The Knockoff

by Lucy Sykes

This was the kind of place people in their twenties gravitated to after work, all fit bodies pressing up against one another, knowing a few drinks could get you into bed with someone new for the night.

They texted, they tweeted and they checked Facebook, oblivious to the world around them. Was there even a point to being in the same room as one another anymore? Their entire lives were condensed in the palms of their hands.

Why not be nice? It wasn’t really any harder than being mean.

If she was friends with them on Twitter that was equal to being besties in real life.

“The plane has Wi-Fi,” Eve said incredulously, as though she couldn’t imagine the availability of something as precious as the Internet going unused for a single wasteful second. “That is so lovely for the plane,” Imogen replied, refusing to let a twentysomething antagonize her as she lost herself in a spread of “Hollywood Plastic Surgery Secrets.”

Imogen let the roar of the plane’s engines drown out the pounding in her head as she pulled out her notebook to make a list of reasons why she should not stay on as the editor in chief of Glossy.com. 1. Not entirely sure how to post something onto a website. 2. Only joined Facebook last year and since then updated status exactly three times. 3. Not doing any of the following: Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest 4. Recently referred to the Internet as the World Wide Web. That isn’t right. Right? 5. Buys all books at the Strand Bookstore, not online. 6. Cannot possibly continue to work so closely with a sociopath.