Starry Eyed

Chapter Thirty-Three

Karma arrived, swooping in like an eagle for James the following day (as if being dumped  by the girl he claimed to be in love with wasn't enough universal punishment). And to my surprise he showed signs of not quite being cold, shiny, hard plastic once more. He staggered into the dormitory at only ten minutes past three. As soon as I heard the door creak open, and saw it wasn't Star, I knew something was wrong. 

Well, this was only part of it really. The ruffled state of his hair told me the end of the world was near.

"Jesus," I said in shock. "It's the apocalypse."

"If you're making fun of my hair, could you try harder not to next time? It's been a rough day!" He exclaimed. I resisted the strong urge to laugh.

"It looks like it."  In front of me, my laptop screen had burst into life, and I quickly typed my password in before he could see. But he was pre-occupied anyway. He had no interest in hacking me right then.

"Everybody laughed at me," James wailed, as if the concept completely bemused him. For a moment it bewildered me too, but he explained it straight after. "They said I was a pussy for crying last night! Like they know how it feels! They were horrible!"

I couldn't resist a little smirk. "You know, sometimes, people get that aura from you," I said slyly, turning back to my computer screen. But he wasn't done whining quite yet.

"How am I a pussy? Because I'm upset, that makes me a pussy? What have I done wrong?" 

"Calm down, James. They want a plastic school star and you broke in front of them. The cool kids are supposed to be immortal, and they don't want you fucking that up." 

"I didn't! I'm a good guy!" He howled, throwing himself down on his bed with a groan. I laughed. 

"Where did Ken go?" I teased, trying to make light of the situation, although I was aware nobody could draw a laugh out of him right now. "You reacted, too, by the way. That wasn't very plastic of you."

James moaned again as if he was in pain. I loaded up Google and tapped in 'Facebook' to the search bar. "I'm not plastic," he murmured. "I've just been dumped by the girl of my dreams and these people think it's funny to take the piss! I can't even put the effort in to fix my hair. What's the point anymore?" There was a muffled, scratchy sound from his side of the room, and I glanced over to see him furiously punching the guts out of his pillow. I could see it coming like a storm across the sea; he was going to completely melt down, and I really didn't fancy triggering him.

"Relax, man," I said. "Think of happy things." The Facebook login screen stared me in the eye. It gave me an idea to bring back a bit of joy to the ex-Ken doll. "Like, I don't know... you had fun posting that photo of my buzzed hair all over the internet after Kim shaved it, didn't you?"

It didn't give the reaction I was hoping for. "You and your stupid friend Finn hacked it and took it down! You ruined all the fun." He had a small bouncy ball in hand now, and he was chucking it at the ceiling so he could catch it when it flew back down. The rebounding noises banged on the plaster.

I shook my head and waited for the blue screen to load up the website. It didn't seem worth putting in the effort to help James when he didn't even really want to be helped.

"Besides," he muttered grumpily, "it didn't even go viral.".

In any other situation this would have made me laugh. But in front of my eyes was quite possibly the worst possible revenge for James he ever could have been served. On a shiny golden platter, his just desserts was uploaded to the public eye on my computer screen.

Wondering how to mask my horror so I didn't alarm him, I quickly muted the sound and pressed play. The video started rolling instantly. It was just as bad as I imagined. Somebody had filmed the situation last night, right from James rushing to Bridgit's side in a snotty mess, to her shoving him away and him collapsing in a puddle of ugly crocodile tears. If he had thought today was bad, this was going to blow his mind.