Page 26 of Anxious Hearts
‘I get it,’ he said. ‘You’re already stressed enough about these exams. You don’t need that extra pressure.’
Kelly wiped her nose on her sleeve. She knew Finn wouldn’t mock her problems as superficial. Wouldn’t tell her to get some real issues. ‘Exactly!’ she said. ‘And Juliana wants to turn me into a fucking influencer!’
Now Finn bit his lip, trying to hide a grin.
Kelly felt a smile forming on her own lips, a sudden lightness in her chest. ‘It’s not funny!’
Finn sucked in a deep breath through clenched teeth. ‘It’s a little bit funny.’
‘It’s fucking absurd.’
‘That’s what makes it funny, Kel. You’re the only 28-year-old on the planet who doesn’t use or care about social media. There are kids in remote African villages with a more definable digital footprint than you.’
‘Don’t ever say “digital footprint” in my presence again.’
‘Okay, but yours is more of a digital bigfoot print.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘Kelly, you’ve been on Instagram for less than two days and you already have twenty-five thousand followers.’
‘Don’t exaggerate. I have ten thousand followers. Juliana showed me this morning.’
Finn grabbed his phone from the coffee table, unlocked it and showed the screen to Kelly. Next to her profile picture, the stats read: 0 posts, 25K followers, 10 following.
This was even worse than she’d imagined. Being impersonated on social media felt like a gross violation of her privacy. Hercarefully cultivated and fiercely guardedprivacy.
‘I’m scared, Finn. Who are all these people?’
Finn shrugged. ‘I guess they read the article about you and it struck a chord with them. Have you had many other DMs?’
Kelly felt like a brand-new student standing before her first-ever cadaver, scalpel in hand.If I cut this body open, what will I find inside?Now, again, she was faced with the unknown, only this time, she wasn’t excited at the prospect of discovery. She was terrified.
‘How do I know if people have sent me DMs?’
‘It’s in your notifications.’
Kelly stared blankly at Finn.
‘Do you have Instagram on your phone?’
‘I don’t know. Does it come with the phone?’
Finn flicked his fingers towards his palm in a ‘gimme’ gesture. ‘Here, I’ll log in for you. What’s your password?’
Kelly remembered a text message Juliana had sent her earlier. She’d been between patients and had barely glanced at the notification on her watch, still furious at the communications adviser for starting Facebook and Instagram accounts without her permission. She found Juliana’s message, which contained her account logins and a kissy face emoji … a kissy face, for fuck’s sake. Did that woman have no capacity to read the room?
She handed her phone to Finn. ‘I need to take a shower.’
He grinned. ‘Do you want me to post that from your account?’
‘Why not? Nobody else thinks impersonating me is a big deal.’
Finn stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth as though he was concentrating hard and began tapping the phone. ‘Okay, let’s make it sexy but not too suggestive. How about: “Gotta hit the showers after a long day at work. Washing off the hospital grime with a bucket of disinfectant. LMFAO.”’
Kelly raised an eyebrow. ‘That’s your idea of sexy? No wonder you’re single.’
‘What? Cleanliness is sexy, too, you know.’
