Treadmill

VIII.I

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.

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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.