Intermission - Cake’s internet debut.

One Wednesday, Mila asked Oliver if she could go to his house to hang out. She knew he and Isabelle would be busy preparing their act for the talent show, but she wanted to be there anyway, even if she was just watching them.

Sure, she saw Oliver at school, they still talked in the clubroom and did dirty things, but she wanted to be with him more. She didn’t need to be the center of his attention. She just wanted to be there.

She was in his bedroom, sitting on his bed while he looked at his computer with Isabelle standing beside him. They were watching different videos for reference on how to structure theirs. Mila, meanwhile, was scrolling down her social media pages.

Random thought, but she was thankful Oliver didn’t use any social media. If he did and they became friends in any of them, he’d see…

‘Holy hell! You look so hot!’

‘Oh the things I’d do to you…’

‘Lovely as ever. Why not show a bit more skin in the next photo?’

Those were just a few of the creepy comments she got on the pictures she uploaded. Not anywhere near the majority, but they were there. It didn’t matter that it was just a photo of her trying on a new jacket, someone always thought I’d get anywhere saying stuff like that. And let’s not mention the direct messages.

Mila had learned to ignore them, and thankfully no one had ever tried anything too out of line in real life. Still, it was the biggest issue with being an ‘influencer’. Sometimes she did upload pictures showing a small bit of cleavage when it was one with one of the items she got sponsored by, as she was paid depending on the amount of likes, but most of her pictures were pretty tame.

She squeezed her phone a bit tighter. It didn't bother her so much before, but now that she was seeing Oliver… She worried he’d think less of her for it. Perhaps she’d talk to him about it soon. She was sure Oliver understood how much he meant to her, but she couldn’t blame him if he was bothered by the comments regardless.

“I think it’s better if we show them all at the same time throughout the entire video,” Oliver said. “Otherwise, people might believe we just recorded a few parts and spliced it all together.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that,” Isabelle said, nodding in agreement. “Then… if we assume you’ll play the lead guitar live, that means we have to record two rhythm guitars and the bass, right?”

“Yeah. So three screens side by side.”

“Mmm. Sounds a little boring, but better than trying something fancy and messing it up.”

Mila chuckled. They were so into it. She had listened to Oliver practicing a bit and she had liked it. She didn’t know much about music, but it sounded impressive. He was clearly still just starting to learn the bass part, but Mila knew he’d get it soon.

A couple minutes later, as Oliver and Isabelle were fiddling with the sound editing software, Cake strolled into the room, tail held high. She sat down close to Oliver’s desk chair, looked up at him and started meowing loudly and adorably.

Mila grinned and quickly began to record it. Cake was being too cute not to.

“What?” Oliver asked her, looking down at her. “It’s still not meal time. Wait a bit longer.”

Cake didn’t care. She meowed again, then threw herself to the floor, rolling around and staring up at her dad with her belly up.

Oliver sighed. “Cake, I’m busy right now. We’ll play later.”

Mila knew Oliver well. He would not break. Cake could act as cute as she wanted, but Oliver wouldn’t stop what he was doing to play with her. It seemed Cake knew it, too, because she stopped trying. Instead, the cat got up and got in position. She leaned forward, raised her behind and swayed it in preparation before she leapt into Oliver’s lap.

“H-Hey!”

“Ahahaha! That was amazing!” Isabelle laughed while Cake curled up proudly on her dad’s lap. Mila got up and moved closer for a better shot of it.

Oliver sighed deeply again, then began to stroke Cake’s back and scratch her around the neck while he also got back to working on his computer. Mila stopped the recording there. It made for a near perfect one-minute video.

Isabelle grinned. “You got that?”

“Yep. It’s perfect,” Mila said.

“Send it to me!”

“Already on it.”

Man, cat videos are just unfair. No matter what those balls of fluff do, you still want to watch. It was no wonder they made up like 90% of the internet, Mila thought.

…

Actually…

“Oliver? Would you mind if I uploaded this video to my page?” Mila asked.

Oliver, predictably, frowned and pursed his lips. “Does my face show?”

“Um… Yeah, a bit.” That was a no, then.

Oliver looked down at Cake on his lap then sighed in resignation. “It’s fine. Do it.”

Mila beamed. “You sure?”

“I have to admit it was pretty funny,” Oliver said, smiling. “Who knows? It might make someone’s day.”

Mila gave Oliver a hard kiss on the cheek, leaving him stunned, and threw herself on his bed, already working on uploading the video. She wrote a little something to go with it.

‘I was hanging out with my boyfriend and his sister when their cat, Cake, came in and demanded attention. This girl is just soooo in love with her dad! Hahaha!’

It wasn’t the first time she mentioned online that she had a boyfriend, so there shouldn’t be an uproar about that. If there was, fuck them, but Cake was the star of this short.

Mila had a decently big following, so the likes and comments began to pour immediately.

‘OMG she’s so cute!’

‘Lmao the way she moves her butt before jumping!’

‘When a cat wants attention, she gets it dammit! Hahahaha!’

‘What a jump!’

‘Is that your boyfriend? He’s pretty cute…’

‘Cute? That guy’s HAWT! More so while he’s petting a cat!’

‘Cute cats with cute guys is what I live for!’

‘Tell him to take off his shirt.’

‘More Cake videos, please! She’s adorable!’

‘That’s how you know a cat is loved and well-cared for. Lovely!’

In the next 30 minutes, the video had already gotten close to 500 likes. Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, Cake was a hit. And this also revealed that Mila had a fair bit of female followers, too. Oliver also seemed to be a hit, but that wasn't as big of a surprise.

Hmm… Maybe she should take more pictures and videos of them? The world needed to see them, after all. It wouldn’t be fair to have them miss out on such cuteness.

…

Oliver would refuse to get his picture taken so much, though. Particularly so if it was for the internet. But… maybe once in a while? Considering the comments he was getting, maybe it would help him understand that the ones she got were also unwanted? Would Oliver be the type to grow an ego if he knew he was popular on the internet? Well, he knew he was popular at school and mostly hated it, so probably not.

She then got a sudden message from Noelle. All it said was ‘post more.’

Well then, that settled it. Mila took some pictures of Cake to upload later, and… maybe she was imagining it, but either Cake was very photogenic or she was actively posing for the camera. Didn’t matter. She looked perfect! She also tried to record another video, but there wasn’t anything as interesting or funny as the lap leap.

By the time Mila went back home and was about to go to bed, Cake’s video already had over 2000 likes. Not enough to say she’d gone viral, but enough to say she was… more popular than Mila herself. Huh.

Man, cats videos really are unfair.

Patreon.