“Guess I better go…” I picked the box back up, but Dove was looking at me—like really looking at me.

“One sec.” She put her hand on my arm. “Can I give you something to think about?”

I nodded—where was this going?

“You said you wanted followers, right?” I nodded some more. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Morgan—you know her?” Uh-huh. Everyone knew her. “Sure. Well, we’ve been working on a competition. A challenge. To finish the year in style. We haven’t figured what yet—but whoever wins will be the third member of one of our new accounts, @thingsthepeakgirlsdo.” Wow, they were looking for a collaborator? That was full inner circle. “So…” She stopped and did a perfect raise of her left eyebrow. “Could @OneElleOfATime be in?”

Me? They wanted me, my account to be part of their competition that everyone was talking about? Luckily, I was leaning on the banister, or I could have collapsed down the stairs.

If I won, @OneElleOfATime would blow up. I’d hit 30k followers, no problem—probably way more.

Was I really ready to put myself back out there like this?

Two years ago, when I’d set up @NoWayNoelle, it had started off as just something to do. All I really wanted was to get free stuff, have some fun, but my best friend, Clara, wanted to be a proper influencer. But it was the first time we’d actually moved somewhere and I’d made a real friend, so I was happy to go along with it, and so we both started an account. I mainly did the filming anyway. But then Clara had an idea for a funny lip-synch video. She said it wasn’t her vibe to star in that particular one, so she asked me to test it out. And that was when everything changed. I posted it on my account, and when it got featured on the home page, it ended up getting so much attention, my account got nominated for Lolonline Newbie of the Year. It was a public vote, and as much as I wasn’t expecting it, I scooped first place, just beating the big favorite, @SpillMoreTea. At first it was great. I did loads of collabs, met loads of amazing people, like @_Beckywiththemediocrehair_, and was way more confident with my ideas than I’d ever been. But as my followers crept up to nearly 25,000, that’s when the trolling started.

Clara and Nick were the only ones I told. Clara was completely amazing—every day she’d help me block and reply—but Nick? He’d started to never be around. It was like he didn’t care anymore. Mom and Dad thought something might be up, but they were splitting their time between Nashton and here, trying to get the business up and running, so they didn’t really have a clue, and I didn’t want to stress them.