Metanoia

Chapter 7: A Picture of You Caught My Attention

Sup, fam? So what's new on our resident couple? I haven't been on twitter since I saw that picture of Gulf holding a frog. He was dead to me for a day. I seriously can't deal that I texted my friend a long, longwinded string of profanity. My innocent phone almost died against the wall. Anyways,

Here's the next chapter. Unedited we die like men (I don't even know what I'm trying to say here)

Stay safe inside the house, people, and enjoy your day!

Pictures of us on the screen

They don't tell the story right

The Vamps

CHAPTER 7

"No, no, no," Gulf mumbled in disbelief.

He snatched Mack's phone from the other's hands and began reading the thousands of comments he could see. There were more pictures posted of him and Mew. Where did people even get his photos from? These were him in school uniform and many more in instances he didn't realise he was photographed. But they all looked like it was when he was around campus. There were so many pictures! More of his bracelet, some were zoomed in to the point of blurred black smudge in an attempt to give details of the bands of his and Mew's. Some of his pictures had his face blurred but what was the point? The clearest picture was of him during the talent show. Full display. No point. His hands trembled as he read the words that felt like they were being screamed at him.

'MEW SUPPASIT'S SECRET BOYFRIEND?' 'CU'S FACULTY OF HUMANITIES' MOON DATING SUPERSTAR MEW SUPPASIT?' 'COUPLE BRACELETS: ACTOR MEW IS TAKEN?'

For a university forum, the headlines looked just like an official journalistic report.

"Wha- what is all this?" Gulf almost went hysterical.

The captions were too much. There were a lot of them and Gulf couldn't believe what he was seeing. The speculations people made. He saw a number of things he wished he could unread and erase from his mind right about now. He pushed the phone back to its owner. Gulf wanted to vomit.

"You said you have a boyfriend!" Mack yelled.

"It was a fucking joke!" Gulf exploded. He wasn't a vulgar person but the cuss just came out. This wasn't good. He felt bad as soon as he said it. He just didn't like it when Mack was too loud.

"Don't scream at me," he said instead.

Mack's face changed. Gulf watched as a series of emotions flitted across his friend's face, his own dread and panic building up. Gulf clutched at his friend's arms, shaking Mack harshly.

"What the heck am I going to do, Mack?" The almost 20-year-old's voice cracked.

Mack shushed him, trying to make Gulf breathe in time with him. To stave off a possible panic attack. Falling deeper in his emotions would not do Gulf good.

"Okay, okay, so this might be a problem," Mack said only to be glared at by Gulf, "but it's not that bad. It's all just a misunderstanding right?"

Gulf was waiting for a brilliant idea or a solution coming out of Mack because he honestly could not think of one. He never found himself in this situation before. How was he to proceed with it?

"I think... you just have to ignore everything until it dies down. I mean it's just a joke, innit? Sooner or later, people will forget about this and leave you alone when they find more interesting things to focus on, right?"

Mack nodded as if to convince Gulf but it was more like he was trying to convince himself. Well, it was a start. And that's what Gulf would do.

"You're right. This will pass," Gulf said in determination.