I'm sulking as I feel lost again, without knowing what I should do with my life. My phone vibrates, and Damien has texted me, "Don't get jealous, but it seems like Vicki has a crush on me."
"Who?" I feel bewildered and confused. It seems like he is trying to stir something up, similar to how my ex-boyfriend would play these mind games with me, in his failed attempt to rate how much I loved him, and/or truly cared about him.
"She's just a girl that works at Against All Odds in the mall."
That tiny, minuscule store that never has any customers? They look like they're on the verge of closing, so no wonder that she has set her sights on something else to do, and that is apparently my boyfriend. I log onto Twitter and Instagram to see Damien retweeting Courtnee-Jean's (just a literal, perpetually unhappy and negative whore from our high school) "relationships are shit" (it is hurtful, but I'm not surprised, as he continues to disrespect me in real life and online), and this girl "Vic_vicki_xoxo," is commenting on all of his posts, with hearts, kissing emojis, lips, winking emojis, more hearts, and tweeting things like, "taking out the trash with Damien! He's so hot, I love him." I put my phone down and sigh. He has commented on her pictures that display her oversized DDD-size boobs, with her plump belly nesting underneath of these mounds, with the heart-eyed emoji. She seems like a pretty Latina girl, and I wonder if she even knows about me. Relationships shouldn't feel like a competition.
It seems like besides how she has an obvious crush on him, this was orchestrated to make me jealous and make himself feel better, much like how he played around with Toni. I send him screenshots of all of the comments that he left on Vicki's literally naked pictures (Why would anyone post that for free? For validation?), and he has the audacity to say that it isn't his username.
He actually changes his Instagram username from damien_b to damienb_, to make me look like I'm crazy.
"You're crazy, that's not me."
I furiously tap out, "I know that it is you, because that account left me comments on my page and it was definitely you, up until now, and now when you click on that account, it doesn't exist - because you changed your username!"
He doesn't bother to deign me with a response for at least ten minutes, and I feel like he is actually insane. Vicki sets her page to private.
"Whatever, she's gonna work somewhere else, anyways."
"What happened, like did the store finally close?"
"What store? Who are you talking about? You're crazy and bipolar, Skye."
"Vicki? OMG." I send him screenshots of our texts from literally ten minutes ago.
"I've never met her, idk who you're talking about."
This is the textbook definition of gaslighting and manipulation.
"I'm not even jealous. I'm just disappointed, like do you get off on continually being an asshole?"
He doesn't text me back for another week, and I hate him even more so than before.
YOU ARE READING
ETHEREAL
Teen FictionFor anyone that has ever had no idea of what to do with their life and felt lost, or like they didn't belong anywhere, but mistakenly found a home in someone else. Actually based on true events. Skye Valdis has no idea of what to do with her life a...
