ℍ𝕒𝕕 𝕄𝕖 𝕒𝕥 ℍ𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕠 (𝐀 𝐊𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐉𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧)

𝟒 - 𝐖𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐒𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐅𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐖𝐚𝐲

The following day, Leah woke up with a decidedly more optimistic mentality. She checked her phone to see if Kian had added to his story and noticed he'd also uploaded a new picture. On Kian's story was the picture he'd posted. The caption read, "Sunset looked pretty today." Leah liked the post and added it to her story without a second thought. She knew that she didn't have many followers, but getting more people to like his photo wasn't her aim: she wanted Kian to see it and repost it. "Now, we wait", she thought to herself.

She got out of bed and started getting ready for the day.

She had already agreed with her father that she would spend the first few days at home, adjusting to this drastic change of location. So, as soon as she got out of the shower, she hopped right back into her PJs and headed down the stairs for some afternoon breakfast. On her way down, she was suddenly hit by a wonderful aroma. "What is that smell?", she wondered. She arrived in the kitchen and found her Aunt Jackie making pancakes, quite messily.

"Ah, you're up! I'm making pancakes." Jackie exclaimed.

"I can see that."

"Wanna try some?"

"I mean, if they taste as good as they smell, I think you'll find that they're all mine now. As in, they're all gonna be eaten by me. All of them."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. Yes, it is so."

"Good to know. I'll call you when they're ready."

Leah went back to her room and slumped lazily on her desk chair. She checked Instagram to see if Kian had reposted her story,

"Lauren, no... Tiffany... some girl called Chantel with...1000 followers?! All reposted. But of course, my story is nowhere to be seen. Apart from on my own profile, visible to the tens, literal tens, of people that follow me." She sighed and leaned back to stare at her ceiling,

"If he saw theirs, he must've seen mine. Think of all the people who reposted his picture...maybe he handpicked the ones he'd add to his story, "Oh, she's cute. This one's got a lot of followers" ...or maybe he just didn't like the look of my account. Urgh, I'm so sick of this! People come to my profile and all they'll see is a number. My life, my entire being, reduced to a number (and quite a small one, for that matter). I get that his idea of me is based off of my social media accounts cause he doesn't know me in real life: what I post on them, how I portray myself, is how people who see it will view me. But there's so much more to me than simply the number of people that follow me.

I just wish he'd see that."