It was weird being a viral social media sensation, Hunter thought. People would randomly run into him and scrape acquaintance. “You’re the guy with the baby t-shirt!” He’d been thrust into the limelight with no warning at all, and the past week had been surreal.
The weirdest thing, though, had been the DMs he’d received from that weirdo account.
“You’d better apologize to your ‘friend’,” warned the first one. “I won’t tolerate a bully.”
The second one, sent two days later, specified a time limit. “It would be best if Adrian forgave you by this Sunday, the 31st of August, at 11:59 p.m. The consequences could be dire, otherwise.”
The hell with this loser, Hunter thought. I’ll just block his greasy ass.
But then on the morning of the 31st, a message came in. “You can’t block me. And you can’t stop me. There’s a reason my TikTok handle is what it is. You have about fourteen hours to make amends.”
Weird, Hunter thought. Maybe the block didn’t work. He meant to investigate, but got distracted, did his meal prep (week four of a weight cut), and then went to bed.
When he woke up the next morning, he felt energized in a way he hadn’t expected. He showered and threw on the jeans, which seemed slightly long on him. “That cut must be working,” he thought lazily. He slipped his tennis shoes on, not even bothering to undo the laces, and headed to get a coffee before school.
“Hey!” said a guy in the line. “Where do I know you from?”
“Um, I kinda went viral a couple of weeks ago,” Hunter said.
“That’s it! You’re the bully kid. Thought you were taller but I guess the camera angle made it seem that way. Glad you’re not my kid, though.”
“OK, boomer,” Hunter said with a teenage eye roll as he grabbed his coffee and headed for his early morning practice. He got dressed out and headed to the field for drills.
“Brady!” yelled Mr. Dukakis, the strength and conditioning coach. “What the hell, Brady? Enough with the cut. I know you like the abs for the ladies but I need your size on the field and in the weight room. I want you to re-feed the next three days. You’re looking leaner than I want in a tight end.”
But I just did a re-feed yesterday, thought Hunter. Weird. Fine. He headed in to shower and then headed to the cafeteria where he ate a huge breakfast. If Dukakis wants me to be fat, I guess he can have me be fat, he thought.