Virtual Attraction [COMPLETE]

16| Smoochy Time

Mwah! <3 Thank you for reading ;) 

That Friday I got home and began writing immediately. There was still one more scene between Wesley and Fern, and another scene with Fern and her father before the kiss scene happened.

Fern's father was a single parent, and somehow, despite the age gap and the gender difference, the two of them were best friends. Fern would spend nights worrying about her father, if he'd come home from job safe and healthy and alive. Or if it would be the night that he would be join the ranks of other police officers killed on the job.

In this scene, Fern's father was talking about how things were getting serious with his new girlfriend Janice, and of course, Fern wasn't happy about it. She'd never known life with anyone but her dad and she was afraid to see what it might like.

I chuckled. Fern was just like me. Change-resistant and a certified people-repellant.

Thirty minutes later, I was sitting on the couch watching I Love Lucy, relieved that I'd finished writing two more chapters. I had posted both chapters as soon as I'd finished writing them.

Now, it had been thirty minutes and I was pretty sure a good chunk of my readers had finished reading the chapters.

Chapter Fifteen had 90K reads and chapter sixteen was struggling at a 70K. My previous chapter, chapter Fourteen still had only 196K reads, even though it been out for more than two days.

I didn't want to be ungrateful, but what had I done wrong?

When I'd started writing my first ten chapters each of them had garnered over 400K reads, but now the chapters I'd posted weren't receiving the same response.

Of course, The usual praise was still apparent and present more than ever.

Yaaaaaas Fern's father is amazing – CandieRocknRol1

LOVE HIM – sexykittty11 (I recognized her from the last chapter's comment)

But despite these comments, my heart plummeted when the next comment popped up on the newsfeed screen. In blue bolded letters: Boring again :/ Preferred your first few chapters... - proUDFoOdJuNkie

I tried to remember that people still loved my work and focus on the Fern and Wesley fans who were still commenting below.

But my mind kept drifting to the drop in readers from the last three chapters, and the fact that overall, a lot of people didn't think they were up to par in terms of writing standard.

It felt like a dagger to my chest. These were only words, but Fable was my refuge. Was it another thing I could expect to leave me too? An addition to the long line of things in my life that were just another impermanent moment?

Fleeting and fading, despite promising to be there forever.

Just like my friends. Just like my mother. Just like my father.

And if I was losing my readership on Fable, did that mean the job offer from Elliot's mom was rescinded?

The rain poured heavily that evening as I spent it writing, but every version of the kiss scene felt too familiar and unpredictable.

My phone notified that there was a new This time, there wasn't a comment by him underneath it.

Notification: USER [BlackLight_00] HAS UPLOADED A NEW CHAPTER to Demon in the Woods.

When had I began following his account? I guessed Fable set automatic notifications once you've hearted

and commented on someone's story.