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But… what if I see Tucker?
Benji very much felt uneasy about the prospect of running into his manager, Tucker. The fact was that Tucker had sent several emails and messages to Benji, but Benji hadn’t opened a single one of them. Benji felt scared of what they might say and also didn’t even tell Harrison about them because he knew that Harrison would make him be a brave boy and face up to them.
The truth was that as much as Benji had been enjoying being offline and not having to maintain his uploading and filming schedule, the threat of having to return to that way of life was always at the back of his mind.
Living in Harrison’s house was incredible, almost like a dream. But Benji knew that at some stage he would need to have a reality check and make some plans for the future.
Still, that could wait.
With Harrison out scaling dangerous, craggy rock-faces with Zane, Benji had the house to himself and he wanted to make the most of his time. Benji typed a quick response to Lars and got back to work on his illustrations.
An hour later and Benji was feeling highly satisfied. A stack of colorful, fun illustrations on one side of him and three brand new recipe ideas jotted down on the other side. This was a perfect morning’s work.
Benji also wanted to make sure that Harrison knew how hard he was working, so took a quick photo of the kitchen table and sent it along with a sweet message too…
BENJI: See, Daddy – I’m a good Little! I’ve worked sooooo hard! And I even left you one of my homemade coconut-crunch cookies too. Hope you’re having fun. I’ll help you clean all the dirt off when you get home he-hee. Your boy, Benji XoXoXoXoXo
Benji knew that Harrison would be too busy to reply, so went to put his phone away. But as he was walking toward the kitchen worktop to make himself a fresh orange and kiwi juice, Benji couldn’t resist having a quick look at one of his social media profiles.
Benji didn’t understand why he was doing it. Maybe it was curiosity. Maybe it was because he had no one in the house to talk to. Maybe it was just an old habit…
‘OMG! What the…’ Benji exclaimed, totally taken aback by what he was looking at.
Benji was faced with a series of notifications from angry fans all wanting to know where the net content was. The comments ranged from angry to outright horrible insults and super-mean comments.
‘W-w-w-why are they saying these things?’ Benji stammered, immediately logging into another social media account and seeing the same thing repeated again.
This was crazy, and totally not what Benji had expected to see. Benji knew that everyone was entitled to an opinion, but so many of the comments totally crossed a line…
Benji you LOSER! Way to let your fans down! Consider me UNSUBSCRIBED!
Used to think I could rely on you. I guess maybe you’re just an ASSHOLE?
I heard he got cancelled? Maybe the rumors are true??? GROSS!
Benji was shaking with upset as he continued to scroll. Each new comment or DM hit him hard. Benji knew that he should put the phone away and block it all out, but the severity of the messages was getting to him in a big way.
What Benji needed was to have Harrison with him in that moment. Sure, Harrison would probably have been angry at him for even checking his phone, but at least he would have put a protective arm around Benji.
I… just don’t get it.
What did I ever do to them?
Why are they so mad?
Benji began to feel himself panicking. There were way too many messages to respond to individually, and that wasn’t even taking into account the hundreds of comments either. If only Benji could explain that he was just taking a break for his own health, people would surely understand and be okay with it.
But not having his Daddy with him to take control, Benji did the one thing that he knew he shouldn’t. Benji messaged his manager, Tucker. Benji knew that Tucker was annoyed with him for taking time off but figured that Tucker might at least be able to say or do something to calm the situation down and make all the cruel comments go away or at least stop for a while.
It didn’t take Tucker long to respond to Benji’s message, but his response wasn’t exactly what Benji was hoping for…
You know, I could have told you this would happen. There’s only one thing that can put it right. You need to get back to your filming schedule and that needs to happen ASAP. I put time, energy and money into making you have this profile, the least you could do would be to repay that and keep your end of the deal up. Let me know when you’re good to go and I’ll have the cameras ready to roll. Do not take too long thinking about this. Tucker.
Benji didn’t know how to respond to this message. It didn’t seem fair to Benji that Tucker was somehow blaming him for all the horrible comments and trolls attacking him. But on the other hand, Tucker was an expert who had taken Benji from a small number of followers to the level he was at.
‘This is hard, Zozo,’ Benji said, his eyes filling with tears. ‘I just don’t know what to do…’
Benji couldn’t decide which course of action to take. He valued his reputation and had always enjoyed having online fans. The thought of alienating them all forever was tough to take.
