Starry Eyed

Chapter Ten

It was everywhere.

Star leaned over my shoulder and stared at the screen in horror, a hand over her mouth. I just gazed at my laptop like I was looking straight through it. Feeling empty.

"Oh my God, Luca, you weren't kidding," she uttered quietly, her jaw wide open. I frowned at the screen.

"Why would I have been kidding?" I said blankly. "I had no reason to."

"But I seriously underestimated the... damage it could do," Star murmured, using the exact same words I used before.

"What? Have you never had a run-in with the internet before?" I glared.

"Sorry," she mumbled apologetically. "I'm just not a Facebook person... I'm more of the Instagram type, to be honest. You know, cute little filters and captions and-"

"Cut the internet talk and help me get this picture down."

It was awful, let me tell you that. I can't even begin to describe it. To this very day I don't know how James could be so cruel.

He'd obviously found out somehow who Kim was, and had even tracked down some photos of her from somewhere on Facebook. Then he'd paired a photo of her with the less-than-flattering snapshot of my new haircut, and made the most embarassing online post in history.

'My roommate Luca Jones got a new haircut the other day. I've gotta say, it's pretty sweet ;)'

It probably would have been okay if the Ken doll had been the nerd I'd originally expected him to be. If he didn't have many friends, the photo wouldn't be such a big deal.

But James had been at the school all of last year, and he was already one of the academy's biggest, most popular kids. Future football star, total lady's man, and let's face it- complete school hottie. All the girls were friends with him, he had almost every guy in the school practically orbiting around him, and even most of the teachers were his personal fans. The entire school would know about my 'buzzcut' by tomorrow.

"What am I going to do?" I said. Suddenly, the grimness of the situation became all too real, and the emotion finally came. I buried my head in my hands.

"You could just... ask him to take it down," Star shrugged, sitting down on my bed. I turned to her in despair.

"You seriously think he's the 'save-your-feelings' type? Star, he's my roommate. I know James, and I know that he wouldn't take that picture down unless somebody like freaking Madonna was asking."

"Oh." She sounded defeated.

"I mean, hell, if any hot girl came and begged him, he'd take it down in a flash. But I don't exactly have any beauty queens on speed dial-"

"I'll Facebook message him now." Star said it like it was no big deal, but suddenly, the idea was flashing right in front of my eyes.

"Of course! Flirt with him, Star, he'll delete it in a heartbeat."

She rolled her eyes at me. "Duh. What'd you think I was gonna do?"

And basically, that little statement was every part of Star rolled into a single sentence. I nearly face-palmed, but managed to stop myself.

"Alright," I forced myself to say, because inside I was grateful. It was just difficult to show. "Thank you. But I thought you didn't have Facebook?"

"Oh, I've got Facebook," she replied. "But this sort of trash is the reason I don't use it."

"Are you friends with the Ke- James?" I asked, quickly correcting myself. It could be quite difficult to convince James to accept a request, now that he knew about Star and I being friends. But then again he seemed like the easy type, if I'm completely honest. It didn't have to be a challenge.