Eddie’s phone reads 1:56 when he finds the video that starts it all.
He’s scrolling TikTok, because that’s a viable source of income now and somehow people think he’s worth watching.
He’s scrolling and comes across a video of an angel, he thinks. She’s beautiful, ethereal, sun-kissed skin dotted with moles.
Then she stands up, and moves away from the camera, and holy mother of Thor she has thighs.
She could sit on him and he would genuinely thank her.
He hits React before he can think too hard about it. He turns his lamp on, vaguely brushes his fingers through his hair, and hits the record button. “Okay,” he says, eyes wide, “someone find me that Mommy? Sorry, video, because that’s- that’s me, right now. And then also- who is it, from that Disney movie? The really hot dude? I don’t know who you are, nor how I came to find you, but may I just say… hi. How ya doin’?” He shakes his head. “Cause that’s also me, right now, okay, I don’t know who you are but I know you’re an angel, and I’m sorry if you have a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, or whatever, but- listen, I had to let you know, okay? Um. That- that’s it, I guess.” He shrugs, gives the camera a little half-smile, and ends the video.
He posts it, shuts his phone off, and rolls over to go to sleep.
He’s awakened in the morning by a phone call from Jeff. “Dude,” he mutters, squinting at the clock. 9:04. Way too early to be awake. “Where’s the fire?”
“The fire is the fact that you post first and think later,” Jeff tells him, then laughs. “And it might’ve actually worked in your favor this time. You remember the video you posted last night?”
Eddie blinks, thinks, and remembers a blinding smile and moles and thighs. God. Really, what was he supposed to do? He’s only a man. “Uh… yeah?”
Eddie nearly falls out of bed. “She what?”
Jeff chuckles again. “Uh-huh. You know who she is?”
“Stevie, as in the most recent artist to sell out the Garden.”
Eddie nearly falls out of bed again. “What?”
“She’s a pop star, dude. I’m looking her up right now, ‘cause I don’t know much more than that. She’s won nearly 300 awards, she’s the most decorated artist in Billboard Music Awards history, and somehow, she found your feral rambling endearing.”
“Fuck you, I’m plenty endearing,” he says. Then his brain catches up. “Oh, shit, I’ve gotta- she responded, you said?”
“Shit, I’ve gotta answer!”
In his haste to get to TikTok, he accidentally ends the call. He doesn’t realize until he sees a text notification from Jeff: five laughing-crying emojis.
He sends back the middle finger.
He opens TikTok, realizes holy shit that went viral viral, and clicks on the video.
Her comment is on the very top. The hot Disney dude you’re thinking of is Flynn Rider from Tangled. Does that make me Rapunzel?
He flops back down onto his bed with a giggle. She’s flirting back. This is actually happening.
He pulls his phone up again, quickly types out I wouldn’t mind getting tangled in your hair. Hesitates for a second, then presses the send button.
That’s when he sees his notifications. He knows it’s just going to be everybody commenting to and saving that video, but he likes his screen clean, so he taps on the notification bar.
Except- it’s not just people commenting to and saving the video.
@madigoround - about a week late but it’s here!
