[right][sub][sub]a short story | ———— materialism & social media[/sub][/sub][/right] [hider=] [indent] [indent] [justify] [sub][i]Bestfriends[/i] The electric doorbell jingled. When Chelsea looked through the monitor, it showed the fingerprint that signaled the cheery rhythm matched who was at the door. It was her best friend and favorite confidant Hannah. Her friend’s arms were folded looking vacantly through one of her contact lens screens, prioritizing her primary shopping cart application, most likely. “Hey, Hannah! You came a bit early,” Chelsea said hesitantly as she opened the door. For some reason, the occasion wasn’t as exciting as she had expected it to be. Something was off. Something felt hollow. “Oh, yeah, sorry. I was expecting another delay today with traffic, but every circuit was running on time.” Hannah’s arms unfolded and gave Chelsea a hug before walking inside and slipping off her shoes. But, Hannah paused. “Y-you…” She looked around the apartment. “You haven’t installed the latest app, yet?” She gave Chelsea a puzzled look. Her blue contact lens shaded her dilated pupils. “I mean, it’s so clean, and they upgraded the security systems. It’s harder to get hacked, now. Plus, the new entry design is so clean and welcoming. You’d love it!” “I…” Chelsea looked down and pushed back several strands of her short brown hair. When the new app upgrade had signaled on her alarm, she decided not to go through with it. There were things about the old upgrade she loved. Like the couch design. The way the pixels landed made things seem more traditional and family-oriented. The new design was white and bland looking. Sure, it looked clean, but it was sterile in a hospital waiting room kind-of-way. She wanted to wait for the next upgrade to see what the couch design would be like, then maybe she would consider. “I didn’t like the way the couch looked,” Chelsea smiled shyly. “Come in, do you want some tea or water?” She led Hannah through the foyer and into the living room. There were several toys left on the floor, where the children had been playing. “You can get partial upgrades, you know?” Hannah laughed a bit. “I know, I know, it’s just so complicated to mod the system with all the kids and…” Chelsea made a sigh. She wished things could be more simple. She often felt that the world was running around her, and she was too far behind to bother catching up. And then, she was too busy chasing children to really care. “I can help you another day, if you want. Just let me know when. Besides, the next time you upload a picture of your family onto SocialView, people are going to see you didn’t get the new upgrades. Remember in eMoral Linguistics? We learned that people who don’t keep up with upgrades are usually behind on payments or hackers. You don’t want anyone thinking so low of you, right?” Hannah shook her head. Her short brown curls bobbed side-to-side. Chelsea hadn’t paid much attention during eMoral Linguistics or other subjects in school for that matter. She had been too busy trying to make her own accessory designs for apps because she was rarely satisfied with any of the upgrades. Even today, she still tried sending in her suggestions, but not once had she ever gotten a response back. “I haven’t uploaded anything in a while to be honest,” Chelsea relented. Recently, she had been getting anxiety from uploading her family to social media. She knew it was part of social protocol to be a good citizen in good standing, but she found posting less frequently felt better. Also, her standing was pretty immaculate, considering how well her content was usually viewed. She didn’t think posting a little less would hurt her. Although, at this moment, she was having a hard time calculating the last time she even posted anything. “It’s okay. I see you upgraded your wardrobe.” Hannah followed Chelsea into the kitchen. “Well, I really liked the bracelet it came with.” Chelsea looked down at the digital gold chain. It had a small pink heart jewel, replicated as an Australian pink diamond. She couldn’t resist this upgrade, no matter what. Pink was her favorite color. “Here, let’s take Bestie Photos of our bracelets together and post it. We can use the foyer wall and the window as our background. No one will know about the rest of your house, they’ll never know you haven’t upgraded, yet.” Hannah always had her priorities straight. It was easier for her. Her father had been working in the electronics field, while Chelsea’s had been reading through Visual Word Documents for errors. They had completely different priorities growing up, and sometimes, it made Chelsea feel like her parents failed. “Okay, yeah, that’s a good idea. You know, I’ll try to keep anything that is in the new upgrade out of photographs. I mean, why not take pictures of the children playing outside? We hardly go out there anymore.” She looked out of the window. The curtains weren’t her favorite, and she thought, maybe the new upgrade had better window curtains. She sighed. Everything was so complicated. “That’s phenomenal!” Hannah fawned. “I don’t know why no one else hasn’t thought of that,” She began to ponder. “Oh, well, be careful... Now that I think about it, a lot of poor people do the same thing, but most people know you’re not poor. So, you’re safe. It’d look so artistic from your View. I love it!” She smiled and some dreamlike haze glazed over her eyes. “I could see other people wanting the same View. She was scrolling through her feed, again. "In fact, do you want to take pictures of our bracelets outside? No, nevermind, it’s so hot out there. I can’t believe we can’t mess with the