Previously on Secret Life of the Influencers...
"I'm not going to give you detention, because I don't want you to miss College and Career Prep after school."
Josh nodded and gestured down the corridor with a grin on his face. "I'll walk with you."
"Dyl, I need to win student body president."
Josh held his hands up in the air, "Don't say anything else! I don't want to know!"
"Did you steal somebody's phone?"
"Cam left it on the bench when he was in here crying with his friends."
"Your co-captain for the year, is someone who I can tell put in the hours of practice to perfect the routine," Charlie looked at each individual girl as to not make it obvious who she had chosen, "and who I believe will be an amazing leader." She held out a flat hand towards Massie.
Massie Block would like to airdrop a video. Allow?
"No. But you-" she shoved a pointed finger in Massie's face "-sent it to everyone to embarrass me because I made co-captain and you didn't! How could you!"
Emilio nodded slowly, "Hiding from the mob outside?"
Westchester Mall
Suite 007
Saturday September 11th
2:43 PM
"Does it hurt?"
Claire Lyons groaned at the question. Her brows furrowed deeply as she dug her fingernails into her thigh. The room smelled like a mixture of sweat and a fresh-out-the-box tennis ball, which she believed somehow exacerbated the pain. She nodded quickly.
"It's okay," He muttered, "You're doing great."
Claire let out a heavy breath as she took in his words of encouragement. She was doing great. Instead of becoming one of those girls who gave up on themselves after a terrible breakup, she was going to live her life the same way she was before Cameron Fisher came into her life-doing whatever made her happy. Right now, she was doing something she'd never expect herself to be doing. Especially not at fourteen.. she'd talked about this moment with her friends and even conducted research online, but nothing could've prepared her for this moment.
Claire's hand was removed from her thigh, and she was sure a mark would be left in her skin from where her nails pierced the flesh. She grunted in pain. Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop...
"All done!"
Her eyes shot open as she sat up. "Thank God!"
Charlie, Chantelle, and Emilio cheered for Claire's bravery as they each examined her new tattoo.
"I think this might be the only thing worse than getting cheated on with your best friend." Claire noted aloud, pinching the skin around her open wound.
Charlie slapped her hand, "Don't touch it! Your hands are dirty, it'll get infected!"
Chantelle laughed from her seat (Emilio's lap) as her phone buzzed, "Aubrey secured the DJ for tomorrow!"
Unbeknownst to Claire, Charlie rolled her eyes at the mention of Aubrey's name and tuned back in to the conversation with Dean and Claire.
Tomorrow? Claire thought to herself. Shortly after, she remembered her encounter with Pierre from yesterday:
"Are you gonna be at my place Sunday night?" Pierre tried, noticing a lack of interest.
Claire slammed her locker and turned swiftly to glare at him. "Excuse me?"
Pierre's eyes widened with realization. His lips formed a tight 'o' before he responded. "Not like that!" He exclaimed with an uncomfortable expression written in his face. Pierre quickly grabbed his phone and opened up a photo, showing it to Claire. "The parking lot cookout. My friends, and some of my sister's friends too, come over to hang out before we meet here in the parking lot."
"That's harsh." The tattoo guy, Dean, said, responding to Claire's statement, pulling her from her memory. Claire nodded in a 'tell me about it' manner.
She was exaggerating, however. If she had to choose, she would rather get her entire body tattoos, forehead, knees, feet, everything, than deal with the pain of Cameron cheating on her.
With Dylan, she thought to herself angrily.
...
Claire coughed mucus into a napkin and tossed it on the ground next to her bed. Her head was pounding drastically and painfully, and while sleep would've made the pain go away, she couldn't stop crying long enough for her fall into slumber.
Her phone had been cut off for the past forty-two minutes, so the sad music she was playing to make her feel better (and worse at the same time) had ceased. Too many calls from Dylan, Alicia, and Cam had forced her to power it off. Throwing it out the window and watching it crack on the ground was too extreme in her opinion.
A knock sounded at Claire's door.
She looked around and instinctively hid under her blanket. Her room was dark, so whoever was at the door wouldn't be able to see her tearful face, or the army of soggy Kleenex on the ground.
She heard her mother's voice, "Claire?"
