She’ll cut you with her
Perfect teeth,
There’s a demon hiding
Underneath
Her smile,
That’s just her style
My fists curl involuntarily on the table as Riff goes into the chorus one more time.
The Muse News guy gesticulates along with the song, but cuts off the music before the end to add his commentary.
“I literallycannotwith this,” he says. “Harmony has written plenty of songs about someone doing her dirty, but this is the first time we’ve ever heard a true clapback”—he claps twice for emphasis—“and it is fire. Don’t come after me; I am a diehard fan of H.So, but her brutal lyrics deserve a response that is at her level, and Riff Hurley has delivered!”
Frantically, Lori finds the link to Riff’s original video and clicks it open. It already has more than a million likes, and the comments are blowing up as we speak.
@chloe923xomg did they date??? where have i been?!
@kisskissbaenbaenStopped me in my tracks while I was scrolling on my walk to work. Daaaayummmmnn.
@jonathanevanston7“Harm” as in HARMony?
@snazzy_jnot very subtle but….i like it
@21forevah.gurlbout time someone put a stop to harmony sonora’s never-ending whine fest
@crazymamaaaaathis song SCREAMS Harmony Sonora
@carolinadoll1993Riff you wrote a masterpiece <3
@atlanta_msOBSESSED
@emoscreamoboiii don’t even like country but ive had this on repeat for an hour
The rest of the publicity team mutters amongst themselves while I stare numbly at all the new comments rolling in, feeling like I’m not inside my own body.
What is happening?
Riff makes me sound like some vicious femme fatale, like I lured him into the fronds to have my way with him and then turned around and put him on blast for no good reason. Except he was the one who wasn’t honest about who he was. Sure, I was the idiot who didn’t realize until it was too late, but he’s not what he pretends to be. Which wasn’t my business, until we crossed the line into more … intimate … territory.
“Harm …” Stefanie puts her hand on my wrist.
I pull away. “Don’t call me that.”
“Harmony,” she corrects herself. “Don’t panic, okay? We can fix this. We can talk to Charles and see if there’s a way to makesure that song never gets professionally recorded. Maybe we can even talk to Riff’s team and get them to take the video down.”
Half frozen, I say, “What good will that do? By the time we can schedule a meeting with anyone, millions of people will have seen this, shared it, downloaded copies, re-uploaded it to their own channels for reactions and commentary. It won’t just go away.”
“That’s true,” Lori admits, “but maybe we can use it to our advantage. Remember what it’s already done to your engagement.” She clicks back to the line graph. “I didn’t search ‘Riff Hurley’ to find the video; it came up when I typedyourname. Whether he likes it or not, he’s boosting your popularity. No such thing as bad press—right?”
Stefanie nods. “Your fans are going to eat him alive.”
They are, and that should make me feel better, but in this moment, all I feel is …
Rage.
