Chapter Thirty-One – Instagram.
Her husband wouldn’t be at home that night.
Arya fell on the bed feeling so free. Today had been a win, if she should remove meeting Lucy and the discussion she had with Damien.
And realizing that the little teenage Debby was in love with her husband had made her whole day humorous. She’d have love to tease her about it for a while but she was leaving.
And she having feelings for a married man, didn’t that make her a whore? Or the definition of a whore had been twisted.
Arya saved herself the thinking and thought of happier things.
The dresses she had bought from the shopping mall were the prettiest she’d seen. Turning on her back, she picked up her phone from the table.
She had taken the upcoming designers social media handles from the sales assistant.
And the sales assistant had told her that, to promote the upcoming designer, she could post herself wearing her dresses and upload on Instagram or make a vid for Tiktok.
“I don’t even know how to do this Tiktok stuff.” Arya had grumbled within herself. She stared at her Tiktok account with only twenty-two followers before leaving the app.
Opening her Instagram account, she realized that a video she made of her university’s basketball team had gone viral and helped her gain two hundred followers.
Feeling excited about that, she uploaded the pictures she took of the dresses and tagged the upcoming designer, with a love emoji. She shrugged after uploading.
While going through the comments on her viral video, she noticed a notification come in, telling her a contact of hers was on Instagram.
She grinned but it disappeared seeing it was Damien’s. She sighed, realizing that it was recommended to her because she had his number on her phone.
“Does he even use this account?” She wondered to herself. He was good-looking, so it wouldn’t be hard for him to amass followers.
Checking his account, her jaw dropped seeing the amount of followers he had, the following was funnier, how many posts he had was the funniest.
“Dude has almost two million followers with five posts. Well, horrendously good looking posts. And he’s only following three people.” Arya couldn’t believe her eyes.
“Wow.” She checked the followers and realize that it was just Selena and two McDonald’s account. Was he serious? Well, that was something she could do. Food was life.
Her jaw dropped again when she saw Selena’s followers. Almost ten million, and she seemed to be a brand ambassador for a bow tie design?
Arya scanning through Selena’s pictures made her feel insecure and not pretty.
No wonder Selena looked down on her. She was nothing near as pretty as her. And born with a silver spoon, it was easier.
A notification came again that someone reacted on her post. She checked and saw it was random girl. She, in turn, reacted on the girl’s latest post then went offline.
She breathed in and out, thrice, to get in a better mood but it wasn’t working. Her insecurity always got the better of her.
“And only food can help my mood.” She jumped from bed.
Sneaking out of the room, she looked left and right, making sure no one saw her. They just ate ten minutes ago before she walked in, it’d look like she had an eating disorder.
“Wait, do I?” she paused to ask herself.
She knocked on the kitchen door and it opened. A young lady in her twenties stood in front of her with a plastered smile. “Can I help you?”
Arya nodded, sheepishly, she didn’t expect so many people in the kitchen when it’s late already. Did they sleep there? An elder lady peeked from behind the young lady.
“Need a night snack, ma’am?” she smiled.
Arya’s eyes widened. How’d did she know? “Yeah, sorry to bother you.”
“Oh, Sir Damien does it a lot. You guys must have much in common. I kept his snack incase he asked for it while going for vigil but he didn’t. Here…” she handed her a bowl.
Arya could smell the freshly made fried plantain and potato from the covered bowl, she nodded and ran off.
Jumping on the bed and cuddling her pillow, she opened the bowl to stare at the tasty snack. It was well prepared and still warm. Indeed the kitchen had planned it for Damien.
She laid on her belly, swinging her legs as she went back online on Instagram to check the reels.
She noticed a short reel by a Chinese couple, were the male protected his secret girlfriend from paparazzi. He had rested her head on his chest as she cried.
It reminded Arya of she and Damien at the shopping mall when she cried about the thief’s accusation.
“Okay, that wasn’t a gesture of love in any way. I was innocent and he was only protecting me from that cruel lady.” She said to herself.
Watching the girl being teary and vulnerable slightly annoyed Arya but she knew what fear and trauma could do to a person. Also it was a skit, so everything was an act.
She threw some chips into her mouth and munched on them hardly. A notification came on that someone followed her so excitedly she checked.
“Damien!” she yelled. “How did he find my account?”
Then her brain slowly understood that just as she saw his account by having his number, he could see hers as he had her number. Then it meant he was on Instagram at the moment?
“But must he follow me? Next he’d be loving and commenting on all my posts like a stalker.” She said with glazed eyes.
Another notification came and her head sank inside her head. Then another came and much more kept coming. He was reacting to all her posts.
“This should stop!” Arya was cringing from all the posts she had made, even those since two years ago. “He should really stop!” she covered her phone from the pinging.
They finally stop, because she didn’t have much posts anyway. She released the pillow from her phone and looked at it. Would he try chatting her up as well?
She stared at her message box, waiting for a message but none came. She exhaled. It wasn’t so bad if he reacted on her posts. After all, they were partners.
Another notification came on, he had commented. Arya rolled her eyes, feeling annoyed by everything. She went offline and fell on her back.
She was losing appetite for her chips too. Which was new.
He shouldn’t make her feel loved when he wasn’t supposed to. It’s messing with her head and was conflicting.