climate legally, aside from disposing of our trash negatively. I wish we could do something else for the environment.” Chelsea pressed the silicon button on the hot water boiler. A trickle of water poured into a white tea cup with a digital floral design. Steam rose from the spout and disappeared into the kitchen’s digital vinyl. “Is green tea okay? Or did you want water? I can't remember?" “Oh, tea's fine, as long as you can make it blue,” Hannah picked up the cup after Chelsea carefully put a teabag into it and sipped it--not wasting time to let it steep. Nonetheless, her smile looked zen as she let the liquid soothe her soul. Hannah followed Chelsea into the living room. “So how’s Robert?” They sat on the standard-issued couch. Part of Chelsea wanted to do away with the digital visage and have everything plain and handmade. She wanted to do things herself, instead of hoping to get her upgrades noticed on her View. She sighed again. “Everyone notices him.” She forced a smile and a small laugh. It was a hassle to have everyone notice his View. It meant her View had to be perfect, which it was, except for this small lapse in getting an upgrade. “That’s cool, I’m getting a lot more people to notice me, too.” She held up her gold bracelet. The pink diamond shined at Chelsea. On Hannah’s wrist, it seemed more like a brilliant nebula in the a far away galaxy. On her own wrist, the diamond looked more like a cupid’s kiss. “Don’t worry, I’m sure if you start posting, again, people will notice you, too. And hh my God, you know what will happen if people stop noticing you…” She shook her head. Her brown curls bobbed, again. “Y-yeah,” Chelsea looked at her lap. Her hands were folded nicely over the new skirt design. It was a dimgray, a little more whimsical than the black pleated one. “Its a good thing Robert gets noticed so much, or I’d get the children taken away…” She tried to sound dramatic, but she knew on the route she was taking, it was true. People who didn’t keep up were called crazy. Either that or they were poor or a hacker, and she clearly wasn't either of those. “Did you take your vitamins today, by the way?” Chelsea looked up at Hannah. The entire conversation seemed off. She knew Hannah was trying to be helpful by checking up on her, but it was starting to make Chelsea feel uneasy, or maybe it was the other way around--Chelsea was making Hannah feel uneasy, and hence, the probing. “Of course, I did.” Her voice sounded weak. It wasn’t true. She had stopped taking her vitamins weeks ago. It started with that same feeling about not wanting to post on SocialView. “Good, I started asking for a double dose.” Hannah confirmed with confidence. “You did? Why?” “I wanted to keep up with everything, you know. We’ve been getting new upgrades every week. It’s tiring.” Chelsea’s shoulders didn’t drop, but they looked like they wanted to. Maybe the vitamins were keeping her from feeling defeated. “You should look into a double dose, too if you’re having a hard time with the kids. I’d love to see your View of them more, to be honest.” Her head shook. Her hair bobbed. “I guess I should have noticed you weren’t uploading much anymore…” Her eyes zoned out as they scanned her contact lens. She was scrolling through her SocialView feed, again. “God, it’s been more than a month, Chelsea. Are you feeling okay?” Her eyes refocused. She looked at Hannah, cupping one of her hands over Chelsea’s, still folded neatly in her lap. “You know, we’re besties for life. You’re my ride or die. You can tell me if something’s wrong.” Chelsea looked straight into Hannah’s eyes. “N-n…” But before she could finish her sentence, Hannah interrupted her. “Chelsea! God, you’re not even wearing your contact lens. How did you know it was me at the door? I could have been a hacker!” Her mouth dropped slightly open, aghast. Her hands withdrew. An obvious look of worriment wrinkled her forehead and knitted her perfectly shaped brows. “I’m sorry, I just… I,” Chelsea had no words for it. Something was missing in her world, where Robert provided everything, including noticed Views that trended. It was something about how nothing looked real, nothing felt real. Her memories, especially the ones for SocialView, felt fake. And today, she had wanted to see Hannah without the digital screen cloaking them both. She wanted to see her and capture memories of her with her naked eye. “Maybe you should leave.” She stood up. “Oh God, I’m sorry, Chels. I didn’t mean to offend you… It’s just… You know, I’m worried about you.” Hannah set the tea cup on the coffee table, and stood up. Her hand reached out to touch Chelsea’s arm. “You know? You’re my bestie.” There were tears in her eyes. Chelsea hadn’t seen Hannah cry since the fourth grade. Something felt good about seeing her friend cry. Usually, there was a vitamin to make Hannah feel better. Everything about the interaction felt real, but Chelsea could not explain why. Instead she said what she knew she had to say. “Maybe, I do need a double dose.” Her shoulders dropped. “I hate to see you cry. Things have been harder to manage recently. If things were just more simple, really.” She was afraid she would sound fake, and as she watched her friend cry, she saw how beautiful the tears were. Under the digital light, they looked more precious than the Australian pink diamond. They looked more wonderful and mysterious than any star or far away galaxy she could see in the night sky; and as they trickled down Hannah’s face, her digital make-up faltered just slightly. And, for a brief moment, she saw the real Hannah and hugged her.[/sub][/justify] [/indent] [/indent] [/hider]