I feel like I should have been offended by the automatic assumption that Kennedy was to be the face of this fake influencer account. It was never really discussed or argued with at all; Kennedy was the fake influencer. She looked like a better version of an influencer in the first place, I guess. We both knew it, but it sort of went unspoken. If I had been the face of this account, the followers would grow at a quarter of the speed that they would with Kennedy as its front.

Which was fine.

Honestly, I was so enthralled with Kennedy's world and with her life that I didn't even care. I felt like as long as she was interested in keeping me on this adventure with her, I was doing something right, and we would be able to keep going. Forever, even.

What a dream that was.

Everything in my life at that point was so...odd. Everything was moving at the speed of light and everything seemed to blur together. Within three days of meeting Kennedy I was already running a fake Instagram account with her that had over 5,000 fake followers. It was...bizarre. It was something out of a fairy tale, but an incredibly dark one if anything.

If I could go back to that moment. That moment when Kennedy told me to go with her and take pictures for the 'arsenal' we needed to develop for this account. If I could go back to that moment and tell myself one thing? It would be this.

Three days is not enough time.

><><

The two girls pulled up to a park close to the university and parked Kennedy's car in an empty spot. The park was littered with parents and their kids, with people trying to have peaceful picnics with their significant other, with friends throwing frisbees. Everything was pretty normal. The park was nothing special; just one that too many people around Clemson went to.

"Why did you pick this place?" Rebecca asked as she climbed out of the car and shut the door behind her, "I feel like there are tons of other parks that are less open. Won't people see us and recognize the pictures when we put them up?"

"You are vastly overestimating how much people care about anyone they don't know." Kennedy laughed, "No one is going to remember us being here after the next hour. Plus, this park has a very specific—secluded—rock that I think would be great for pictures. It's unique; other people won't have the same backdrop."

Rebecca nodded silently and followed Kennedy to the park, cutting through families and couples and ducking under frisbees flying over their heads. They walked for five minutes before the number of people around them began to dissipate, leading them to a corner of the park covered by trees and with a single rock the size of a bush in the middle of a clearing.

"This is the spot." Kennedy said as the two slowed to a stop in front of the rock. "So take my phone and try to get as many different angles and poses as you can. As long as we space them out we can use pictures in the same outfit multiple times."

Rebecca nodded obediently and took Kennedy's phone from her, knowing without having to ask that her phone was newer and would therefore have a better camera. Kennedy walked to the rock and climbed on top of it, sitting down and slinging her legs over the side gracefully. She tilted her head back and a huge, carefree smile graced her lips as Rebecca started to take the pictures.

Kennedy directed her towards different angles that she knew would work best before switching her pose. Rebecca took more pictures of the new pose before Kennedy hopped down and walked over to a tree to pose by the tree. More pictures. A different pose. More pictures.

Rebecca paused in her picture-taking.

"Do you think we have enough?"

Kennedy thought for a moment.

"Almost."

She lifted off her shirt and threw it out of the camera shot, standing in just her boots, jeans and a sparkly red-and-pink striped bralette.

"Alright, get a few like this."

Rebecca swallowed nervously and looked around them almost instinctively, trying not to think about the fact that she was standing with her half-naked friend taking pictures for a fake Instagram account.

"Alright."

She took some more pictures, capturing different angles while trying to stay tasteful. She went to take some from the right side and cocked her head to the side slightly.

"What's that from?" She asked curiously, pointing to a long scar that ran down the length of Kennedy's ribcage.

Kennedy looked down slightly and her expression became stony.

"Oh, just an accident from a while ago." She replied quickly, "We'll have to edit it out in these pictures. Drew can look like me but she can't have a scar in the exact same place as me."

Rebecca nodded, feeling the same air from her friend that she had felt when she inquired about her family a few days earlier. Kennedy wasn't one to share. Rebecca could get over that.

"Yeah that makes sense." She nodded, taking a few more pictures before standing up straight and extending the phone back towards Kennedy, "Here, I think we have enough for the time being."

