"Hmm..." Kandi tapped away on her laptop. For the umpteenth time this evening, she was feeling discouraged, writer's block her constant shadow.

She had already exhausted Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest for entertainment, using anything and everything to avoid the inevitable face off she knew she would have with this story. Just as she was almost too exhausted and ready to go to sleep, she had a brainwave.

"Ahh ha," she whispered to herself and began giddily typing the ideas down below her already typed out manuscript. With a yawn she closed her laptop and slid it over to the other side of her queen-sized bed.

Probably not the safest place for my laptop...who cares anyways? That's me alright, livin' life on the edge! She mentally taunted herself with her own sarcasm. That honestly was one of the gutsiest things she'd do.

Kandi picked up her phone and stared at the time on her lock screen. If she turned in now, she would not be able to fall asleep...so she would uncomfortably toss and turn for a few hours...or, she could always read.

Kandi slid off her bed and flipped her duvet and sheets back with her left hand, balancing her phone in her right. It was an iPhone 6, and although Kandi had long fingers, sometimes it had slipped out of her grasp...and cost her a lot of money to fix.

She placed her thumb on the home button to unlock her phone as she sat back down on the bed and used the other hand to pull the covers around her cozily, snuggling down until her head was on her pillow. Kandi wrinkled her nose at the light still beaming light across the bedroom. Placing her phone on the bed she clapped twice loudly, plunging the room into darkness. The Clapper might seem lame, but she was actually thankful for the "prank" gift her coworker had given her. It secretly reminded her of Lunette and Molly on the Big Comfy Couch, one of her favourite childhood tv shows.

Picking up her phone, she opened the Wattpad app and began searching through her extensive library of "to reads" for something that looked appealing:

Hmm, no one's updated recently...I get it though, it's hard to live a real life AND keep the rabid-virtual-readers happy too!

Finally settling on one that was a good-looking romance fanfiction, she hummed a note to herself and snuggled deeper into her duvet cocoon.

Harry. Edward. Styles. The one, the only...and he loved me!

"Hmm, sounds like a typical fanfiction," Kandi whispered aloud to herself as she continued reading;

How did this happen, you ask? Well, let me take you on a little journey...

"ONE DIRECTION CONCERT TICKETS!" my friend Janine screamed at the top of her voice as I giggled in glee, "that means you're going to see Harry-"

Kandi scrunched her nose and tried to mentally skip the curse word,

"-ing Styles!" 

I laughed out loud now and nodded. "And you're coming with me!!"

"What the actual-"

Kandi tried to speed read;

"-I mean Holy-"

"Err!!" Kandi rolled over aggressively and scanned the rest of the chapter. The cussing was high in this story, and it was making her lose interest fast. Other people may swear, but why did they have to lace it throughout a perfectly good story? You can tell the exact same story, using skillful writing to create the emotion, rather than using it as an outlet for a non-verbal cussing match. Swearing just made it feel...tacky, somehow.

After three chapters of speed-reading/scanning, chapter four seemed to calm down.

Why do I put myself through this? Kandi asked herself.

Cuz you're a sucker for stories and you know it.

Kandi tilted her and raised her eyebrows in silent answer to her inner conversation: True. Man! I wish I could stop reading a story at will, but it's so...addicting!

Kandi read further into her chapter.

My cheeks grew hot as he pushed me up against the wall. I always dreamed of this, but now that it was happening...my heart was pounding so hard, I thought I was going to pass out.

"Erin..." Harry breathed in my ear, his lips tickling the hairs that were standing on edge, the baby ones at my hairline. I felt his hands on my waist as his lips finally made delicious contact with my skin. I tried to lean forward, but he pushed against me, pinning me in place against the wall. My eyes fluttered closed as I felt things I've never felt before. His hands drifted lower and...

"Ahh!! What?" Kandi shriek whispered at the slowly evolving smut scene. She quickly, guiltily scanned through it to continue the story, but somehow, she had lost interest. She couldn't shake the feeling of how it was inappropriate. Inappropriate to be reading, but somehow, it seemed worse, objectifying these boys as if they weren't real people but...things. When the stories had nothing to do with the present day or even the current world, it was more interesting because they were like actors in a play, but this...it felt weird. It felt wrong. It's like they should be portrayed as they are. Not larger than life. Not ultra-good or, as in the case with the book Kandi had just removed from her library, ultra-evil. Why weren't they ever portrayed as themselves? Why did Zayn always have to be so concerned with his appearance? For all we fans truly know, it might have been a phase. Why did Harry always have to be a player? Seems to me that the other boys know how to girl-hop too. Why did Louis always have to be gushingly silly? That was definitely a phase. His humour had matured into a hilarious mix of sarcasm and sass, silliness not totally abandoned, but witty, one-line comebacks being the flavour of his speech. And mm-mmm! That accent! And his hair...and his eyes! His jawline...Oh my gosh Kandi, STOP!

Kandi felt her cheeks burn in the dark as she realized she was totally fan-girdling over Louis. His humour was identical to her own, so he instantaneously became even more attractive as she heard more from him. Yes, she was being slowly, but surely dragged down into becoming a directioner. Directioner? Nah, I'm just a fan...

Even Kandi's "inner conversation" wasn't buying that one, but she was sticking to her guns: I'm still just a fan.

Her thoughts wandered back to all the stories she'd read about them:

I wonder if someone would write something realistic about them, like, fiction, but not assume things, just going by what we actually know about them, with little variance from the truth...

Kandi sat up straight suddenly.

I could do that! I can write a fanfiction about them, trying to portray them in a realistic light...

Kandi smiled to herself as she set her alarm and put her phone down on her nightstand. This was going to be fun...all she needed was a storyline...

Kandi's eyes drooped closed as she brainstormed in the dark, trying out different scenarios, stories, and plot lines. Her breathing slowed and she was asleep, dreaming of what it would be like to win awards for her writing, and in her dream, it all started with a fanfiction.