Click Like

Untitled Part 1

     "Wake up Alejandro. You're going to be late, said Alejandro's father, Joshian, slightly shaking him. Alejandro shifted to his bed and opened his left eye to see his father standing next to him in the small, blue-painted room. He wore a black suit and tie with black pants, since he goes to a lot of reunions with his boss. "What time is it?", Alejandro asked, taking a dark blue pillow and covering his face with it. He was feeling tired since he spent hours recording a new video for his YouTube account. He has been making videos for over a year now, but he didn't have as much subscribers then other famous youtubers, so he started making videos every day after school. "It's seven o' four, and you're still not up", said his father staring to walk towards the bedroom door. "I have to go, so get ready. Good luck at school." He said simply, waving good-bye and walking away.

     Alejandro quickly got up and started getting ready. Once dressed, he jogged to the lightly decorated kitchen. It was light brown and blue, but very simple. He put his phone in his pocket and took off to school, thinking of how many views he would get by tonight hoping to get a big amount.

     At school Alejandro's two best friends, Regina and Mackenzie invited him to the local park to hang out, and so they did. "Do you mind if I blog while I'm with you guys'." asked Alejandro walking on the sidewalk with his friends, holding on to his book bag over his shoulders. "No problem with us. We would actually love to be in one of your videos." said Regina, looking over at Mackenzie which was standing to her left. "Yeah! Meet us at the park like we had said." Mackenzie said smiling at Alejandro. And so they went their separate ways to get ready for their small get together.

     Later that day, they met at the park. As Alejandro walked through the gates, preparing his camera for the filming, he could see Regina and Mackenzie on the swings. He put the camera up to his face and pointed it at them. "Say hi to the camera!" He screamed getting their attention. He turned the camera towards himself and did his video introduction, explaining what he was doing. He put the camera down and continued talking to his friends. They've known each other since elementary and they would always come to this same place, yet it seems smaller every time they come. While they were talking, a Latin guy, about 21 years old, yells at them recognizing Alejandro from his videos. The guy started telling them in a very rude way, "You are the guy from YouTube, aren't you?" "Yeah, I'm glad you watch my videos." Alejandro said smiling, happy to see he has a fan. Regina and Mackenzie were proud to be his friends at that moment, until he spoke again. "You think you're funny, don't you?" he sais with a hypocrite smile. The guy continues, "...faggot!". Alejandro, being as shy as he is, had no choice but to walk away. It's amazingly stupid how someone's words can change life in a matter of seconds.

     Once he walked in his house with a sad expression, his father greeted him with a smile. "How was your day?" looking at him from the kitchen. "Good...". Alejandro said with no emotion at all. He was thinking about what happened in the park, it was getting to his head. He thought, 'Maybe people like the one in the park are the reasons why i don't get a lot of likes. Maybe the people who see my videos only watch them to mock me, my true self...'. He slowly walked through the living room and to his room, thinking of all the possibilities of reasons in these events. His father slowly gazed at his son as he walked away.

     Once in his room, Alejandro threw himself on the bed and continued to think. After about five minutes he got up and turned on his camera, sitting in front of it, and started talking. "Hey guys! So, today has been a rough day for me. I won't really say why but I will say this. I haven't been getting a lot of likes, and the comments are all filled with hatred. So I have made a decision, which is that if I don't get to 10 hundred likes in 24 hours... Well, you'll be witnesses." He said, giving his subscribers a weak smile. He quickly uploaded the video and went to bed. The next day was the same as every day, he went to school and spent time with his friends, but he didn't go to the park. Instead he went straight home, since he wanted to quickly see how many likes his video got. He ran in his house to his room and looked at his account. His excitement quickly turned into sadness, he had only received 350 likes and 432 dislikes. He read the comments with hope, but all he found was hatred. Those comments gave Alejandro the answer to yesterday's questions. "People don't like me." , he thought. Alejandro quickly prepared his camera in the bathroom and took some papers. He started the camera and began writing on the papers. "Hi, everyone." Said the first. "Yesterday, in my last video, I said something about reaching 10 hundred likes. Today, you will know what I meant by you being witnesses..." He wrote in 3 separate papers. Alejandro reached for a knife he had close by and put it on his arm. Off camera, he started cutting, slowly slicing his skin, letting drops of blood spill from his arm to the floor. He put his arm up to the camera, showing his arm that read 'Click Like' in his own flesh and blood. Then he took a bottle of Clorox cleaning detergent and drank away, thinking of what it would be like to be a famous youtuber.