Treadmill

VIII.II

Wednesday, September 23, 2020.

            Wednesday. It had been five days since Rebecca met Kennedy. Five days and they had a fake account, a regular texting relationship, and their own personal ringtones.

            Rebecca woke up on Wednesday morning at 6:30 AM to make it to her 8 AM class for the first time that week. She didn't miss classes. Having missed just the one on Monday felt terrible to her.

            Rebecca rolled over in bed and turned off her alarm before checking her phone for any updates from the night before. There wasn't much except a text message from Kennedy that had come in just an hour earlier, which Rebecca found herself not being remotely surprised at.

            Check the account.

            That was all the text said. Check the account. No context, nothing. Rebecca felt her heartrate start to pick up as she sat up in bed and turned on her bedside lamp. Was Kennedy angry that Rebecca had followed their account? She felt like it would have been far more suspicious to refuse to follow the account that all of her roommates were following.

            She logged into Drew's Instagram account and went to the profile page. The first thing that caught her eye was that the account had been switched to a business account, with the label 'Just For Fun.'

            Ironic.

            The second thing that caught Rebecca's barely-functioning eyes was the number of followers that the account had at 6:32 on Wednesday morning.

            5,126.

            It had risen by at least 100 followers overnight.

            Rebecca checked the time again and told herself she had enough time to make the phone call.

            Kennedy picked up on the third ring, her voice groggy and words slurred.

            "Rebecca? What're you doing?"

            "Did you buy more followers?" She asked immediately, not bothering with a greeting, "I thought we agreed to not buy any more followers."

            "I don't think we ever agreed to that." Kennedy replied, sounding a bit more awake. "But regardless, I didn't buy these. That's why I texted you—they're all real. Or, to use your favorite word, 'organic.'"

            Rebecca ignored the jab as she felt herself start to get excited.

            "If you didn't buy these, that means that real people want to follow this account. Real people with real likes and...holy crap, Kennedy. This could be something."

            Kennedy could be heard laughing loudly from the other end of the line.

            "Rebecca Eaves, I told you this! We're going to make this into something huge. I promise. This is just the beginning."

            Rebecca was silent for a moment, trying not to let her excitement overcome her too much.

            "Alright. I have to get ready for class. This is...crazy."

            "Have fun being a good student. I'll see you later today."

            The two hung up and Rebecca got out of bed, taking her phone with her while she went to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She scrolled through the names of the new followers, finding quite a few that she recognized: her three roommates, some people from Clemson that were in her classes, a few people from work. But as she continued to look, the Clemson followers made up less than half of the total new followers from the night before. It didn't look suspicious. They weren't going to get caught with this fake account by the demographic of the people following it.

            So that was a relief.

            Rebecca changed her scrolling to the only picture they had posted, which had incurred sixteen comments from their new followers overnight. Most of the comments were what she would have expected to be commented under the post of someone like Kennedy—or 'Drew'—and she wasn't surprised by them.

            You're SO gorgeous.

            I wish I looked like you! XOXO

            Where did you get your top? I love it.

            Your hair is incredible.

            They continued on until Rebecca found one comment that made her heart stop.

            Why is this tagged in southern South Carolina? I swear this is that park by Clemson. You're hot, though.

            Rebecca opened the profile of the girl who had commented that and saw that she was a junior at Clemson. Not a junior that Rebecca had ever seen before, but a junior at her university nonetheless.

            She took a few moments to breathe.

            In. Out. In. Out.

            There was no reason for this girl to actually suspect anything. She was most likely just pointing out a strange coincidence. They were fine. They were totally fine.

            Rebecca kept repeating those words to herself as she got ready for the day, ignoring the lingering dread in her chest. It would be embarrassing to be found out for trying to start a fake influencer account and buying the followers and likes for it. But there was nothing they could do. They had already done the deed, and people had started to notice.

            Rebecca left her apartment and closed the door quietly behind her, trying not to wake the roommates who were already following this fake monstrosity of an Instagram account.

A/N: Sorry for the late update! let me know what you think. ❤️
-Katherine