“He better,” Emily grumbled. Not a second later, she realized that she should probably worry more about her cousin, “How’s Alex?”
“I am not sure” Jae admitted, placing his free arm on the table, “Actually, I don’t really know.”
“You’re an unreliable informant.”
“Never claimed to be the opposite.”
“This is usually the time I ask several questions to get the answers that I want but I don’t think you can even provide those” Emily stated in one breath, snorting by the end. It was like she merely had the headline. It was meant to catch interest so people would read about it—except she couldn’t because the paparazzi forgot to write about the details.
“I would if I could, sweetheart, but I wasn’t a part of that class so I can’t.”
“Don’t call me, ‘sweetheart’.”
“You want me to message you instead?”
Lauren glanced to her left, noticing Jae’s presence. The corner of her lips curled upwards. Since Logan and Alex were finally having some progress, she figured the other pair needed a nudge. She let Jae and Emily chat, shifting her attention back to her phone. The plate of pasta laid uneaten in front of her.
Her fingers tapped away and her crossed legs swayed under the bench. She kept rethinking the contents of her post. None of her ideas seemed to be catchy… nor did they match the theme she wanted. She clicked her tongue, glaring at the blank caption.
“Stay that way for too long and you’ll have permanent wrinkles, Lauren” Colin remarked, wiping the side of his mouth with a tissue.
“This is important” she replied curtly, “I should think carefully or keyboard warriors would attack any loophole. There would be enough as it is no matter what I’d write. I need a good one to lessen it, at least.”
The scowl of her brows deepened. She had been thinking of what to say since lunch break started. How hard was it to write a few words of… encouragement? Opinion? Argument?
“How about… ‘The Moment of Truth’?” Max supplied from the other side of the table, “Then, you can just let people think what they want to think.”
“And not use my own voice?” Lauren retorted, putting her phone down a bit. She watched him pop a fry in his mouth, “It would be a waste if I don’t say anything. Maybe I should recount my own side of the story.”
“You mean how you had a crush on Alex?”
“Of course, I’d leave out that part” she scoffed, “They don’t need to hear that from me.”
Her mind went back to the time Alex had confessed the truth to her. Since it was her first time, she had been more emotional. A person’s heart had to be blind not to see the genuinity of her story.
Hm, Lauren mused, that last part could be a good… she lifted her phone and raided the keyboard. Each word came out clean, no autocorrect needed.
’A genuine story can never be fabricated at the same level. That is why the word, ‘genuine’, exists. Otherwise, it would lose its essence and meaning. Lying is wrong but owning up to it and learning from it marks a person’s core value despite the incoming consequences.′
She reread it a few times, tweaking it as she went. She would have stopped at the third sentence but trolls would strike her about Alex’s lies. Gods… what kind of upbringing did those people have? Hadn’t they ever lied to their parents before and got into trouble? Didn’t they get scolded about it? How they should have come clean instead?
And if the children did do that, didn’t the parents add a word of praise about that initiative?
Lauren sighed, relaxing her fingers.
There wasn’t a way to please everyone. If anyone picked a fight for dull reasons then, they were simply not worth it. They didn’t need that type of person on their side.
“What’s that?” Jae asked, finally joining the conversation. The call ended after a few more exchanges of passive aggressive insults and sickly sweet flirty lines. He stared at Lauren’s phone.
Lauren steeled her shoulders and hovered her thumb over the post button.
“It’s the video of Alex and Logan’s speech” she smirked, “It’s about to go live on my account.”
That act was an opportunity of a lifetime. They couldn’t possibly waste it. The rumor mill always had weak spots. This way, everyone could check out the source themselves instead of relying on others. There would be more voices to speak out about their thoughts. The endless sea of opinions could turn the tide.
“You haven’t posted it yet?”
“Have you told Emily about the ‘almost’ kiss?”
“Yeah, I have,” Jae nodded with a grin, “Thanks for letting me do it, by the way.”
He took a pizza slice from his plate and bit into it. The cheese wasn’t as melted as he liked but the flavor was there. The ground meat bits had been spiced thoroughly. The sauce added a sharp bite. The combination created a harmonic taste.
“Then, I’m posting it now.”
