One Click

One click and... done! Oh man, Valerie is gonna kill me, but it was worth it. It's going to ruin her! She told me to keep the video of her gymnastics fail a secret, but it was so hilarious! Valerie, the star cheerleader and gymnast, messing up a cartwheel! I couldn't keep this hilarious video to myself, so I posted it on all my social media accounts.

Next thing I knew, it was recommended on all the sites I go on: "Valerie Greene, Star Cheerleader, Messes Up Cartwheel." Everyone was re-posting it, sharing it, reacting to it. It's already one of the top 50 of the most watched YouTube videos, and it's only been up for a week. I thought I would put it on a few other sites, but nobody ever uses them anymore.

Valerie hasn't talked to me the entire time. That’s due to me avoiding her and vice versa, but I know she'll get over it. She should have known what would happen when she sent me the video. It’s really funny. All her friends tease her about it, and there’s a rumor she almost got kicked off the cheer squad. I know most people probably think I’m rude, but she gave me the video! It’s not like I stole it or anything. Uh oh, here she comes now! I’ll just… turn around and go this way.

“Jamie Wright! Get back here! I need to talk to you right now!” She stormed over to me. I looked over my shoulder in case there was another Jamie Wright behind me. No such luck.

“Yes?” I nervously asked.

“What did you think you were doing? I demand that you delete that video this instant. Not just the video on your channel. All of them. Now!” She glared daggers at me.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that. A lot of people have it now anyway. What does it matter?” Her phone rang, and she angrily talked to the person on the other end. “Fine, I’ll be home in a few minutes. Jamie, I have to leave right now, but this is not over! I will find you and talk to you again. You are a sorry excuse for a boy,” she stalked off to her house, glaring back at me every so often. I was stuck, standing in the middle of the sidewalk. I snapped out of it when Brent walked up to me. Jeez, was that girl scary or what!

“Hey Jamie. What did she want?”

“Hi Brent. She was just telling me off, trying to make me delete all the videos. As if I would do that!”

“Well, Jamie, I’ve, uh, been thinking about it and… maybe you should delete them. That was kinda mean of you to post those embarrassing videos online, and she doesn’t have many friends anymore. It’s really stupid that her friends left her because of a failed cartwheel, but it was sorta your fault…” he looked guiltily down at his shoes.

“I’m not the one that messed up a cartwheel!”

“No, but she didn’t want anyone to see that. You promised her you wouldn’t. Jamie, you broke a promise. That’s kinda messed up. And girls care about breaking promises a lot more than us.”

“Yeah, I guess I did promise, but so what? I wasn’t trying to make her lose her friends. I didn’t think they would be shallow enough to leave because of a cartwheel.” Okay, yeah, I did think she would lose friends, but that’s beside the point.

“You should tell her that. Obviously she wants a heartfelt apology, however stupid that might seem.” Ugh, girls are so annoying.

“Yeah I guess so Brent. I’ll do it tomorrow. After school.” I started to walk away, “See you later, Brent!”

“Bye Jamie!” I ran home to go see how much money I’d made from the video on my channel. I guess I can apologize, but there’s no way I’m deleting that video! 

“YES!” $300.00, just from today! This is awesome! It hardly took any time at all for this video to go viral! I’ve already made over one thousand dollars!

“Jamie?”

“Yes, Mom?” Uh oh, here we go. I turned around to face her.

“I’ve been needing to talk to you about something for a while now… Well, today I got a call from Ms. Greene. She said her daughter has been very distraught recently because of a video you put online. She said there have been many of them popping up everywhere and that it’s gone viral. First of all,” Oh, great now she’s gonna tell me to delete it. “Good job having a video go viral. That’s a big deal. Second of all, you have emotionally hurt this poor girl Valerie.”

“I didn’t think her friends would leave her over a cartwheel Mom! Or the lack of one,” I hoped playing innocent would help Mom calm down.

“Oh, her friends left her too? I didn’t know that. Jamie, I must insist that you delete it. Personally, I don’t think it’s a big deal. All she did was mess up on one cartwheel. But she and her mother both want the video deleted, and it’s necessary to listen to them. It’s illegal to post a video of someone without their permission,” She looked at me sternly, “You need to delete it. Now!”

“Fine, fine. I will, okay? Just one second…” I went on one of the sites and deleted the video so Mom would leave me alone. That one had the least views anyway.

“There, are you happy?”

She rolled her eyes, “All of them Jamie! All of your feeds, you music video things, you channel… delete all of them!” Oh crap, she caught me. I reluctantly deleted the video from one of my feeds, taking as long as possible to try and earn more money from the one on my channel. I deleted the video from my "music video thing". And, making it drag on and on, I closed the tab for my channel three times before deleting it under my mother’s watchful eye.

“Good. Now you need to call Valerie and apologize.”

“Mom, come on! I can do that tomorrow or something! Please, no!”

“Call her right now, or no more baseball!” I glared at her defiantly and picked up my phone. I slowly dialed her number, dreading the moment she would pick up her phone.

“Valerie? Hi…”