Hope Collins could be defined as the epitome of flowers and sunshine. A cascade of all sorts of colors. It would be a rare occurrence to see her on a bad day. Or maybe even close to impossible.

The power of being her was that she never let anybody affect her in a bad way in her entire 27 years of life. Leaving two… exceptions. 

The first time was when she lost her footing on a flight of stairs. She was just six and had assumed that she would be crippled for the rest of her life. The second incident was the one that had happened with Dylan Johnson. It had crippled her internally. However, that lasted for about a week before her brightness returned to her again.

Even if it was just two times, Hope's garden of flowers and sunshine turned into thorns and storms, colors into 'spell-gone-wrong' quickly. But she always found her way back.

So, it was quite a catastrophic experience when for the third time, she was thrown into the pit of darkness.

The problem with being happy and staying optimistic your whole life? Not only, it could not really prepare you on your bad days but it could also create an illusion. An almost robot. You would think that bad days are not meant for you. You would think that feeling sad or down is for depressed people. Even one small day of bad happenings might seem stronger than your whole life.

Hope was beginning to understand one thing because third time's a charm, right? She was learning that having bad days was not wrong because she was never prepared for them. It was always a snowball effect.

So after years of constantly smiling, she let herself cry. Silent tears fell down her cheeks as she felt scared. She might sound like a baby but she couldn't help herself.

After blocking and reporting the two creepy accounts, she found her inbox filled with a dozen other accounts messaging her in a similar fashion. She felt downright disgust for them.

It was one thing to flirt online with a stranger but completely different to go on a hunt to harass a bunch of users at once.

After a lot of thinking, she uninstalled the talkO'gram app from her phone because deactivating her account was not really an option. Being the sole social media manager of her business account came with a few disadvantages as well. So, she decided to take a week or two's break from the app.

Her fear didn't dwindle when she put up a complaint against the matter. She was replied with a "we'll look into the matter."

At that moment, she was yearning to talk to Gaston but she couldn't. She didn't have the strength to open her account again and see a few other accounts of swines making her feel uncomfortable. Plus the fact that she would burst out in tears. She would chat in an unusual-not-so-Hope-like way and he might get the hint that something was wrong.

Hope chuckled a bit at her thoughts about Gaston. It was as if she knew him so well to be thinking that he cared for her. Maybe, he did or… maybe he didn't. But the thought of him worrying for her gave her a feeling of a soft blanket wrapped around her.

It calmed her and she instantly relaxed with a small smile gracing her lips. Just his name and all her sadness washed away.

Am I in love? She wondered, still smiling earnestly.

■

Has something like this ever happened with you? It had happened to me once, nothing too serious but one of my classmates thought that it would be funny to prank on me. He started talking to me and sending me "i like you" messages so I confronted him and he was like, "I don't know! That's not me! Someone must have hacked my account." And I didn't believe him. After that confrontation, he still messaged me weirdly and I got so angry. The next day, I literally shouted at him and then he stopped lmao. That guy just annoyed the heck out of me after that day. People think that it's funny but it isn't actually. Sorry for the rant haha.

Hope everyone's doing good <333