crimson | Taylor Swift

02

02

We painted dreams on canvas, with shades of scarlet and gold,

But little did I know, the story would soon unfold,

The fire that we kindled, it flickered and it died,

Leaving me with ashes, and tears I cannot hide.

- Alexia Rey in "crimson"

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The next morning, Alexia felt her phone vibrate where it sat plugged in on her nightstand. She rolled over, pulling the covers with her, and picked it up. She saw she had a few text notifications, so she opened the app and clicked on the first one.

Noah the Gay, First of His Name: Dude, wake up! Are you serious? Why didn't you tell me?

Noah the Gay, First of His Name: My god, how are you sleeping through this?

Alexia: first of all, what are you talking about?

Alexia: secondly, chill the fuck out.

Noah the Gay, First of His Name: What am I talking about? Seriously? What, did you sleep under a rock?

Alexia: well, I certainly slept like a rock. can't say I slept under one, though.

Alexia: why? what's going on?

Alexia watched as the three dots appeared for a long moment before vanishing, only to return a few moments later. Her phone vibrated as she received a new message, and she clicked on a photo that Noah had sent her, and her heart began to race.

Alexia: is that real? is that me? is this some kind of joke?

Noah the Gay, First of His Name: It's the video on Livvy's account! Check for yourself!

Alexia opened TikTok and went to her following list, clicking on her sister's name and going to her page. She scrolled past three videos that her sister had pinned to the top of her page and saw the video of her sitting at the piano, dressed simply in a long sweatshirt and sweatpants. The string lights in her room were set to the color red, creating an intriguing and admittedly attractive image. It was the number at the bottom of the video that blew her mind.

Alexia didn't use TikTok very often, and when she did, it was mostly to scroll through her For You page, which often consisted of cute and strange cat videos, covers of songs, and videos of concert performances. She'd never posted anything, and in fact, her account name was still the default one she was given when she signed up for her account. That was why she'd told her sister not to tag her account when posting the video.

The video, in a matter of nine hours, had amassed almost a million views. She clicked on it, cringing slightly when she heard her voice through the phone speakers. Her eyes drifted to the right side of the screen, where it showed the number of likes, and once more, her eyes widened in disbelief. 476,000 likes in nine hours? Was that even possible? Why? Why did so many people like the video of a random 26-year-old woman singing a song that wasn't even hers?

She swiped up, closing TikTok without looking at the comments, and returned to the Messages app. She typed out a simple response to Noah.

Alexia: what the fuck

Noah the Gay, First of His Name: What the fuck is right! You're famous, dude! TikTok famous!

Alexia: how? why? why me? why that video?