to set my stuff down on the couch, he just shook his head.
“Mac’n’cheese is not plain. Don’t tell me your taste buds have gotten fancy while you’ve been spending time with Clay.” My friend laughed.

“Not that much. We’ve only met up three or four times, other than that it is just texting. We’ve gone to my house, to that charity auction, he stayed the night at mine when I got drunk, we went to the mall yesterday, and then I stayed the night at his hotel room.” I explained.
“You stayed the night?” Wilbur asked, his eyes lighting up. “What is he actually like in bed?”

“What the hell? Gross.” I said, but I couldn’t help but blush at the reminder of the movie I had watched this morning with the blond. “He was drunk last night, so I just got him back to his hotel room and stayed to make sure he was feeling okay.”

“Oh, that’s less spicy than I had thought, but it’s still cute though.” The brunette hummed. “You’ll have to tell me all about it before we watch the movie.”
“There’s not much to tell.” I shrugged my friend off. “Just that we’ve hung out a couple of times.”

There was a notable eye roll from my friend as he began walking over to the kitchen, muttering something about how I was too boring to be dating a celebrity. “I’m not dating him. Only one thing that we’ve done can be considered a date, and even that I don’t know.” I responded as I followed after him.

“And what about the mall? I’m sure that you two going together for lunch and a little bit of shopping would be a cute little date.”
“It might have been, but it got cut short when his ex showed up.” When I mentioned his ex I noticed Wilbur’s expression change.

“Do you mean Monica Clearwaters? Clay’s ex fiance?” He questioned, while only receiving a nod as a yes from me. “I follow her on Instagram and Twitter.”
“She claims that she has a kid and Clay’s the father, but he said that she cheated on him and that the baby wasn’t his.” I remembered.

“I remember her posting about that during the break-up.” Wilbur noted before pulling out his phone. “And she posts quite a lot of stuff about him, except she said that he’d been cheating on her and then he left when he found out she was pregnant,” he explained while typing something up.

As he quickly typed I moved to look over his shoulder, watching as he opened an app called Instagram. He very quickly went to his profile and to who he was following before clicking on a profile belonging to Monica, since I recognised her face on the screen.

The brunette scrolled down through her recent posts before stopping on one from yesterday. We both stopped for a moment to read it. ‘Saw Clay and his new boyfriend at the mall today. It’s sad he left me when he found out he was going to be a father, but I’m glad that he’s happy with a new lover.’

Alongside that there were a couple of faces, each of them having sad expressions which confused me, along with hashtags saying things like ‘single mother’ and ‘survivor’. Underneath that there were comments from thousands of people, most of them saying that she was brave, being able to raise a child alone and to face her ex.

There were some other comments as well, some of them were saying she was a liar, and that she’d cheated on Clay and that the child wasn’t his, among other things. Then there was a third group, all of them supporting her like the first group, while also hating both Clay and myself, which made my eyes water as I saw what they said.

When Wilbur noticed my reactions he instinctively turned his phone off and set it on the table before embracing me. “What’s wrong George? Why are you crying?”
“I’m sorry, it’s probably stupid.” I said, tears beginning to roll down my face. “But how could people be so mean? They don’t even know who I am.”

“Welcome to the internet.” Wilbur smirked. “They hate on anyone. Just exist there for five or so minutes and you’ll have someone who wants you dead.”
“That’s horrible.” I muttered. “How can people be so mean? They don’t know our side of the story.”

“Clay probably knows more about this than I do, he’s probably experienced it more.” The brunette explained. “People just love to hate other people. Plus, Monica does have an advantage of having a large demographic.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, thinking it was some internet talk I wouldn’t understand.

“She is beloved by most mothers on the internet, being brave for balancing being a model with being a single mother. She also plays like you just saw, saying Clay was a cheating scumbag and then she gets pity for being able to get through that.”

“And so just because she’s a single mother everyone believes her?” I questioned. “That doesn’t seem very smart.”
“It isn’t.” Wilbur stated. “But just like how I said that people will hate you for no reason, they will also believe you for no reason.”

“So what? Are you saying I should say what’s happening with me and Clay on social media? I should get Twitter or Instagram or whatever other app people use?”
“If you want to. It would mean that you finally have to get an upgrade from that old crappy flip phone.” He took the time to make a joke.

“Maybe I should.” I muttered. I didn’t want to get a new phone, since I liked the one that I currently had. It worked well for its intended purpose. Plus, I didn’t want to end up being someone who was addicted to spending hours scrolling through apps and being wound up in celebrity drama, except it seemed I was part of this celebrity drama now.

Wilbur seemed to be able to read my mind and gave me a caring smile. “How about we focus on that later? For now let's serve up some Mac’n’cheese and watch some movies.”
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1178 words

George dating Clay is causing him to change his view on life and become involved with celebrity drama. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Also what do you think of Clay's ex? Do you think she really had his kid, or do you think it was the child of someone that she cheated on Clay with.