Out Loud

Thirteen

-Eli-

 Elle was belting some song at the top of her lungs in my bathroom. She had come up with the brilliant idea of going out to see a movie today. I really wanted to stay home and recharge from last night, but how could I say no to Elle?

I sat on my bed and scrolled through Instagram. I was still in my sweatpants, which would probably make Elle mad when she got out of my shower. Everyone was busy posting about the Jenkins' party, either because they were showing off or because they were triggered that they weren't invited. Some girl posted, "omg, everyone needs to shut up about the Jenkins. We get it. You're exclusive, the rest of us people with normal lives don't give a shit #shutup #annoyingaf". I laughed at a few other ones like it before I came across Miranda's post. I forgot that I followed her. She had posted two pictures, one was actually a really cute one of her and Lexi. It had no caption, but it did have a couple thousand likes. The second post was a picture of her and Elle. That one was really cute as well and the caption said, "had the best time with my girl Elliot at the Jenkins' last night!". That was weird, Miranda never posted with captions. The second post had several thousand more likes then the first one.

Elliot came out of the bathroom with red eyes and the remnants of tears on her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I tossed my phone to the side and ran up to hug her.

"Miranda, that's what," Elle choked out.

"What'd she do?" I asked as I walked with her to my bed.

"She posted with me that's what, and she captioned it," she replied with tears forming again in her eyes.

"Why does that matter?"

"Miranda never captions her photos! Go and read the comments."

Elliot got up and stormed back into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. I grabbed my phone and re-opened Miranda's Instagram page. The comments on the post with Elle were brutal, one said "oof, what'd this bitch do to deserve a caption?" there was a reply to that, it said "she pissed off Miranda, that's what". The entire thing was one giant hate chain against Elle. "If this girl got a caption then she's definitely made some enemies", "I know this girl. She's a total bitch. Getting invited to the Jenkins' doesn't make you popular girl! #growup". There was one really bad one left by someone with the username Jamie_Fisher_, "yo! Go look on my profile! Got some leaked footage from the Jenkins' party, this girl cheated on her man!".

My stomach churned at that. I remembered that Elle had snuck off with Aaron at the party, but I if someone caught them then my entire reputation could be at stake. I decided to go check out this "Jamie_Fisher_", he had millions of followers and he looked to be a YouTuber. I immediately found the footage from the Jenkins' party, and it was exactly what he had said it was. In the video someone flashed a light on Elle and Aaron while they were mid-makeout, it was only a couple seconds long but it still had over a million views. Who knows how many people from school could've seen it. If this started circling around school, Elliot would be ruined! She'd loose all her friends, Aaron would for sure dump her, she'd become public enemy #1! I didn't know what to do, but I knew there was one person that might be able to help. Miranda. So I sent her a DM.

Eli: have you seen the comments on your recent?

She replied a few seconds later.

Miranda: I hardly ever read comments. Y?

Eli: my girlfriend is getting slammed by the entire school!

Miranda: I'll check them. Miranda: oh my god...I'm so sorry.

Eli: that's all you have to say!?

Miranda: I can't control what people comment love

Eli: but you knew this would happen! Miranda: I actually, truthfully, didn't. Looks like Jamie started the uproar.

Eli: what? how was it not you!

Miranda: scroll up. the majority before Jamie's comment are things like "ooo cute" and "lookin good girls".

Eli: so why would he do this? Miranda: No idea. I can ask. Maybe you should ask Elliot if she pissed him off or something.

Eli: she doesn't deserve this! Look at his recent!

Miranda stopped replying for a few minutes. Miranda: holy shit! what!

Eli: see!

Miranda: this is bad. I've gotta go, but txt me later.

I couldn't believe what was happening. This was all just a blur to me. Elliot came back out of the bathroom in sweatpants and a tank top shortly after I ended my conversation with Miranda.

"Are you ok?" I asked as I hugged her tightly.

"I will be," Elle replied with a sniffle, "it's just a bunch of comments."

"Actually," I said as I looked at her with a pained look on my face, "it's more than that." "What do you mean?" she asked with a terrified look on her face.

"I need to show you something."

I pulled up the video Jamie had posted and showed it to Elle. She turned so white she looked like a ghost, I even think that she had stopped breathing. She just sat there and watched the video replay over and over and over again. Neither of us had any words to describe what we were feeling.

"This," Elliot said quietly, "isn't good. This is not good at all."

"I know," I replied and I hugged her tightly, "so what do we do?"

"I. Have. No. Heckin. Clue."