Hello, friends. What you are about to watch is the most 2021 thing ever — and one of the reasons why we love TikTok:
In the viral video — which has over 8 million views — a man named Drew says, "I hate to be the one to stick my nose where it doesn't belong, but if your name is Marissa — please listen up. I just walked by your friends, and I need to tell you the weekend you're away is not the only time they could do their birthday party. They are choosing to do it the weekend you're away, and you need to know. TikTok, help me find Marissa!"
And, as we all know, the power of TikTok is REAL, because Marissa saw the video the next day and made this follow-up:
"OK, so, my name's Marissa. Hi. I live in New York City and I saw this video and I'm dueting it because in the last two hours, I've had over 25, 30 people send it to me. People I haven't even talked to since high school sent it to me. And I literally went out of town this weekend. I went on a road trip with a few of my friends — and one of my friends had a birthday party this weekend and she knew I was going out of town and wouldn’t reschedule it."
Marissa did, indeed, get Drew's attention after her video received over 3 million views. BuzzFeed spoke to both Marissa and Drew, who said they became instant friends. "We met at Madison Square Park and had coffee together. I saw her walking up Broadway and we immediately ran into each other's arms! This is probably the most unique 'how we met' story I will ever have, so I'm really looking forward to furthering my friendship with Marissa," said Drew.
Marissa said that when she first saw Drew's video, she felt a little freaked out and embarrassed. "I felt played, but realized that if I instantly thought the video was about them [her friends], then the friendship probably wasn’t the best for me anyway," she said.
She added, "Even now, I haven’t confronted them at all. I know they have seen the videos, so it’s definitely on their radar. I decided to not even waste the energy on trying to talk to them about it. I’m a fairly upbeat person, so this took a minute to fully hit me in the heart. After a few hours, though, I had so much positivity flowing in from messages and comments from strangers trying to contact me about being friends/how they wanted to be friends, so I thought, 'Why should I waste my time trying to talk to bad friends?'"
And if you're wondering why Marissa's ex-friends didn't want her at the party, she said a friend who is friends with them told her it is because she takes up too much attention and space. "They wanted the boys at the party to be interested in them and not me (I think that’s a terrible reason to not invite someone). They have yet to apologize or even reach out to me about any of this. I have decided to part ways with them and take my positivity elsewhere to create more loyal and amazing relationships," said Marissa.
"I guess it's a great reminder that we are all very closely connected, even if we don't see it in our day-to-day life. New York is pretty cool like that. Obviously, don't talk behind people's backs — but if you are, I guess you've got to be ready to pay the consequences. And if any of my friends (Marissa included) ever do this, there will be hell to pay! Kidding... kind of," Drew laughed.
Marissa said she's received so many messages about people who have experienced something similar to what she just went though, so she wants to further connect with people and make new friendships in real life. She created an Instagram page called @NoMoreLonelyFriends where she is going to host ongoing friend meet-ups in New York.
If you learn anything from this story, let it be this: DON'T TALK SHIT ABOUT YOUR FRIENDS, BECAUSE YOU WILL GET CAUGHT! But also don’t talk shit in general, because it’s a really crappy thing to do and you’re not being a good friend if you do it!!!
