later tonight how people are reacting.
Ryan interrupts my thoughts with talk of the Viv situation. “She’s seeing Sandeep regularly.”
“How do you know? She hasn’t mentioned him.” But I realize I’ve been so hung up on Benoit the last little while that I didn’t even bring it up. Maybe I should have.
“She’s not going to mention him because she knows what you’ll say. I asked her flat out if she’s seeing him and she admitted she’s been having coffee with him. She says they’re not dating, but it’s so obvious he’s pursuing her. He tells hershe’s gorgeous and brilliant and all that crap. There’s no doubt about it—he’s reeling her in.”
Ugh. Poor Viv. “No decent guy would say those things to a girl if he still has a girlfriend.”
“That’s what I said. But she actually feels sorry for him. She keeps saying he’s in such a difficult position. I told her it sounds like a pretty sweet position to me. I just hope she wises up before it’s too late.”
“Me, too,” I say gloomily. “I don’t want to see her hurt again.”
By the time I get home, I’m downright scared to go to the computer. But I have to see what’s on there, regardless of what it is. I turn my computer on, telling myself that it’ll be okay, that it won’t be as bad as I’d feared. When I click on teenmoi’s website and scroll down, I see a ton of comments.
— The Oracle of Dating is full of shit! This is such a prejudiced answer! She’s playing on every stereotype in the book about homosexuals. She should be ashamed of herself. Being gay is “simply the way you’re born,” huh? She makes it sound like a disease.
— The Oracle crossed the line. These people are sick and she acts like being gay is normal and okay. Hasn’t she read the Bible?
— I think Disoriented is a man-hater. Maybe she was abused by her father and that’s why she hates straight men. She should wake up and get some psychological help! The Oracle of Dating is too afraid to tell the truth.
The posts go on and on, and ninety percent of them are trashing me. I feel like I’m being punched in the gut. If it weren’t so traumatic to read how horrible a person I am, Imight find it funny that they’ve managed to find fault with everything I wrote, and for opposite reasons.
I bet Brandy’s loving every minute of it.
I check my website, and my worst fear is confirmed. The Oracle-bashing has spread to my website, where I’ve gotten a slew of new blog comments. One person wrote “If you’re looking at this website a virus will infect your computer. Stay away! I already lost half my files!”
Oh, no! I’m being slammed in front of my readers. I hope everybody can see that these people are being unreasonable. I spot a post that comes to my defense. It’s from LostGirl, which means it’s Viv. “The Oracle has done her best to answer a tough question. I’ve looked at her other blogs, and she is always fair and not prejudiced. I think you should all leave her alone.”
At least somebody is on my side.
Stay calm, Oracle. Think. Think damage control.
The first thing I do is disable blog comments on my website and delete the most offensive ones. Hopefully this will die down soon, but for now, this is the safest option. I also remove the mention that I’ve done a Q & A on teenmoi—the last thing I need is for even more people to see the bashfest. As for the mud-slinging on teenmoi, there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m sure if I emailed Brandy and asked her to remove the blog, she wouldn’t, and she’d tell her readers that I’d asked her to.
I peek back at teenmoi, and wish I hadn’t. Several more cruel comments have been posted. I force myself to stop reading them.
I can’t believe this. In my efforts to expand the Oracle, I’ve brought on disaster.
“I saw the controversy,” Viv says at our lockers the next morning. “Are you doing okay?”
“I hardly slept last night. I feel like I’ve destroyed my own
Ryan interrupts my thoughts with talk of the Viv situation. “She’s seeing Sandeep regularly.”
“How do you know? She hasn’t mentioned him.” But I realize I’ve been so hung up on Benoit the last little while that I didn’t even bring it up. Maybe I should have.
“She’s not going to mention him because she knows what you’ll say. I asked her flat out if she’s seeing him and she admitted she’s been having coffee with him. She says they’re not dating, but it’s so obvious he’s pursuing her. He tells hershe’s gorgeous and brilliant and all that crap. There’s no doubt about it—he’s reeling her in.”
Ugh. Poor Viv. “No decent guy would say those things to a girl if he still has a girlfriend.”
“That’s what I said. But she actually feels sorry for him. She keeps saying he’s in such a difficult position. I told her it sounds like a pretty sweet position to me. I just hope she wises up before it’s too late.”
“Me, too,” I say gloomily. “I don’t want to see her hurt again.”
By the time I get home, I’m downright scared to go to the computer. But I have to see what’s on there, regardless of what it is. I turn my computer on, telling myself that it’ll be okay, that it won’t be as bad as I’d feared. When I click on teenmoi’s website and scroll down, I see a ton of comments.
— The Oracle of Dating is full of shit! This is such a prejudiced answer! She’s playing on every stereotype in the book about homosexuals. She should be ashamed of herself. Being gay is “simply the way you’re born,” huh? She makes it sound like a disease.
— The Oracle crossed the line. These people are sick and she acts like being gay is normal and okay. Hasn’t she read the Bible?
— I think Disoriented is a man-hater. Maybe she was abused by her father and that’s why she hates straight men. She should wake up and get some psychological help! The Oracle of Dating is too afraid to tell the truth.
The posts go on and on, and ninety percent of them are trashing me. I feel like I’m being punched in the gut. If it weren’t so traumatic to read how horrible a person I am, Imight find it funny that they’ve managed to find fault with everything I wrote, and for opposite reasons.
I bet Brandy’s loving every minute of it.
I check my website, and my worst fear is confirmed. The Oracle-bashing has spread to my website, where I’ve gotten a slew of new blog comments. One person wrote “If you’re looking at this website a virus will infect your computer. Stay away! I already lost half my files!”
Oh, no! I’m being slammed in front of my readers. I hope everybody can see that these people are being unreasonable. I spot a post that comes to my defense. It’s from LostGirl, which means it’s Viv. “The Oracle has done her best to answer a tough question. I’ve looked at her other blogs, and she is always fair and not prejudiced. I think you should all leave her alone.”
At least somebody is on my side.
Stay calm, Oracle. Think. Think damage control.
The first thing I do is disable blog comments on my website and delete the most offensive ones. Hopefully this will die down soon, but for now, this is the safest option. I also remove the mention that I’ve done a Q & A on teenmoi—the last thing I need is for even more people to see the bashfest. As for the mud-slinging on teenmoi, there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m sure if I emailed Brandy and asked her to remove the blog, she wouldn’t, and she’d tell her readers that I’d asked her to.
I peek back at teenmoi, and wish I hadn’t. Several more cruel comments have been posted. I force myself to stop reading them.
I can’t believe this. In my efforts to expand the Oracle, I’ve brought on disaster.
“I saw the controversy,” Viv says at our lockers the next morning. “Are you doing okay?”
“I hardly slept last night. I feel like I’ve destroyed my own
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