William

"No...no...no." My voice echoed within my bedroom, forgotten and unimportant. The white linen on my bed crumpled under the weight of my body, also forgotten like the white towel wrapped around my waist. The only thing on my mind was the phone clutched within my clammy hand. 

 "Fuck!" I stared as the small white numbers on my screen steadily rose at the same pace as my heartbeat. Each new number, a witness to my descent. People often say it never rains but pours and until that moment I don't think I ever understood the magnitude of that statement. Because if what I was watching was a weather induced disaster it would be a freaking Tsunami. 

 I tapped my phone screen, furiously trying to get the thing to work again. The lit screen glared back at me defiant in its silence. No response. Helpless, frustrated and inevitably going insane I watched as my life disintegrated before my eyes.

Why did it have to be that picture? The only picture I would have taken to my grave. How could I have been that stupid? It wasn't my first time on snapchat and yet there I was sitting on the edge of my bed, half naked watching everything blow up on my phone. I tapped my screen several times, trying to get the screen to respond to my touch. Nothing. Regardless of my incessant tapping nothing happened. Instead, the number of views kept on increasing as if to spite me, for making such a stupid mistake. 

Frustrated, I wiped away the moisture collecting on my forehead. Even barely clothed I felt like all the heat in the world had coiled around my body sinking fast into my pores while it choked me from within. With nothing but my underwear on and my room being just below 15°c the heat build up made me feel as if I was sitting in the centre of hell. I might as well be because when the devil works he works hard. Despite all my efforts the views on my ‘mistake’ were now past 30 and my damned phone was still not responding to my touch. 

I wiped the sweat off my face with my left hand while my right continued furiously tapping the screen. Still nothing. Not even a small bleep. I stood up, paced the room phone clutched in one hand and the other hand roughly pushing back my frizzy locks. I didn't have time to worry about hair, not when I might not have a life after this. 

The air seemed to be slowly seeping out of my room and the heat was rising exponentially. If I didn't know better, I would think I was in the middle of a heat storm. Knowing my luck that would never happen to me. Whatever force was playing against me would not let me escape this mess that easily. 

I thumbed the power button as I contemplated switching off my phone. If I tried to switch off my phone, maybe it would respond but switching it off meant I couldn't monitor the views and in my heart, I just knew the moment I looked away they would shoot up to a 100 or 3000. 

I used the towel around my waist to wipe the phone screen. Making sure to remove whatever dirt or evil forces were preventing me from accessing my phone and with renewed urgency I tapped the screen again and nothing moved. Not a single thing. No response, just the annoying increase of views on my Snapchat status. 

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. There was no other option left. I had to switch off my phone if I wanted it to work again. I had to turn it off then on again, isn't that how all engineers fixed their computers? That was the only way. I had to do it. I slumped against my wall, settling into the corner of the room. Ignoring the hardwood tiles under me, I pushed the power button and watched the screen go dark. 

This was it. 

I guess all I could do now was convince my parents that we needed to move to Antarctica. And if they asked why, I couldn't even tell them. My secret was out there in the world for everyone to see and it was because I had made the stupid mistake of posting it to my status instead of sending it to the intended recipient's inbox. 

I pushed the power button and watched my screen come to life. My heart was banging against my ribcage as I input my passcode. I swiped across the screen until I saw the yellow app, the yellow app that had simultaneously destroyed my life and exposed me to basically anyone and everyone who had access to my Snapchat username. 

I opened my status, and my heart attempted to escape through my ribcage. It was worse than I thought. The views had reached an even 400 but that wasn't the cause of my probable aneurysm. No, what was apparently going to kill me and nail me to my coffin was the two blue overlapping triangles next to the views. 

Someone had taken a screenshot of my mistake! 

Someone had looked at the picture and decided that it warranted... evidence? I opened the image and looked at the snap name. The name didn't ring a bell to me. ‘LJS☠’ what sort of name was that. Great, some random, possibly conniving stranger had evidence of my mistake and I didn't even know who the person was.  

What was this person's plan, were they planning on printing out my mistake and pasting it on the walls on campus? Or worse, were they just going to shove it in my face the moment I arrived and have me relive my worst decision? Or even worse, find other creative ways to humiliate me and further destroy my life more than I had already done?

I deleted the snap and watched as the humiliating picture ceased to exist in the world. Well, it ceased to exist in my world but it remained in the world of LJS☠'s device whoever that was. My life was over. There was no going back now. Nothing could make this better, nothing except maybe moving and never coming back. 

 I looked at the green, offending football jersey that had prompted all this and with a snarl stuck in the back of my throat I pulled the cloth from my bed and chucked it through my open window. There was nothing left to do now, except maybe hide in my closet. Literally. I switched off my phone and crawled into the corner of the dark space. With a small sigh, I closed the doors and let the darkness engulf me. 

So much for that Boyfriend Shirt. 

Here is an early introduction to my new book. I hope you guys will love it as much as you love Sketches.