Claire's eyes widened.
"it's Cam, he said your phone isn't working?" Her statement sounded more like a question.
Claire peeked over the blanket to see Judi Lyons holding the house phone in her hand. She made her way towards Claire's bed and set the phone on the nightstand. "If you're too tired, just call him in the morning."
Judi kissed Claire on the forehead, bid her goodnight, and exited the bedroom.
Claire waited until she could no longer hear her footsteps, jumped out of bed and grabbed the phone. She turned on the lamp next to her bed and made her way to the bedroom door, locking it.
She put the phone to her ear.
"Claire?" Cam called to her. He sniffled once or twice before saying her name again.
"I'm sorry Claire." Cam said.
Three minutes had went by and Claire said nothing. She wished she had told her mother why her phone was off-Cam was a liar and a cheater. She ended the call and, this time, threw the phone out of her window. Claire watched as it made its way to the ground, shattering to pieces. Claire didn't want an apology, nor an explanation. He was dead to her. So was Dylan. So was Massie.
She sniffled and examined the tissues on the ground with her nose turned up, retrieving her cell phone from under her pillow and powering it back on. Claire decided she was going to block Cam, Dylan, and Massie. There would be no more redemption phone calls, although Massie had yet to call or text, and Claire was certain she wouldn't.
"They only care about themselves." Claire muttered as she deleted their respected contacts from her phone. She believed she was right, the only person who had been hurt in this whole process was Claire. Cam and Dylan did what they did months ago, and she was only just now finding out because Massie wanted to embarrass her for getting co-captain instead of her-neither of them actually planned on telling her the truth, or owning up to what they did.
As Claire's phone finished the powering on process, she received a message from Charlie:
Charlie Armani: Got any plans this weekend ? .. (:
...
"That's what she has us for." Charlie smiled at Claire and turned to motion towards Chantelle and Emilio, but their mouths were occupied with each other. She whipped back around and fake gagged, emitting a laugh from Claire.
Claire had wondered what exactly made Charlie reach out to her. She appreciated the empathy, but Charlie didn't know her, and less than a week ago she was one of the freshmen that had crashed her bonfire, now she was getting a tattoo with her and two of her friends.
That morning, when they spoke on the phone, Charlie explained that when her mother passed, celebrities turned on her, and the same blogs who praised her when she was alive, slandered her name after she died. Her mother was being publicly disrespected, and she wasn't even around to defend herself. Charlie admitted that she pitied Claire, and that if her pity made Claire uncomfortable she would leave her be. But Charlie could relate to public defamation in some way, and Claire was a first timer. It was nice to have someone around who wanted to help build her back up.
Just then, Chantelle, Emilio, Charlie, and Claire's phone buzzed a few times each.
Charlie was the first one to read the notification, "BOPDAILY tagged you in a post."
Charlie and Chantelle exchanged knowing looks, while Emilio focused on getting Chantelle to keep kissing him.
Sensing Claire's confusion, Charlie spoke, "Bopdaily's posts are a hit or miss.. sometimes they uplift us, sometimes they bash us. You never know." Charlie shrugged her shoulders.
It was true, the Bopdaily was the #1 source of gossip for the prep school. Unlike other Westchester high school gossip pages, Bopdaily only posted about the students who actually attended BOP, while Charlie, Pierre, Talia and Emilio had all individually been the focus of other high school gossip pages at some point. Bopdaily posted everything about BOP's hierarchy-anyone D-list and above was newsworthy.
Charlie and her friends were at the top of the A-list, making anything they did, literally.. anything, newsworthy.
Claire knew of the instagram page, Massie made it a big deal that they had been tagged in photos from the bonfire. But why would they be tagging her now?
Claire opening the instagram app and navigated to her notifications, finding the post within seconds.
It was a picture of her, Charlie, and Chantelle and Emilio exiting Charlie's Rolls-Royce, a picture of them walking into the mall, then another of them walking into Dean's Dungeon, the tattoo shop they were currently at.
"Is this normal?" Claire blurted loudly. Three photos of the four of them and no one had noticed they were being photographed. She felt.. violated almost.
