Hating the Player - Loving the Game

Chapter 3: Battle Gear

We had stayed up all night stalking the social media of both our target, our target's friends, and our target's targets. Hooray for the age of technology: mass producing a generation of stalkers, who can carry out their skulky actions from the comfort of their own home.

From what we uncovered, Jay Becket appeared to be completely normal on the surface. He took pictures with friends, attended classes at the local college, went to clubs and bars with his mates on the weekends, and occasionally picked up a couple shifts at a friend's family car dealership. He wasn't considered to be an upstanding citizen, or promote any community volunteering or common acts of heroism in his spare time, but nothing stood out too negatively: the words 'typical guy' seemed to ring through my head. But once we dug a little deeper, we found some rather interesting things.

Jay did not go around posting pictures of all the girls he had been with, apparently saving those for sending to his buddies and kid brother (which I thought was a stupid and unhealthily relationship - what kind of creep updates his brother on all of his conquests? - not that I made any comments about it while Jamie was in the room). I could however, credit some basic brain cells to Jay that his friends did not seem to possess. His various social media accounts did not reflect any ill behaviour, he must have gone out of his way to maintain the 'post-highschool quarterback/goldenboy' image. His closest friends accounts, on the other hand, were riddled with misconduct. I found myself enthralled with the chase, completely focused on my mission. Each separate account I searched, resulted in new and relevant information that was vital to our approach.

Jay might have been able to micro manage his own posts, but he clearly did not possess the capability to control his friends. I was soon faced with and onslaught of photos and videos of not-too-sober-and-obnoxiously-loud/slurring frat boys, one of which was our very own Jay becket. But what was most interesting was the comments on said images: once you got past all of the brainless comments from the subjects of the photos, I found that I could trace a pattern of remarks from possible scorned lovers. 

Hidden under all of the boozed-up garbage that all of Jay's friends were spewing in the comments, were women who had a couple 'choice words' to call our little target - these ranged from the passive-aggressive insults to full on verbal battery and the occasional death threat. The most outrageous thing we encountered, however, was that some of the female commenters -who clearly had not seen any of the insults thrown his way- were actually sending suggestive/flirty compliments. What has this world come to? when did our species lose all proper brain function? Oh course, I caught myself before I could say any of that out loud, recalling that my closest friend, sitting all but three feet away had been regrettably sucked in too.

After hours of rummaging around the darkest corners of the inter web, occasionally taking notes on friends, locations he frequents, and other pertinent details, along with the intermittent snack breaks, sleep overcame us.

I did not remember falling asleep, just the minutes before, when I was trying my hardest to fight against my drooping lids, stubbornly refusing to lose consciousness, even though I was too zonked to muster up any ounce of concentration toward my task at hand. Milly had passed out hours before, her sleeping face resting against my pillow looked, for once, untroubled by the events of the day. I hadn't had the heart to subject her to recalling her sorrow by waking her up, so I made the decision that she would spend the night. Jamie on the other hand, was a mistake. He had fallen asleep about an hour and a half after Milly, propped up against the side of my bed, slumped against the wall. I didn't wake him cause I not only found it easier to concentrate without him looking over my shoulder all the time - even though he would sometimes interject helpful comments, but I also enjoyed the view of Milly's bare foot dangling in his face without his knowledge, I couldn't help but smirk overtime I glanced up from my work.