Follow Me Back by A.V. Geiger (13)

13

EXPOSED

“OK, thanks, everyone. Take ten.”

Eric gingerly disentangled his limbs from one of his delightful new love interests. Olga or Oksana? He couldn’t say for sure. Day four of shooting, and he still couldn’t keep their names straight. Neither could the film crew, from what Eric could tell. Maybe the director should have thought of that before he cast a pair of Latvian identical twins to star in the latest music video.

Music video, Eric thought with a grim smile. What a joke. Ever since the Billboard charts started counting YouTube views, the whole video business had taken an ugly turn. They should dispense with the pretense and call it what it was: soft-core porn. A footrace to see who could expose the most flesh without getting banned by the FCC.

Eric slipped a robe around his shoulders and ran a towel across his face to rub away the lipstick stains. Makeup would have to touch him up before he undressed again for the next scene, but that could wait. Right now, he needed privacy. He’d passed the last several hours shooting the threesome scene with his lovely costars, and he’d spent the entire time with his mind on someone else.

Eric glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one followed him back to his trailer. Then he eagerly whipped out his phone. He’d sent out the selfie before shooting began, but he hadn’t found a spare moment to check for a response.

Eric Thorn @EricThorn

Selfie day! Tweet me a selfie wherever you are at this exact moment, and maybe we’ll use it in the new #MusicVideo

He had to hand it to himself: one of his more ingenious Twitter ploys. He needed something to look forward to today—anything to take his mind off yesterday’s ugliness at the concert. The answer had come to him this morning as he sat staring at his selfie, struggling to compose a caption. He’d been wondering for weeks now what Tessa looked like. He didn’t dare ask her for a pic. But this was perfect. She was sure to send one. After all, it wasn’t just some random stranger off the Internet asking to see her. It was her idol. Her obsession. Her true love, Eric Thorn.

Had she seen it? He scrolled eagerly through the replies.

The response was overwhelming, of course. His notifications overflowed with pictures of teenage girls making faces at their phones. Kissy faces. Duck faces. Oh look! One of them made a GIF of herself twerking. He scrolled past all of them, scanning for the only username he cared about. Where was it? Hadn’t she sent one?

He didn’t have time to wade through all the noise. He entered her name into the search bar to pull up her profile. There it was at the top of her recent tweets:

Tessa H @TessaHeartsEric

@EricThorn Here’s a kiss from someone cute. Glad you’re OK!

pic.twitter.com/1cdI6DZmTe

Eric bit his lip as he clicked to expand the picture. He couldn’t help but laugh at what he saw. She’d arrayed a mountain of Eric Thorn fan paraphernalia at the head of her bed: poster, T-shirt, coffee mugs, CD cases… Was that a pillowcase with his face on it? The only sign of her own presence in the photo were her feet, decked out in a pair of fuzzy pink bunny slippers. She had one bunny positioned next to the poster, kissing his image on the cheek.

Eric shook his head. So frustrating! He couldn’t see anything. Hell, he couldn’t even tell how big her feet were!

Still, he couldn’t erase the grin plastered across his face. Here’s a kiss from someone cute. She was awfully cute, wasn’t she? Even if he couldn’t see what she looked like, at least she made him smile. Probably the first real smile that had crossed his face all day.

Eric wondered if she’d replied to him on his fake account as well. She hadn’t answered his DM earlier, but that was hours ago. She must have seen it by now.

He clicked the privacy latch on the inside of the trailer door, and then he leaned his weight against the edge of the makeup counter as he quickly switched accounts.

No more @EricThorn. Back to @EricThornSucks.

Time Stamp 9/16/16, 1:29 p.m.

Tessa H: Hey, sorry I was off-line before. Not having the greatest morning.

Eric’s initial pleasure gave way to a sliver of concern. Something must have shaken her. He had a feeling he knew what it was.

Taylor: What happened? Was it because of the concert last night? Did that freak you out?

Tessa H: Yeah, among other things…

Taylor: Are you OK? That kind of scared the crap out of me too.

Tessa H: Thank you! Everyone else seems to think it was funny. I don’t understand how people can make jokes about it!

Taylor: Trust me, I’m right there with you. I didn’t sleep a wink last night.

Tessa H: I didn’t hear till this morning. I was supposed to go sit on the front stoop with my mom today, and I totally bailed. She’s so mad at me now.

“Crap,” Eric said under his breath. Tessa had mentioned her therapy exercises before, and he knew this one was a big deal for her. She hadn’t set foot outside in months. He hated to think that he might have set back her progress.

Taylor: Do you want to tell me about it? I don’t have a ton of time right now, but I can talk for a couple minutes.

Tessa H: It’s OK. At least Eric’s OK, right? He must be fine if he went on with the show afterward.

