Ally scrolled through S. White’s videos again, hatred fermenting her heart into a shriveled lump. What could she do to this little princess that would even phase her? She was as saccharine sweet as candy, bubbly and cute in every single video. God, how annoying.
A brand new video popped up from her arch-nemesis: “Trying New Makeup From Fans! (New Fan Gift Unboxing Every Tuesday).” Mid-sneer, Ally was stricken with a wonderfully evil idea, one that would bring White down from her perfect pedestal.
Unfortunately, Ally had to spend money for some of Charming’s newest lip gloss, though now their name was tainted with S. White. She immediately scooped the red goop into an old used pot of gloss, then mixed in a secret ingredient of her own: powdered rat poison. At the very least, S. White would probably get some kind of horrible chemical burn. There was a chance it might actually kill her if she used too much of it, which didn’t concern Ally much. Then perhaps she wouldn’t smile with those perfect lips, and as a bonus, Charming’s name would be tarnished forever, too.
She painstakingly scooped the mixture back into the tube, then put it back into its box, labeled it with the P.O. box listed in S. White’s video, and sent it off.
Ally waited impatiently for a whole week, but the wait was made much sweeter when S. White announced her next gift unboxing video would be a livestream. She could watch her poison herself in real time. By the time S. White’s stream was about to start, Ally was practically bouncing in her chair.
S. White waved and smiled at the camera. “Hey you guys! Thanks for joining me! I just wanted to take the time to say how much you all mean to me. I can’t believe I only started out on Mi.rr with seven followers…”
Ally groaned and turned the volume down, now kind of wishing she could fast-forward. Finally, after several agonizing minutes, she saw a familiar package on the screen and giggled to herself, spinning around in her chair. This was it!
S. White’s eyes widened with innocent surprise and she held the tube up to the camera. “Oh! Charming’s new lip gloss! Whoever sent this to me is anonymous, but thanks so much!”
She took the applicator out of the tube, held it up—then paused.
Ally stopped bouncing. What’s the problem? Put it on your face already!
S. White wrinkled her nose. “Um… you guys, this is really weird, but this gloss just… smells wrong, somehow? Like, maybe I got a bad one?” She put the applicator back and Ally came dangerously close to pulling her own hair out. “So sorry to whoever sent it. Let’s go on to the next gift.”
Ally pounded her fists on her computer desk and let out an unholy screech and a string of expletives. There had to be a way to get to her.
Days went by, S. White’s popularity exploded, and Ally wracked her brain for ideas. She tried anonymously spreading vicious lies about her all over the internet, which didn’t seem to take off and only got her shadow accounts banned for life. She tried looking up her home address, but without knowing her first name, couldn’t get very far. Who knew if White was even her real name?
She was spending more and more time in front of her mirror every day, looking at all the wrinkles growing around her eyes and mouth. Ally was miserable, and it showed, and it was all that stupid S. White’s fault. She sighed. Maybe she should retire from the beauty influencer business. After all, she was almost twenty-eight; prehistoric. Washed up.
No. She wasn’t giving up. She just had to outdo S. White somehow. Ally had to think of something that would guarantee views, lots of them. No more blasé makeup tutorials.
As she stretched out the wrinkles next to her eye to smooth her skin, she got the perfect idea, then immediately picked up her phone and made an appointment with her dermatologist.
As luck would have it, her appointment would coincide with S. White’s next wildly popular unboxing video. Good. Ally could steal her views away easily with a live Botox injection, something little Miss Perfect wouldn’t even need in a million years.
Her appointment came, and Ally made sure she looked as perfect as possible for her livestream as she sat in the dermatologist’s office. The nurse came into the waiting room.
“Alison McDermott?”
She stood and followed the nurse into the exam room, where the doctor waited. Before he could even talk, Ally turned on her phone and started to record.
“Hey superfans! It’s me Queenie_Ally, and I’m here to share my journey with you. I’ve been so, so self-conscious about my wrinkles for so long, and I decided to finally do something about—”
“Miss McDermott?”
Ally scoffed, turned her phone against her thigh, and whipped around to face the doctor.
“I’m afraid you’re not allowed to record yourself during the session.”
“What?” Her voice came out like a pterodactyl. “But—that’s why I’m here!”
The doctor glanced at her chart. “You’re only twenty-eight? And your wrinkles are barely visible. I really think you should reconsider—”
“Just do the injection and let me record!” Ally snapped. “I paid out of pocket, here, I should be allowed to do what I want.”
The doctor’s look turned hard. “We’re injecting a needle into your face, it’s not safe…”
“Just please, do it!” she hissed.
The doctor sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose, and Ally continued to record as he prepared everything. Ally laid down on the leaned-back chair, holding her phone above her head. The doctor came close under her eye with the syringe, but blocked her light. She grumbled and started to move her head.
“Just hold still…” he pleaded, holding her cheek lightly in place.
Frustrated, Ally jerked her head out of the doctor’s grasp.
She dropped her phone as her scream pierced through the entire office. Every nurse and doctor came running into the room. After a minute of frenzied confusion, someone called an ambulance.
Ally sat, now crying from her good eye in the ER exam room instead of her dermatologist’s office, trying to absorb what the ER doctor had just told her. Her life, her influencer career, was over.
Ally went home that night, miserable, wondering if she should just throw herself from a bridge and get it over with. She’d leave a note, telling everyone that S. White had done this to her. Everything she’d worked so hard for was gone.
And yet, the next few days saw a flurry of activity across all of Queenie_Ally’s socials. The livestream replay gained ten million views in less than a week. All of her inboxes were flooded with well-wishes and sympathy. A week after the accident, CNN called and asked if they could interview her and use her footage for a segment about Botox horror stories. She did her makeup to the nines while wearing her eyepatch and cranked up all the tears she could muster during the interview. Her socials exploded, unlike anything she’d ever seen. S. White was left with only a few hundred-thousand followers, while Queenie_Ally touched a million.
Ally smiled and adjusted her eyepatch, preparing to make another video about her own bravery and resilience. Those were always good for at least a few million views each. Even without Charming, she had everything she could possibly desire, and more. All thanks to S. White.
In case you were wondering, this particular story is what I was referencing when I posted this note:
S. White (part 1)
Queenie_Ally had everything she could desire. Nearly. She had thousands of followers across Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. She'd been recently approached by Estee Lauder’s marketing team to try out their new line of foundation in her videos. There were dozens of DMs in her mailbox every day telling her how beautiful she was, how her makeup tutorials ha…
Thanks for reading! If you like my stories and want to support me with a one-time donation, then you can…