Photos of a teenager appearing to be kidnapped as a part of a homecoming dance proposal went viral on social media over the weekend.
One of the photos, originally posted on Twitter, shows 16-year-old Kayla blindfolded with her hands tied behind her back and lying face down in the backseat of a car. Another shows her in the car's trunk.
The final photo shows Briley Dossman and Kayla with their arms around one another and the accompanying caption, "After the traumatizing experience of being kidnapped out of bed at 4 a.m. ... Hoco with Briles"
People were shocked by the stunt.
WHYYYYY WOULD YOU KIDNAP A PERSON FOR A HOMECOMING PROPOSAL
kidnap you for a homecoming proposal lol what next? Beat you down for prom? Lock you up in a basement for marriage?
And angry.
PRETENDING TO KIDNAP YOUR GF TO ASK HER TO HOMECOMING IS NOT CUTE
I wish someone would try to kidnap me at 4 am just to ask me to homecoming.. swear on my life I would've sued them for everything they owned
BuzzFeed reached out to Briley, who said Kayla was in on the stunt the whole time.
According to Briley, he and a friend were trying to come up with a "completely original and funny" way to ask Kayla to homecoming.
The idea was to have Kayla sleep over at the friend's place, where she would wake Kayla up, blindfold her, and escort her to Briley's car in the middle of the night. Briley would then drive Kayla around before getting out and asking her to homecoming with flowers and a sign.
Briley said Kayla was in on the joke and knew it was him right away because she recognized his voice and realized what was happening. The photos of her in the backseat and in the trunk were taken because they "thought it would make this really funny if it seemed like she actually got kidnapped."
He said Kayla found the stunt "hilarious."
Following the backlash, Kayla removed the photos from her Twitter account, but later tweeted:
BuzzFeed has reached out to Kayla, but according to Briley, she is "a shy person, so she didn't really feel comfortable commenting about it."
Update - Sep. 17, 5:00 p.m., ET: As a request, we have removed personal information from this post.