Fame Crazy (Sequel to Strings Attached)

Chapter 20

"Some fans stand by Novak, claiming it is just a misunderstanding, but others aren't so sure."

(Insert a bunch of tweets condemning Castiel as a rapist here.)

"We all hope this was just a misunderstanding, but when a young girl's safety is involved, assuming the best is never okay. "

Seriously? Out of every stupid thing Castiel has done in the last couple years, people are finally going to start talking when he helps someone? Great. Just great. So how is he supposed to clear this one up?

"You look upset," Michael observes, walking over and taking a seat next to him. "What's up?"

Castiel sighs and looks over at his brother. "I'm apparently a rapist now."

"What?"

Castiel just hands him the phone. Michael quickly scans the article, taking all of thirty seconds because he's a quick reader before returning the phone.

"Then tell everyone they're wrong before it's blown out of proportion," Michael suggests. "Tweet it. Or live stream it. I know you like doing that."

"Why, so people can say I'm just making excuses and draw even more attention to it?"

Michael frowns, seeing the problem. "Ah, yeah. I see your point. But not responding to it would look pretty bad, too. I say you tweet something about it."

Castiel scoffs. "Yeah. Defend myself against freaking rape allegations in 140 characters or less. That's gonna work out great," he says sarcastically, possibly a bit ruder than necessary.

"Just to let everyone know that you've heard and you didn't do anything," Michael clarifies. "That's all."

"That's not going to help," Castiel pouts.

"Just do it," Michael tells him. "Seriously. I think just knowing that you deny it will help your case."

Castiel rolls his eyes. "That doesn't make any sense. Even if I was a rapist, I'd say I didn't do it."

"Just tweet about it like it's anything else," Michael advises. "Pretend it's just some random tweet at you and respond to it like that."

Castiel sighs. "Fine."

He tweets the link of the article with the caption, "Is this an early April Fools joke? I think you're forgetting a little something called 'homosexuality.'"

He shows it to Michael, who shrugs.
"That works," he agrees.

He tweets it, scrolling through the earliest responses, mostly consisting of "Hey, Dad" and "Fuck me, Daddy." He decides to tweet again right after that.

"The "Dad" tweets aren't really what I'm looking for right now. Mind holding off on those?"

Obviously, he still gets a bunch of tweets like that, but he does find some with some substance to them.

"Anyone who believed their story is a fucking idiot."

"We trust you, Castiel."

"Then what really happened?"

"Does anyone honestly believe he's a rapist?"

"Being gay is a great cover for a rapist."

"Reading that headline makes me lose faith in humanity."

"#FakeNews."

"Love ya, Castiel, but not sure if I can trust you on this one."

So it's a mixed group here; some believe him, some don't. One thing he does notice is all the fighting going on in the responses, so he tweets out a reply to his own tweet.

"Stop fighting. Whether you believe me or not, it's really not worth it. You're not accomplishing anything."

"So?" Michael prompts. "How's it going so far?"

"It's a mixed reaction," Castiel tells him. "It'll be interesting to see what the final decision is."

"How will you know?" Michael asks.

"The most liked tweets," he clarifies. "It's a bit biased because they're mostly my followers who generally like me, but there are some people that follow me that hate me with a burning passion, so we'll see."

"I'm sure people will realize they're wrong," Michael assures him.

Castiel sighs, burying his head in his hands. "Maybe they shouldn't."

"What?"

"It'll never go to court; I can't get in trouble with the law for it. The worst that'll happen is it sends my career down the drain, but maybe it should. I'm not cut out for this."

"Don't talk like that," Michael protests. "You're awesome. You're good at what you do, and you clearly love it; you've been doing it since middle school. Don't let one misunderstanding take that away from you."

"It's not just the rape thing, it's..." Castiel trails off. "Never mind. Forget I said anything."

"What?" Michael asks.

"I said forget it," Castiel snaps.

Michael is clearly surprised at his tone, but Castiel can't find it in him to care.

"Alright, sorry," Michael apologizes. "Well, I hope you change your mind and everything works out fine."

Michael walks away, leaving Castiel alone with his phone. He begins to surf the Twitter world, then decides against it. It's usually a nice pick-me-up, but right now, it's more depressing than anything, and he doesn't need that right now.