Lauren pressed the button before she could change her mind. The draft disappeared and materialized as part of her news feed. The video played automatically without the audio. To hear it, the person needed to tap on the post.
Maybe she should have quoted a line from it to make them curious and watch.
“Aaaand… there it is” Max smirked, looking at his phone. He snapped his fingers, “Okay, I shared it. You should too, Jae.”
He glanced at his best friend briefly and continued to fiddle with the post. He scrolled through other ways to share it. He passed it on to his other social media apps, maximizing the people they could reach.
“Yeah, isn’t that why you’ve always known about Alex’s secret?” Lauren nudged Jae’s side, “Because of your ‘influence’?”
“Alright, alright, I’m checking it now” he held up his hands in surrender, chewing the rest of the pizza in his mouth. When he was done, he unlocked his phone. The post was the first thing that came up on the designated app. It already received a number of likes.
Although both of his friends made it sound urgent, Jae took his time and watched the whole video.
“Actually, everyone on this table should share it” Lauren perked up. She turned to her right, “Colin?”
He winked at her from the corner of his eye, “Already did.”
“Carla?”
“Of course, I did” the head cheerleader snorted. She sat beside Max and licked off the pudding on her spoon. She had done her part as soon as Max spoke about his. She may have added a few words of her own—mainly aimed at the flyers and their disgusting implication about a person’s private life.
A notification pinged.
“Oho…!” Lauren exclaimed breathily, “Emily has seen it.”
She lifted her phone closer to her face. The first comment of the post came up. The profile picture of the account was taken near a bush. The owner had her chin up on her shoulder, looking back a little. She wore hot pink lipstick on her pouty lips that matched her blouse. Her eyes had the perfect winged eyeliner while her platinum blonde hair shined under a lustrous light.
Her comment read,
“`Anyone who bad mouths my cousin will not only face my wrath but also my butter knife slowly as it sliced them alive.
P.S. Come between this ship and I will grill your flesh.“`
A few likes already came up. So far, no one had responded more than that. Emily’s comment also had the same treatment. It eventually garnered the attention of a few guys. With a photo like that, it was inevitable. The minority had the guts to ask for Emily’s number.
None of them had been given her time of day.
Eventually, one guy responded with a photo. The pair in it seemed to be a couple. The pose implicated how it had been candid. Squished cheeks while the male kissed the corner of his girlfriend’s lips. The female was obviously the same one in the original comment’s profile and the guy…
“Hey!” Max yelled. He thrusted his phone screen towards Jae, “When did this happen?!”
Lauren guffawed, covering her mouth with a hand, “She’s going to kill you for that.”
Jae shrugged and sipped from his water bottle. His eyes remained on the comment section. Most of the users that lingered there had stopped typing. Instead, a direct message popped up in his notification bar. He opened it immediately and typed,
‘Missing me already, sweetheart? Messaging is better, huh?’
“Ah, the power of social media,” Lauren thought out loud. She had wanted to post it earlier but figured there would be more free time for the students during lunch. This way, it would spread faster.
She sneaked a peek over her shoulder. Colin noticed the movement instantly. He followed her line of sight. A few students whirled their heads away once they made eye contact. They obviously talked about the post since their phones were out.
“This is gonna have some backlash, isn’t it?” Colin couldn’t help but bring up. It wasn’t because he didn’t believe that they could win. He just wanted to be prepared for the next step.
“So? There’s me, there’s Carla and there’s Emily” Lauren pointed out. She had spent way too much time with either girl. They had been mostly about how to kill a conniving bitch. She couldn’t help but feel smug about what they could do, “Us posting is much better than having Alex make an account just for this. It would seem like she was forced to… and she would be. This way—especially this video—it’s obviously not something they had a hand in. Everyone in that room was a witness that this ‘move’ we are making isn’t staged.”
She shifted her attention back on the table. She eyed the people around it. 2 basketball varsities, a cheer captain, a mascot and a cheerleader… five influential students in the social hierarchy. Lauren never minded it before but she felt grateful for that now. She could finally do something that could help Alex out.
Hopefully, the said subject wouldn’t be the one to oppose them.
“Posted just in time too” Carla cut in. Her gaze flickered to the entrance of the cafeteria, “Because here comes our main celebrities right now.”
