What has been particularly bothering Ela since last night are the waves of followers striking her account.
Yesterday, early in the morning she woke up and got staggered once spotting over 10,000 followers in her main social media account.
At first the thought it was a glitch, but then she found the video where Dale got exposed. It worked out for her better than expected but these waves of followers, well they feel dirty.
Furthermore she feels staggered regarding how these people found her, as that virally spreading video, didn't link her account there, most likely because they didn't know Ela.
This brings a more distressing thought, because either someone hated her enough to spoil privacy or that someone has been stalking.
While this morning, her phone almost exploded because of all the notifications. Ela literally expected it to explode!
It took up to an hour until she was able to use her phone, the device was completely frozen and unusable.
By that time, she has already logged in from her computer, turned off all notifications and became absolutely staggered once seeing that over 70,000 people are following her!
This, is spreading worse than zits. Yesterday a lot of people found her account, but it was pale in comparison when looking at the numbers today!
This proves a certain fact, banter is strong and the rays of spreading the word are even stronger!
The other distressing part, are all the messages she's getting from complete strangers, gender regardless.
"How am I gonna reply to all of you?" Ela thought to herself, grabbing the phone after it finally stopped whistling.
Then, another question struck her mind. "Do I have to answer them?"
There are about 1,700 message requests, thankfully they didn't spam and shun the past conversations she had.
"These are too many, I would need all summer to reply to these... Dale when I get my hands on you." Ela's having conflicted feelings about this, not knowing who to blame first.
But furthermore, she's getting a theory that either Brooks or Jimmy have ran their mouths somewhere. Who else could be yapping on about her, those are the people who've been acting weird lately.
But yet again, 70,000 followers aren't little either. She always dreamed of being famous and now it's coming all to her without lifting a finger.
Diving in the message requests, she runs across quite a few emotions. Most of them are happy, but a minority are referring to Ela as a gold digger.
Some even wrote long paragraphs regarding the matter, defending Dale's name with full audacity even.
Those particular messages got her conflicted. She is't quite a fan of them and reasons are obvious, so to tame the masses be it for or against her, she decides to make a short video.
Clearing her throat a few times, tying her hair into a bun and washing her face, she opens the front camera and starts chirping. "Hello everyone, thank you for following me."
"I appreciate all the support you're sending through messages, I've read through a hundred of them so far this morning but I might not be able to read all and can't reply to everyone."
"You all can understand my pain, we all know how everything reached to this point. But I truly regret trusting Dale that night, I blame myself. All those charms, all those compliments, were all so he can get what he wanted."
"I don't like how his career is going to the trash can but I didn't cause any of it either, the video leaked as you saw and now we're here."
"Anyways, thank you all for following but I don't really know what to do with this account now. This is too much fame for me and just posting my face everywhere would be weird."
"I do want to read ideas though, so send me messages about what I should do with this account."
Well, that was appropriately said. But it took 13 times to nail every word and Ela didn't want to post something she looks stupid at, it's the same reason why she didn't go live.
Once the video got uploaded, she instantly saw 100 likes on it, something that before, took days to achieve.
Upon every refresh, she can see 40-60 more likes and when looking at the followcount, now it's over 76,000.
She's blowing up, whoever leaked her social media account, in another way did Ela a favour. The opportunities with such a powerful account are limited, but it would take ages to reach those limits.
...
"How could that slut get 77,000 followers? Did you tell anyone anything?" Brooks thundered, looking at Billy and ready to smack this boy behind the head.
"The hell would I help her get famous for?" Billy spoke, although not as thunderous.
Taking a seat on the sofa near her, Billy continues to pitch a plausible theory. "Maybe someone from high school snitched?"
"Maybe... she had pride about having all those friends. Where are those friends now ha? School ended and I doubt they even text her anymore." The little lady is still enraged, this obviously carries emotional baggage.
"Yeah, she's alone now... well kinda, I bet many people are messaging her now, because she's becoming famous and all." Afterwards he even points at a video, it looks recent considering that Ela never posts videos.
Listening it out, Brooks becomes heavily enraged and yells. "She has the nerves to ask all of that? Delete your accounts you slut!"
Standing up, leaving the phone behind, she takes a deep breath after circling in place, looks at Jimmy and pitches. "We have to call those article guys, Ela is just as guilty as Dale and we will expose her!"
Sensing the bad intent after that rage, the young man tries to snag her out of it. "Isn't that a bit too far? Let her do what she wants to do, it's not our problem."
"Stop protecting her!" The little black lady shouts.
"I'm not, this is just a bit too far." Afterwards, Jimmy stands up, holds her hands and tries to reason. "Let's forget about them, I can't wake up caring what Ela or Dale do, I just want to wake up and see you."
Fairly calmed down now, but still having her own reasons, Brooks insists. "That's sweet but Ela doesn't deserve to be famous. And I will make sure she won't be, with or without your help."
...
In the midst of a livestream, Dale interjects. "Oh my god guys, i'm so happy to introduce a woman that's absolutely fantastic!"
Pointing the camera at someone else, the screen meets a fairly middle aged lady, a bit out of shape, a lot of makeup on her face and golden by hair colour.
Not sure how to talk at a screen, she just waves her hand and says. "Hello, I'm Linda Knight."
Pointing the camera back at himself, Dale deciphers. "Yes, see Linda is an amazing singer but never really got the chance to make her talent known. So today here we will give her a chance to shine."
Walking away from the lady, taking a front row seat in this restaurant which holds an audience of around 50 people, Dale gives out a sign. "Start Linda, you have 10,000 fans watching you!"
Well it's odd how 10,000 people are watching his live streams, considering that he has lost over 900,000 followers in less than a week and now is down to 700,000.
It's odd, but in another way it makes sense. After a scandal, all eyes would be on the scandalist, people of all ages waiting for him to make another bad move.
But that aside, Linda starts singing and her tone is truly marvelous. The lady claims to have sung for over a decade now, but the isolation of singing from restaurant to restaurant might not have brought this lady enough fame.
This lady has an amazing voice, but the intention behind this act of kindness Dale brought is more devious.
For the sake of not losing more followers, he has started doing kind acts, even announced a contest where the winner will get 9,000$.
That especially slowed down the follow drop, since to be part of the contest, one has to like, comment and share.
It's a golden move to get quick exposure, but only the young teenagers would fall prey to such an ill intended move to cover up foul acts.