Terrena

Ben and other guys part 2

I close the notifications popping up on my
screen and sigh.... I would really prefer not to see Ben this evening, going to his house doesn't  also sound so inviting. Ben is a friend of mine ( pretty much ), he is a year older than me, and let's just say that he's not my cup of tea. But.... as "not nice" as this can sound, I need him, that's why I keep interacting with him. He  happens to be very good at computer editing and graphic projects and helped with the realization of the video for my song.
You can just upload an audio file of your song, or you can make a lyric/ animated video ( showing your self is not allowed tho ); songs presented in video form are more likely to get streamed, so I decided to upload a video, instead of a simple music file.
Ben helped me with my video, and as I hate to say it, he really did a good job- it's saddening that his editing and informatic skills do not translate in social skills. He keeps trying to.... I was about to say that he keeps trying to "flirt" with me, but he actually doesn't even try to. All he does is sending me messages which are not so subtle ways of asking me if we can basically have s*x...?
I can't just leave him behind now that the work with the video is done, cause it's not so unlikely to happen that videos get removed from the platform for "competition guidelines violation" , which can include a bunch of stuff....
Basically you have to pay attention to a good number of things while making your video, and if your video gets taken down, you have to make it again correcting the mistake and re-uploading it. Despite how careful, we've been in realizing the video in the correct way, I don't wanna find myself in the situation of having my video taken down, without no-one who could help me remaking a good one.
I know it's selfish, I tried to offer to pay him back for his work- I tried to propose to offer him a dinner or a drink, but he didn't want to. I know how would like being paid, but I don't really want to- so all he can have is my company sometimes.
I think he still has some hopes that I could give him what he wants in the future, he even maybe thinks I'm interested in him- yeah, that's what he probably thinks.
He doesn't get how much I care about the competition, no one does really, they don't understand - I hope Ben doesn't think that the video for the competition was almost an excuse to just spend time with him. That would be ridiculous, and so far from the truth. But as many other boys/ young men, he's blinded by his hormones, he doesn't think straight- he thinks that a girl interacting with him means that the girl is unquestionably attracted to him.
Tsk- How stupid of him. He never sees the annoyed looks I have in my eyes whenever I read his corny texts.

By the way, I have to go to the Points Bank this afternoon, and I can't really wait anymore- it's getting late.
I enter my car and  set the navigator to the nearest City here ( Batch ), there's a Point Bank even here in my city, Pride , but since I don't wanna let my parents know what I'm doing, I prefer going to the Point Bank of another city ( despite hardly like, I don't want my parents know of my trafficking of points in our city Bank ). Points have replaced what was a long time ago called "money" and it's the universal form of payment, exchange ecc; in all parts of the Globe. Now, why am I secretly going to a Point Bank, you may ask?
Well, another way of increasing your chances of getting a high number of streams, is basically sending some points, paying, some special figures called "curators" who basically have a team of other people streaming songs in the competition. You pay one of them, and they and their team all stream your song- each person can stream only one time ( no matter how many devices as computers, phones or tablets you have - they all have your identity code, therefore one person= one stream and no more ). Depending on how many points you have, you can pay smaller or bigger curator groups. There are many "sizes"of creator groups, from the smallest ones who counts 5 people to the biggest ones who counts up to 1000/15000 people. The largest one is a curator team who counts 2000 people.

As I park near Batch Bank I try to scroll away from my mind all my worries and thoughts,
'don't think too much Leya, I repeat in my head. Concentrate on the points now'.
As I enter the Bank I find a client talking to an employee at the reception.
They seem to be chatting, more than talking about Points related stuff.
"Miss, can I help you?"- the employee, a quite good looking- but not so young man , asks.
" Yes, thank you- I need to translate some points on my Point App"
" Here, second floor- office B" - he indicates me. The polite way in which he indicates to me the office, contrasts with an interested look in his face.
" What is it, Frank? You don't seem in a bad mood as usual, I always worry when you're not in your familiar bad mood" the clients jokes cheery, he must be more a friend than a client.
The employee, apparently named Frank, laughs it off but keeps looking at me " Man, Harry, this young lady here is so beautiful- of course I'm not in a bad mood- just look at her".
The client turns in my direction and smiles, nodding with his head " you're right".
"You are beautiful really, so so pretty"- he repeats to me.
I smile "Thank you so much".
"You really made my day better, you should come here more often" he adds.
I laugh a bit embarrassed, thanking him again.
Harry, the client keeps joking "Yes, come here more often-he's always in a bad mood, we need you"
"Oh, actually, I'm often in a bad mood too"- I relply jokingly, as I part from them and start heading in the stairs direction.
As I go up the stairs I find my self re-thinking about the previous interaction quite satisfied and a bit cheered up too. 'Damn, you're so stupid Leya' I think to my self ' Why are you happy? Despite working in a Bank and having an accomplished look, that employee is a just a middle aged man who couldn't stop himself from complimenting a female client that could have been his daughter' - 'Men, they're all the same, he's just an older and more educated version of Ben'. But deep down my ego still feels kinda boosted up from the compliments. I think it was because of the look on his face, so enchanted- he was looking at me like I was some sort of divine creature, a star, someone with an aura that demanded people to stare.
Maybe, this is also why I want to be a singer so much, that's why I wanna become someone- a celebrity in one of the two Mystic Cities.
All my life I always had the impression that I preferred to be admired like a beautiful but distant and untouchable creature, rather than loved.