𝑻𝐇𝐄 𝑵𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒━━ 𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘯𝘢𝘱

21

the morning after the gala, i woke up to literally thousands of notifications from instagram and twitter. half the users were dream smp related, so i assumed that one of the fans had found my socials and leaked them. i didn't really mind. i didn't post much on either platform, but i had gained around three thousand followers in the span of one night and that was kinda weird.

after julian and i parted ways, nick, karl and i had went outside to take pictures. i had only posted a handful of them, but i had over 40,000 likes on that post. and the comments just kept streaming in. i finally just turned my do not disturb on and went downstairs to make breakfast.

karl was already downstairs, looking through the fridge. "find anything good?" i asked.

"there's literally a pack of dr. pepper and spoiled milk in there," karl pointed out.

i rolled my eyes at that. "i swear, they would die if i weren't here. of course neither of them bothered to get groceries while i was locked in my room."

"i can go get some," karl offered. "i mean, i know what you guys like to eat."

"no, it's fine. i'll have them delivered." i quickly got the order in and sat on the counter, swinging my feet. "so i think one of the dream smp fans found my instagram and leaked it," i told karl.

"what?! thalia i'm so sorry." karl sounded genuinely distressed and i laughed a little.

"karl, it's fine. i have like five posts on that account. i did gain a ton of followers, though. like, i have four thousand more followers than i did yesterday morning."

"on what?" nick asked from behind me.

"instagram." i showed him all my recent notifications and he looked upset. "you guys need to chill out. it's not like they found my social security number or bank account password. it's just the instagram account i hardly ever use anyways."

"it's just an invasion of your privacy. there's no way four thousand people used their detective skills to find your account, so someone definitely leaked it. that's just not right," nick said, getting angrier.

"guys for real, it's fine," i said for the hundredth time. "i feel famous lol."

nick sighed as he looked at me. "did you seriously just say lol out loud?"

"i did."

"why are you like this?" he asked. he was shaking his head and smiling at me, even though he was acting frustrated. "did you get dropped on your head as a child?"

"it's probably from that concussion you gave me in high school," i pointed out. i smiled fondly at the memory of my acrobat phase that i had dragged nick into.

"guys," karl interrupted, "thalia is trending on twitter right now."

"what?!" we both practically yelled. karl handed me his phone and i scrolled through all the posts with #giveusthaliaorgiveusdeath.

"omg guys i'm actually famous now! i'm gonna quit my job, start streaming, and steal all your viewers."

"thalia, stop talking in abbreviations," nick said lightly.

"never." i stuck my tongue out at him and wrinkled my nose. nick mirrored was i was doing, and karl laughed at the two of us.

"if thalia weren't dating julian, i would be playing cupid so hard trying to get you guys to realize you're literally soulmates," karl said with a small sigh. "no offense to julian, but nick is literally your other half."

i froze at that, the dreaded topic coming up. "oh um- about julian. he's not really... you know, in the picture anymore," i said, very much awkwardly.

"oh," nick and karl said, glancing at each other with worry in their eyes.

"did it end well?" karl asked. i nodded. "then i won't press you for details right now. instead, i'll continue saying that you and nick are perfect for each other." he giggled a little and put his arms around the both of us. "honestly, nick, you got lucky. if it weren't for the fact that i'm stuck on a girl who ghosted me a year ago, i would go for thalia myself. she's that amazing."

"omg karl, you're making me blush," i said, being dramatic.

"thalia," nick said with a warning tone.

"omg nick do you have a problem with the way i talk?" i asked, purposefully using abbreviations to annoy him.

"you know i do," he said. "it's so annoying."

"i get it from you," i fired back.

"see, you're already basically a married couple," karl interrupted.

i just rolled my eyes. "so do you guys wanna go get breakfast?"

nick raised his eyebrows at me in confusion. "you just said you weren't hungry a few minutes ago when i offered you cereal."

"i didn't say i was going to eat. i want a smoothie. that's basically food, right?" i winked at them and grabbed my car keys. "are you coming or not?"

"what about dream?" karl asked. he glanced towards the stairs like he felt bad for not inviting dream.

"we'll bring the food back here. he won't be awake for another hour anyways."

they finally followed me to the car and we set off to find breakfast. i got an amazing fruit smoothie, but neither karl nor nick could decide on what they wanted for breakfast. we ended up getting donuts, pancakes, biscuits, and cinnamon rolls.

we when made it back home, dream was just waking up. the boys devoured the food, filling dream in on my sudden fame, while i drank my smoothie. i was mindlessly scrolling through twitter- which i had about seven thousand followers on by then- when i saw where someone had tweeted about needing a vacation. i smiled to myself and agreed silently.

suddenly, i got a brilliant idea. i'm a firm believer that random ideas are the best ideas and should be acted on immediately. i set my phone on the counter and smiled at the boys.

"oh no," dream said. he paused eating to stare at me. "thalia either had a really great idea or a really stupid one."

"oh it's a great idea. we're all going on a vacation," i announced, a giant smile on my face.

word count: 1042