Kennedy took her phone back and quickly scrolled through the hundreds of new pictures before turning her phone off and pulling her shirt back on.

"You did great, Rebecca. I think we could really use these!"

Rebecca stopped herself from blushing and nodded her thanks as the two headed back towards the car, Kennedy continuing to talk logistics of the account and of the pictures they should start off with.

The two climbed into Kennedy's car and rolled out of the park's parking lot, driving past a few recognizable buildings on their way out before passing by the grocery store. As they waited at a red light outside the grocery store, Rebecca made the mistake of looking over at her workplace. Janie was walking out to her car, her face long and her feet dragging behind her. Rebecca felt guilt prick her chest for leaving the woman one cashier short. She knew that it was difficult for the store to function when short-staffed. And she had lied to go and take pictures for a fake Instagram account that she was sure wouldn't even end up mattering.

But then the light turned green, Kennedy started driving, and Rebecca's guilt was left at the intersection.

Once back in Kennedy's apartment, Rebecca crashed onto the couch as Kennedy hooked her phone to her computer to download the images. Rebecca took the computer from her after they were all downloaded and opened up a photo editing app to start on the pictures, thanking the heavens for her Graphic Design minor...for the first time. She had never thought she would be thankful for it, but instead found it was something she could be grateful for while also thoroughly enjoying.

"That one." Kennedy leaned over to point at a picture of her—fully-clothed—in one of the poses sitting on the rock. "We should start with that one."

Rebecca nodded her immediate agreement and started on the picture, experimenting with filters and teeth whitening devices before settling on a preset that made the picture look slightly more saturated while also giving the illusion of a sunny day and a full forest behind Kennedy's smiling figure.

"All done." Rebecca said, attaching the picture to an email directed to both herself and Kennedy, "Ready to post?"

Kennedy nodded excitedly and waited for the email to come before pulling up the Instagram app. Rebecca watched as she uploaded the picture and her fingers hovered over the caption box.

"What should I caption it?" She asked.

Rebecca thought for a moment. She had never been very good at captions.

"Something simple. Don't start with long captions until it's clear you're on the path to influencer status. You don't want to sound like you're going into this expecting to get there."

"Even though that's exactly what we're doing." Kennedy laughed. She thought for a second before typing out: 'Love where you live.' She posted it before Rebecca could say a word and the picture popped up on the feed immediately.

"This is terrifying." Kennedy whispered, her phone seemingly glued to her hand, "How do people do this?"

"Do what?" Rebecca replied, raising her eyebrows, "Run a fake wannabe Instagram influencer account? I don't honestly think that too many people do this."

Kennedy rolled her eyes.

"You know what I mean." She laughed, "I'm just nervous."

A minute passed in silence and Kennedy started typing into her phone, not looking up.

"What are you doing?" Rebecca asked curiously, trying to look at the other girl's screen. "Did something happen?"

Kennedy shook her head and turned her phone off quickly.

"I just did it to be safe."

Rebecca felt herself start to get nervous.

"You did what to be safe?"

Kennedy shrugged slightly.

"Bought 500 likes for the picture."

Rebecca felt like she was dealing with a toddler; someone who kept making a conscious decision to do something they knew they weren't supposed to do. It almost seemed like she was doing it to get a rise out of Rebecca.

"That has at least thirty terrible implications." Rebecca shook her head, "The picture getting 500 likes in the first three minutes of posting is going to look completely suspicious to the maybe six organic followers we have. Then you're going to have to keep buying likes for every picture so that we maintain that number of likes and it doesn't look obvious that they were bought on the first one. And having exactly 10% of the number of followers as the number of likes also looks too perfect."

Kennedy cocked her head to the side for a moment, clearly considering what Rebecca was saying while also refusing to see that she had done anything remotely wrong.

