Isolated

Chapter 2.

Social media. It was something people just assumed I used to contact people, and talk to people whilst I stayed inside. But I had deleted all social media platforms after graduation photos had been posted and I had saved the ones I wanted. Other than my work in the magazine, and my website for selling my artwork and my email address there was virtually no trace of me on the internet. I had five contacts on my phone; Mum, Dad, Rian, Lily (Rian's wife) and the creator of the magazine I worked for. It was all I needed. The concept of talking to someone over the internet scared me almost as much as talking in person. The internet was a very scary place, full of dark things. Everybody could be anybody. I also believed in brainhacking and data mining, which were two very real and very scary internet issues. The internet was not an ethical place.

It was drizzling outside, and I watched the raindrops drip down the petals of the sunflowers on the opposite side of my bedroom window. I pulled my phone from my pocket and took a photograph. While others would post that photo to Instagram or Facebook with captions about the beauty of the image and hashtags to gain attention, I simply turned on the bluetooth on my phone. With a tap of the screen the image slipped out of my polaroid printer and I grabbed it and gently shook it waiting for the image to appear.

I signed the back of film with the date and grabbed a small amount of blu-tac, before sticking the image to my wall alongside many others. My wall was my very own Instagram feed.

My eyes trailed to the paper resting on my bedside table on top of one of my new books that I had just started reading. It was paper copy of the invitation to the high school reunion Rian had been nagging me about the last four days, he had dropped off a second copy this morning on the way to taking Effy to play-center, because he correctly assumed that I'd binned the one he gave me last Thursday. He had said something else to me as well, that had stuck with me for the last four hours since his visit -- 'Andie you should consider getting Facebook so you can become more comfortable with our old friends beforehand.'

I picked up the invitation, complete with italic serif font and all the fancy little decals. It look as if it had been ripped from the internet and the text had been changed to suit the occasion. I sighed and looked back to my laptop that was sitting up on a peak of duvets and blankets atop of my bed, Google open with Facebook typed in the search bar. The enter button was yet to be pressed, and honestly, it wasn't going to be.

With a growl of my stomach, I leaned over and slammed the lid of my laptop shut. Midday had arrived and with the sun at its peak in the sky, my hunger had reached its own peak. Being a Monday it felt only appropriate to prepare a salad, not exactly hunger taming but something light to start off the week -- after all this weekend I had been rather gluttonous and ordered a pizza delivery on Saturday and then Dad had brought home a dinner bucket from KFC on Sunday. While I had no issues with my body and had no concern whether I was fat or skinny (after all, I didn't leave the house and had no one judging me), I could still feel the weight of the greasy food which made me feel quite bloated.

I winced as the knife brushed my fingers as I sliced the carrot for my salad. One of the many things that heightened my anxiety was the thought of injuring myself to an extent where I would have to be taken to hospital. Usually my nurses and psychiatrists visited me at home, but if I were to break or slice off something I would need to be admitted into A&E, something which could not come to my house.

Taking my bowl of salad into the living room I dropped onto the sofa and rested the bowl in my lap. I reached for the remote and switched on the television, being greeted by an overly enthusiastic women trying to sell me a mop. Informecials always managed to make me feel more lonely than what I was, I guess it's because they only ever played during the middle of the day and the only people who actually watched television during the middle of the day were sick, bored kids and old ladies with their cats.