"Very." Chantelle giggled as Emilio whispered into her ear. She hadn't looked at the post, but she knew what it was about already. Students at BOP often snapped photos of BOP's hierarchy and sent them to the page. For whatever reason, everyone felt the need to be updated on the lives of popular students.
Charlie read the caption aloud, "Spotted: BOP's it-girl prancing around the city with her OBF Chantelle and Emilio, and her NBF Claire-"
"Old best friend, new best friend." Chantelle interrupted to translate for Claire.
Charlie continued, "whether it's a plan or a friendship brewing, be sure the check back here for updates to be the first to know. #miamigo"
Claire's stomach growled, with worry and hunger, as Massie surely was going to see this. The caption made it seem like Claire and Charlie were plotting against her—and that wasn't true at all! Charlie was simply trying to make Claire feel better. Charlie understood how Claire felt—she was being a good friend, something Massie wouldn't know how to do if she was given a blueprint, a book, and step-by-step tutorial.
Claire grunted and exited Instagram.
"Ignore it," Emilio chimed in. He and Chantelle and finally ended their colonization of each other's mouths.
Charlie nodded and stood, thanking Dean one last time before gesturing towards the door. "Ready to eat?" Claire wiped her sweaty hands on her shirt and examined her tattoo one last time. It was a cub—a Lyon if you will. A reminder to herself that adversity would only show her true lioness form.
Westchester, New York
Pam's Pamper Salon
Saturday September 11th
2:55 PM
Massie Block, Alicia Rivera, and Dylan Marvil bobbed their heads simultaneously as Remy Ma's 'Conceited' played on the speakers of the salon.
"Miraculous, phenomenal," Alicia muttered, singing along as her feet soaked in boiling hot water, a temperature that had taken her months to get used to. Pam's Pamper Salon was the hottest new salon in Westchester. It was hip, played good music, offered champagne, wonderful facials, and more. Alicia loved the spot the minute her mother told her about it, and wasted no time bringing the Pretty Committee along with her to try it.
Well, what was left of the Pretty Committee anyway.
Alicia sighed at the thought-things had changed drastically in the matter of a day. Kristen leaving for California was one thing, but Dylan sleeping with Claire's boyfriend was Gawd awful. The lack of loyalty made Alicia wonder why Massie was keeping Dylan around-why would anyone want to be friends with a girl that slept with her best friend's boyfriend? It made no sense to her. But, Alicia figured Massie didn't want to lose another member.
She believed Massie when she said she wasn't the one who airdropped the video-sure you can set a timer to airdrop something so it's feasible for her to be the culprit, but she knew Massie. Massie wouldn't do that. And since she knew Massie, she also knew Massie wasn't going to give Charlie another advantage over her-Charlie was older, more popular, had a bigger following on social media, and had more money. Removing Dylan from the PC would increase the gap for the amount of members in Massie's clique and Charlie's clique; right now the PC had three members and Charlie had four.
Alicia heard a gasp from her left and turned, cocking her head at Massie, who was glaring at her phone. Massie's jaw was clenched, and her face was pale.
"What's going awn?" Alicia asked, her eyes adverting from Massie to Dylan, who sat on the other side of Massie, then back to Massie.
Massie handed her phone to Alicia before gripping the bottom of her massage chair with both hands, her face turning red.
Alicia gasped as she read the caption of BOP Daily's latest post, automatically knowing what was going on in Massie's head.
Massie then passed the phone to Dylan so she could read the post as well.
Alicia's stomach grew warm. She could feel Massie's anger from her seat, and it was hotter than the resort she stayed at for her birthday in Montego Bay. Alicia's heart began to beat fast, her palms began to sweat, and her breathing became heavy.
They were going to war, no doubt about it. BOP Daily's post was going to circulate through BOP faster than a new Justin single (Bieber or Timberlake, either would do), people were going to know that Claire left the Pretty Committee to hang out with Charlie and her friends.
But not if Massie could help it.
While Alicia panicked, Massie had already formulated a plan A, B, C, and D.
"What does this mean?" Dylan asked. While Alicia could read Massie's mind, Dylan was ten steps behind.
"This means war."
Theeee End.
Alright the hiatus is over! :) If you're still reading, thank you so much for your patience! Stay tuned, and leave a review or two!
