Joe stared at the glowing screen, his finger hovering over the delete button. The posts were all there—comments he had made years ago, pictures he had shared, memories he thought were harmless. But now, they were ammunition.
“Stalker,” they called him.
He let out a shaky breath and sank deeper into his chair. It wasn’t fair. He had never crossed a line. He had never followed her home, never lurked outside her shows, never sent her anything uninvited. The last time he had seen her in person was 2013—a meet-and-greet, back when she was just starting out. She had been kind, smiling as she signed his poster. It was a fleeting moment, but one that had meant something to him.
Now, years later, her fame had grown like wildfire, and Joe had stayed where he always was—a quiet admirer. He had cheered her on from afar, liking posts, leaving the occasional comment of support. That’s what fans did, right?
Except now it wasn’t okay.
“You’re obsessed,” someone had written under his latest comment.
“Creepy.”
“Get a life, stalker.”
The words burned, each one a stone added to the weight in his chest. Joe had spent the entire day replaying the accusations in his head, trying to figure out how it had come to this.
He wasn’t a stalker. He had kept his distance. But what was he supposed to do? If he stayed silent, he’d be accused of ignoring her. “Fake fan,” they’d say. If he spoke up, he was a stalker. It was a trap—a cruel, invisible box he couldn’t escape.
“Catch-22,” he muttered to himself.
He’d seen the same thing happen to others. Fans who got too close, fans who stayed too far. There was no winning. It was as if the moment she became famous, the rules had changed, and no one had bothered to tell him.
Joe sighed, his finger still hovering over the button. Deleting the posts felt like erasing himself—as if he had never been there, as if the years he spent rooting for her didn’t matter. But maybe it was better that way. Maybe if he disappeared, they’d stop calling him names. Maybe she’d forget he ever existed.
“I never wanted this,” he whispered.
The cursor blinked, waiting. His finger trembled.
Delete.
And just like that, the posts were gone.