Wattpad Rants

28. Followers

"FUDGE ALL OF YOU DISLOYAL INGRATES!!! I HAD 409382749 FOLLOWERS AND NOW IM AT 409382747!!!! HOW DARE YOU! YOU DONT KNOWS WHATS COMING WHEN I FIND YOU!!! I HOPE YOU DKDJF IN A KDJFJ WHILE SKDJSIRJDB A DJFJFJRKFJFJDKFJF!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I know this isn't about books, but hear me out: It's called Wattpad Rants, not Reading Rants... though, the second does have a better ring to it.

Anyway, my stupid title-making has led to me being allowed to complain about EVERYTHING on Wattpad. And today, I am covering the topic of followers.

To begin this chapter—though we're already ninety-nine words in—I'd like to add a disclaimer. Why? Well, because people do it and I thought it would be fun to write the word disclaimer. Otherwise, please remember that I'm fairly new here. According to my profile, my account has been kicking around for about a year, so I don't have a massive database waiting for you readers to dive into. All I have is a measly one hundred and twenty-five people who have decided to keep up to speed with my account. I speak from my own experience, so you shouldn't treat this chapter like a dictionary. Suppose you have been treating this book like a dictionary... you're not allowed to hold me accountable anymore.

My first follower was—well, I didn't really know them. Let's call them fire- water... sun! Yes, waterysun. Now, waterysun had commented on my first fanfiction and I was ecstatic. Imagine having twenty reads and in the first few weeks someone comments! It was my first notification ever and I was as enthusiastic as your average theater kid could possibly be. I published another chapter every day, and every day waterysun commented. It felt like I made a friend! I was so excited, I used exclamation marks after every reply I sent their way! [insert 100 exclamation points here]

And you know what? One day, I turned on my pc, and I saw a new notification on Wattpad. Not only had waterysun commented, but they had also started following me. Now, as one does, I checked out all of waterysun's books—I was very quickly disappointed; they were all in Russian—I checked out their followers, and the people who followed them, and their reading lists, and—

You know what? Let me shut up before I get arrested for stalking. I swear on my sister's life, all of it was done legally and innocently. I still don't know their name, just their taste in fictional characters.

After waterysun followed me, something clicked in my mind. I could follow people too. And so I did. First, of course, I followed waterysun—whether I could read their books or not. Then, I followed Wattpad because just about everyone followed Wattpad and I thought that, if I didn't follow them, I would be outed for not knowing half a book on this site.

And then, I collapsed on my bed, as it was the middle of the night. While I tried as hard as I might to go to sleep, I instead thought for a long time. So long, in fact, that I was almost late to school the next day. "What in the world kept you up that long?" I hear you ask. Well, the only thing that went through my mind that entire night was, "Damn, somebody likes my book."

Now, the second follower went by. The third, the fourth, and so on. I remember having around eight for a good while. It felt amazing. It felt like I'd just jumped from a cliff knowing I'd already died and feeling pain was physically impossible. People liked me. My introverted, lonely, overly enthusiastic mind was soaring.

And then came... Toxic_brethren. Yeah, let's call 'em that. Now, this person was a commenter. They commented a lot. At that point, I had around twenty followers, so waking up to fifty notifications was certainly a first for me.

As it started, it was fine. I followed them back as I did others, I posted a little 'thanks!' on their message board, and I did my best to respond to all of their comments. Little did I know, there would be more than comments blowing up my feed.