Echoes

Going Public

The laptop screen cast a blue light and long shadows across Hope's bedroom as she read, then re-read her first blog post. It has to be perfect.

She shook off weariness and took a sip from a steaming cup of half-caf, purposefully ignoring the red display of her alarm clock.

"Read it out loud," she repeated from a how-to book on writing. "If it sounds off when you try to say it, it will come across wrong when someone reads it. Easy enough..."

She scrolled to the top. "Hey everybody! Or at least, hey mom, because you're the only person I'm sure will read this. So many things have been going right for me in the last few months, I decided to start a blog for New Year's to jot it all down for those moments when I feel like I need to pinch myself because I just can't believe that this could all happen to--"

Hope paused and shook her head. "Holy crap, that's a long sentence."

She highlighted the paragraph and left a simple comment on the document: "Fix."

Then she moved on to the recap she'd written of Claudia's gym routine, starting with a list of exercises and repetitions for each activity. "After we finish all that, I'm done for a day or two. Totally wiped. T-Rex arms when I try to drive, and stairs become the bane of my existence. But Claudia goes back to the gym after her shift and puts in another hour or two every day. I don't know how she does it.

"But I can see why she does. After a few grueling weeks, I feel better, stronger, full of energy--able to take on the world."

Hope tweaked the first run-on sentence in the post, adjusted the share settings and tags, then hovered over the 'Publish' button. She took a deep breath, cringed inside, and clicked.

In a notepad onscreen, she started a list of posts to write: Meeting Derrick, Our First Date, Ten Reasons Why I Hate Gym Jocks, The Best Philly Cheesesteak in Town, and So My Friend is an MMA Fighter...

Her phone lit up with a text from Derrick, and she clicked the message. "Hey babe," it said, "you up?"

She shot back a reply, then saw notifications pop up on her timeline. Her fingers flew over the phone's keypad. "You liked and shared my post? That's amazing thank you so much you're the best boyfriend!!!"

Her phone chimed with his response. "The next one's about me, right?" Another message appeared seconds later, "j/k lolz."

"Yeah," she texted back. "I'm going to tell everyone about how we met."

"My girlfriend the writer lol. Just don't get creative and make it me falling on the floor or something."

Hope laughed and blushed at the memory. God, I was so drunk and stupid. Do I really want to post that for the world to see?

Then again, who's going to see anything I put online?

She checked the clock this time, and fought the urge to yawn. Another 'like' appeared, then a second, and her phone buzzed with notifications.

Hope took another sip of coffee and blinked several times to clear her vision. I'll just make some notes for the next post...

Three hours later, the phone rang and displayed Claudia's number. Lying in bed, covered by a thick alpaca wool blanket, Hope barely opened one eye--just enough to tap 'ignore' and push the phone off the nightstand.