"Rebecca, you are such a worrywart. Being a worrywart is not going to get this account anywhere. No one cares enough about a new pretty wannabe influencer to even consider the fact that their account might be fake. So, all of your 'terrible implications' really don't matter that much, now do they?"

Rebecca was quiet for a moment. She wasn't wrong. No one cared enough about a new account. People cared about drama. People cared about something they could judge. Avoiding drama for a hot second would make it so that no one would have to question anything. So that would mean that nothing would be...terrible. In the most likely scenario. Probably.

"And if it makes you feel better, then I'll just keep buying the 'right' amount of likes until we end up with enough organic likes. Is that what they're called? Organic likes? Organic followers? Do they cost more in the grocery store?"

Rebecca rolled her eyes as Kennedy laughed hysterically at her own joke.

"Yes. They're called organic likes and organic followers."

The two sat for another second before Rebecca stood.

"I'm gonna head home if that's alright. I should probably get started on some homework. But I'll keep an eye on the account and everything while I do homework, don't worry."

Kennedy nodded absentmindedly while still scrolling through her phone. Rebecca took that as permission to leave and started for her car, trying to not think about the nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She walked into her apartment a few minutes later, closing and locking the door behind her absentmindedly. She felt like she hadn't seen her roommates in days as she heard their voices floating over from the living room.

Rebecca walked over to the living room and saw all three of her roommates sitting together and talking animatedly. Celeste sat on the armchair facing Kaylie and Jamie, who were positioned on the couch. All three stopped talking and looked up as Rebecca walked in and took a seat on the ottoman in front of Celeste.

"Hey, guys." She grinned for a second. "Something interesting happening?"

"Well first off, hello to you too." Celeste laughed, "You've been MIA for like a week."

"I'm pretty sure I talked to you yesterday, Cel." Rebecca rolled her eyes.

Celeste thought for a moment.

"Whatever." She shrugged, grinning. "You wanna hear something we just found?"

Rebecca nodded.

"Technically my friends found it this afternoon." Celeste amended her previous statement, "It's this Instagram account."

Rebecca felt her heart drop to her feet at those words. It wasn't possible. How would people from Clemson have been able to find them so quickly? It was just a coincidence.

"An Instagram account?" She repeated.

"Yeah." Celeste nodded excitedly, "It is so clearly trying to become an influencer or something. Homegirl is definitely pretty enough to be an influencer, and she already somehow has 5,000 followers even though she only has one post? But whatever. She's totally gorgeous so I'm not even surprised."

Rebecca was sure she was dreaming. It had to be a dream that her best friend had somehow found the fake account Rebecca had made with a random girl she met days before.

"I wanna follow her." Jamie said, "She's so pretty. I would definitely take fashion advice from her."

"Same." Kaylie nodded her agreement.

"What's the account name?" Rebecca asked carefully, trying to not appear too interested, "I wanna see if she's actually that pretty."

"It's drewboo." Celeste responded, "Which is a totally cute handle as well."

Rebecca shrugged slightly.

"Kind of basic if you ask me."

The other three seemed to agree silently, all still on this Instagram page with their eyes glued to every aspect of Kennedy's outfit and perfectly edited picture.

"I'm following her." Jamie announced, "What if she actually becomes something? How cool would it be to be able to say that you were like in the first 10,000 followers of a girl who ends up with over a million?"

"It's like being the ultimate hipster." Kaylie replied eagerly.

The three girls followed 'Drew' simultaneously and Rebecca had never felt so much gratitude for having Instagram notifications disabled on her phone.

"Are you gonna follow her, Bec?" Celeste asked, "I know you're not huge on Instagram, but it would be pretty cool to have like 'discovered' an influencer."

Rebecca shrugged as nonchalantly as she could.

"Yeah sure, why not."

A/N: Hey guys! Make sure to check out my blog, kpmblog.wixsite.com/shelfawareness, and also my Instagram, @someshelfawareness, to see different posts about writing, productivity, and different stories from me that you don't see on Wattpad.

-Katherine