Taylor: I guess. He seemed kind of shaken up. He did the rest of the concert from the main stage.

Tessa H: Poor Eric. I just hope he has someone there to give him a big hug :(

“Yeah,” Eric muttered. “That makes two of us.”

But he was less concerned about his own state of mind. He could count on one hand the number of times he’d ever seen Tessa use a frown emoji. She always had such an air of optimism about her, even in the face of all her problems. It was one of the reasons he felt compelled to chat with her so often. It helped him keep his own issues in perspective.

He longed to lift her spirits now. If only he could talk to her for real. Hear the sound of her voice. Or better yet, FaceTime. But of course that was impossible.

He settled for another DM instead:

Taylor: Hey, so that selfie you tweeted was pretty smokin’ hot ;)

Tessa H: OMG did you see it?

Taylor: Not bad. I’m not sure that’s exactly what Eric Thorn was looking for. Maybe you should tweet him a real one…

Tessa H: Ummm, did you miss the part of the conversation where I have SEVERE anxiety?

Taylor: So tweet and delete. You can do it. Face your fears.

Tessa H: But I’m supposed to face them in small steps! Like today I was just supposed to spend five minutes on my front porch. It’s called desensitization.

Taylor: OK, small steps. So maybe tweet a picture of your feet without the slippers.

Tessa H: Can I wear socks?

Taylor: Nope. Take it all off, baby.

Tessa H: That is SO not happening today. Seriously, you didn’t see me this morning :(

There she went with the frowny face again. Eric had never heard her sound so negative before. There had to be something he could do to cheer her up. He glanced down at his own feet, crossed at the ankles. They were bare for the video shoot. He only donned a pair of black plastic flip-flops to protect his soles from the sunbaked asphalt of the studio backlot.

He wiggled his toes, one corner of his mouth quirking mischievously. Maybe he couldn’t show her his face, but at least he could try to make her laugh.

Taylor: C’mon. Tweet a nude. I’ll do it if you do ;)

Eric snickered to himself as he toggled back to Tessa’s bunny slipper tweet. He composed his own tweet in reply and quickly snapped a picture for illustration. He held the camera low to crop out the hem of his robe, just showing his hairy calves on downward. He had one foot lifted off the ground, with his flip-flop dangling from his big toe.

Taylor @EricThornSucks

I’m more of a thong kind of guy…*wink wink* @TessaHeartsEric @EricThorn

pic.twitter.com/z9H81X9hPi

He held his breath, awaiting her response. He hadn’t gone too far, had he? She had to know he was just joking around—not actually flirting. She had a boyfriend after all.

Eric felt a twinge of some unpleasant emotion he couldn’t quite identify. Guilt, perhaps? A pang of conscience for talking to another guy’s girlfriend? He didn’t think so. His conversations with Tessa were innocent enough.

So maybe it wasn’t guilt, then. Maybe it was more like…jealousy?

Ridiculous. How could it be jealousy? Jealous of what? Of some loser guy named Scott who barely visited his girlfriend?

Eric shook the thought out of his head, waiting for her to reward his clever line with laughter. At least a smile. Something must have distracted her on the other end. He DM’ed her again, still teasing.

Taylor: Are you blushing? Too revealing?

Tessa H: Is that supposed to be a joke?

Taylor: Ummm, no? Not funny?

Tessa H: Why would you tweet a pic of men’s feet?

Men’s feet? Eric’s smile slowly faded. He added another message to the thread.

Taylor: Tessa, you do know I’m a guy, right?

She didn’t answer. Silence. No reply. He tried to keep his next message light, but his heart had started beating like a drum.

Taylor: Ugh. So annoying! Everyone assumes Taylor is a girl’s name now. Thanks a lot, Taylor Swift.

“Say something,” he whispered to the phone. “Shit, Tessa. Say something.”

Taylor: Hello? Tessa?

Taylor: Crap. I thought you knew. Are you there?

Her answer came back at last, and he let out a gasp of relief when he saw it. For a moment there, he’d thought he might never hear another word.

Tessa H: Please tell me you’re gay.

Taylor: No… What difference does that make?

Tessa H: Why is a straight guy tweeting about Eric Thorn?

Eric paused again, considering his reply. Was she upset? She’d taken so long to write back just now, but maybe it didn’t mean anything. Still, some instinct told him to tread lightly. Should he apologize? Try to make another joke out of it? In the end, he simply played for time.

Taylor: Tessa, you know I was just kidding around, right?

He hit Send, and then he sat staring at his phone in utter bafflement. An error message had popped up—words he’d never seen before in all his years on Twitter.

Eric gave the phone a shake, as if to clear away some speck of dust. A glitch, he thought. Some hiccup in the software. It took him a moment to comprehend the truth.

No mistake. It meant just what it said:

@TessaHeartsEric had just unfollowed @EricThornSucks.