Kiss & Blog

1. Downfall

© janxel 2013 All Rights Reserved

{Please don't steal this story/ plot/ characters/ situations. I've poured a lot of my sarcastic soul and fan girl feels into these chapters so please respect that -A}

O N E: Downfall

Kathryn just barely managed to save her post before her screen turned black and the machinery within her laptop whirred to a stop.

She stared at it for moment, her left eye twitching slightly, as it usually did when her laptop coincidentally crashed before she was able to confirm whether or not a post was saved. She immediately pulled out her phone and checked her Tumblr app, too impatient to wait the 10 minutes it took to reboot her ancient laptop, and released a relieved sigh when she saw that the post had made it through without a glitch.

Satisfied with the post's successful confirmation, Kathryn returned her focus to the white laptop before her. It wasn't the latest model of portable technology, and, sure, Kathryn could probably live without its numerous malfunctions and without its hard drive weighing equal to that of a brick, but she took what she could get. Her laptop crashing wasn't even an unfamiliar occurrence, considering she'd probably fried its circuits with constant use and very little (if any) rest. If she had listened to her father and actually shut down the laptop each night instead of putting it to sleep after use, maybe she wouldn't be in this situation. On the plus side, her laptop did have decent WiFi connection and the latest version of Photoshop compatible with its outdated processor. It did its job, and that's all that mattered.

She flipped the heavyweight chunk of metal upside down, pulled out the laptop battery and reinserted it back into its slot before placing it right side up and flipping open the screen.

That's strange, she thought. Usually the screen glowed to life seconds after she removed and reinserted the battery. She blinked, her brows pinching together slightly, and repeated the process of removing an reinserting the computer's battery. She waited, hopeful. Still nothing.

She pressed the power button in confusion. The machinery inside the laptop whirred back to life, the lines of the power button glowing a fluorescent light blue, but the screen remained a lifeless black void.

Now she was panicking. Her eyes widened before she started violently shaking the laptop screen. She closed her laptop and opened it, willing it to glow back to life 3 seconds after doing so like it normally should have, but it didn't. She did it again for added measure, but nothing changed.

Kathryn's breathing was irregular now, her heart raced at a rapid speed not normal for an eighteen year old girl seeking silent refuge in the safety of the school's library. People were staring at her, peering over the walls of the library cubicle to stare at her hyperventilating self.

This is not good, she thought. The device held 4 years worth of photographs and files she'd organized according to category and date obtained. A portable version of Photoshop she may (or may not) have illegally downloaded were already installed into this computer. She hadn't even thought of transferring the files to an external hard drive, so if her laptop's internal memory wiped out she would lose everything. In the past 4 years she hasn't gone a day without her files, photographs, or Photoshop. Her laptop was her life.

Kathryn exhaled and pressed her eyes together before slamming her head down against her laptop in defeat.

"Is there a problem?" Kathryn's thoughts of panic were interrupted by a high pitched voice she was all too familiar with.

She rolled her eyes before lifting her head to greet the librarian through gritted teeth. "Nothing's wrong," she said, faking a smile. "Everything's fine."