Faces and Emotions (Prompt 23)

Sonia removed her factitious mask of pretense. She had logged out of her account and now could rest her eyes.

It had been a good day. She had received over a hundred likes on her latest uploaded picture. Not even Priyanka’s post had received that many. A lot of her friends congratulated her on her beauty and charm. She replied back with a surprised or embarrassed smiley, sometimes throwing in a ‘thank you’ or ‘you are awesome’.

Usually, she ignored the comments from strangers or people she hardly knew, but the user JackyB had been liking her posts quite frequently. He never commented but had liked all her two hundred posts that she had posted over the last year. Sonia wondered who he was. Tomorrow, she decided she would stalk him online.

Sonia woke up in the morning. She looked at the time. Damn! She was late. She bathed hastily and left her house for school skipping breakfast. She barely managed to catch the school bus, running after it as it was about to leave her behind.

She sat alone in the back on a vacant seat. She preferred to be solitary. Good that her phone was charged. Before reaching school she could reply back to her nocturnal fans. To her utter shock, there were no further likes on her picture. She felt slightly desolate. Her sadness turned into aggravation when she saw that Priyanka had uploaded a picture late last night which had already received more than fifty reactions. She was sure to surpass Sonia. She banged her phone down on the cushy seat in anger. It wasn’t as good today as yesterday.

Sonia was immersed in thinking of a good new picture for her profile for the rest of the day. The lessons breezed by, with Sonia’s attention nowhere close to what was being taught. At lunch that day, she tried clicking a few captivating selfies, but the light wasn’t right and none of the pictures were of the quality that Sonia’s followers were used to. As she was returning home, a screech escaped her lips as she saw Priyanka’s picture had received double the likes of hers. 

Sonia went straight to her room and locked herself in. She scrolled through the video snippets and profiles of her favourite artists trying to find the inspiration to create something unique which would make her popular. She had spent hours already, trying to find the perfect pose.

Suddenly, she received a notification. JackyB had sent her a request. He had also sent a private message. She opened her chat window to a simple, ‘Hi’. She had forgotten all about him. Maybe, he was what could distract her from this god-awful day.

‘Hey Stalker’ Sonia replied.

After a few moments, while Sonia waited anxiously, JackyB finally replied.

‘Who me? I’m just a fan’

‘Oh yeah? Do fans secretly like all posted photos?’

‘Some fans do. The truly real ones.’

‘Haha. Who are you? Do I know you?’

‘Maybe. Let’s keep that a secret. Wagwan?’

‘Nm. Searching for inspiration.’

‘Ohh, exciting! Found any?’

‘Naa..’

Sonia waited for JackyB to reply. He was just gone. Only a minute later, he sent her a link to a video.

‘Try this for size.’ JackyB replied.

Sonia opened the video and instantly knew this was it. 

‘Thanks. You are awesome.’

Sonia started her camera and replicated the video that jackB had sent her. After numerous tries, she got it correct. Decorating it with a few filters, she finally posted the video. It was late at night and only once she did post the video, did Sonia realise how tired she was. She had skipped dinner as well today. 

Sonia laid down on her bed, putting her phone on charge. She moved about, restlessly, trying to fall asleep, but she couldn’t. She picked up her phone and to her surprise, her profile was buzzing with notifications of likes and comments. Wow! She had already surpassed two hundred likes. She scrolled through the comments and saw the video, again and again, wondering if this was the change of luck she needed.

Over the next few weeks, JackyB shared a video or two with Sonia every single day, which Sonia replicated. Her popularity had been increasing with the regular and unique posts. Her followers had first doubled, then quadrupled and now were ten times the number. She was the most followed virtual celebrity in her school.

With the time she spent online, Sonia compromised on her schoolwork. Her grades suffered. But she didn’t care. She was on top of the moon with her ever-increasing popularity. Her parents were called and asked to discipline her. The parents heard Sonia’s teachers, convinced them they were on top of it, and got busy with their own digital profiles, once they got back home.

One fine day, as Sonia was rejoicing over the number of likes she had received, JackyB messaged her.

‘Hey Superstar’ JackyB messaged.

‘Hey Romeo’

‘Listen. I was wondering if you could credit me for some of your posts. My followers have been declining recently. I could really use some help.’

Sonia paused typing. How rude and preposterous of him!

‘Yeah.. I don’t think I can do that. You see, I am a power figure to my fans. They wouldn’t like it if I gave credit to someone else for my posts.’ Sonia messaged.

‘Wow! You do realise that without me, your profile would have been dead by now.’

‘That’s what you want to think. Go on, cry somewhere else.’

JackyB had been typing something when Sonia blocked him. She didn’t need these conceited little perverts in her life.

Sonia didn’t think much about it then, but as the days passed by and she struggled to upload a fresh post for her fans, she thought of JackyB. She ignored the thought.

Over the next few days, her followers halved. She had not posted for a week. How long were they supposed to wait? 

In contrast, she noticed that Priyanka’s followers were shooting through the roof. She scrolled through some of her posts and was stunned by what she saw,

‘The idea for this awesome post was given by @JackyB. Be sure to check out his page. This guy is nuts!’

How could he? That backstabbing jackass! Sonia’s ego wouldn’t allow her to apologise to JackyB and realise her mistake. Instead, in her arrogance, she uploaded some subpar, mediocre posts, which wiped out almost all of her followers. She was left with even lower followers than she had at the beginning.

Late one night, Sonia, as before, removed her mask of pretense and with sadness in her heart and bleakness in her mind at the loss of her popularity, went to bed.