Backstory

by Avani Gregg

  Run It Back: A Real Friend…

  Celebrates Y-O-U and all you do. No judgment, no jealousy, no jabs behind your back or in front of your face. Way too many former friends got all hot and bothered as soon as I started to blow up. If you throw me shade, I’m going to show you the door. Period.

  Won’t bolt if things get messy. Instead, they will support you, cheer you on, and help you mop up. When I was dealing with my phone being hacked and the resulting hate storm, sooo many “friends” stayed far, far away. When things were back to normal, they expected to just pick up where we left off. Yeah… no.

  Laughs at your jokes and isn’t afraid to get loud and crazy. This is a big one for me. I need someone who gets my goofy and will roll on the floor, cracking up till it hurts. My sense of humor is an acquired taste, so liking it earns you a spot on my team.

  Is 110 percent trustworthy. Opening up isn’t ever easy for me, so my closest friends understand that I need our convos to be just between us. Friendship should be a gossip-free zone.

  Has a sixth sense or telepathy when it comes to knowing what you need. Seriously, I don’t have to say a word because my besties read me like a book. I can just look at them and they’ll bring me an acai bowl (thanks, Mom).

  Lets you cry ugly tears on their shoulder. They’re not afraid of seeing you a stressed-out, sobbing wreck or mad if you leave mascara stains on their fav shirt. Go on, let it all out.

  On Avani

  My friend Lydia says:

  Avani and I met during our very first year of middle school, when we were eleven. We had a couple of classes together and we just hit it off right away. I asked, “Hey, do you want to come over for a sleepover?” and that was the start of it all. We lost touch when I was homeschooled for the next two years, but I remember seeing her start up on social media. She didn’t have that many followers at first, and the kids in the neighborhood would try and trash her: “Oh my gosh, she thinks she’s so famous.” I can only imagine how it was in school for her. I went back to school during my freshman year of high school, and right away, our friendship was the same thing as sixth grade. We had one class and lunch together, and we would hang out after school every single day. Sometimes I would go over to her house after she got home from gymnastics, sleep over, and go to school in the morning with her.

  The first time she really blew up we were on vacation in Florida with my family. We were in our bunk beds at night and she almost dropped her phone. “Dude, I just hit like 180,000!” I was like, “What? You hit what?” We jumped up and down and started screaming our heads off. We were fourteen at the time, so it all felt so surreal. When she got recognized on the street, we just looked at each other in disbelief: What in the world is going on? This was pre–Clown Girl, and Avani was doing the sign language thing and a lot of makeup directed to Twenty One Pilots.

  We both started online school sophomore year. We transferred out together because Avani wanted to focus more on her gymnastics. I told her, “No way, you’re not leaving me here.” A lot of stuff went down with a bunch of different people freshman year, and I felt like she was the only one who understood me. All the drama brought us closer together and made us able to talk about super-serious things. We vowed we’d always have each other’s back.

  When we were younger, Avani always had this very unique style. She would dress up every single day for school, never wearing the same outfit twice. Neither of us had any money, so she would just thrift all her clothes. You would never in a million years think what she picked up could be a cute look, but she saw something in it, something no one else saw.

  Over the years, Avani has changed in a good way, the best way. Now that we’ve both matured, she’s definitely more accepting of herself and doesn’t worry what people think of her. She was always original and genuine, but now she really celebrates that in a very positive way. When we’re in the same zip code, we just spend all of our time together. Even if we can’t go out, we don’t care. We swim in the pool, watch Netflix all day, and enjoy real quality time. You know you have a friend for life when you can just sit around and do nothing and it’s the best time ever.

  The thing I love most about Avani is her loyalty. She’s there for me 110 percent, no matter what. If I call her with a problem, she’ll sit with me for hours and just talk about it. She never gets annoyed, even if it’s the same problem over and over again. She always ends the call with, “Keep me updated,” and then she’ll text me a few hours later, “Are you okay?” So I know that even if she’s far away, she’s always there. Her ability to empathize is superhuman; she can always put herself in my shoes and understand what I’m going through.

  She’s also one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. She goes crazy sometimes, and I just love that. She can seem quiet and reserved, but once she trusts you and is comfortable, she’s so outgoing, hilarious, and loud! Beyond all that, she’s incredibly humble and real. She never thinks of herself as famous, and if I point it out, she just brushes it off. In so many ways, she’s the same goofy, emo kid I met in sixth grade, and I think that’s why people love her so much. With Avani, what you see is what you get.

  chapter eight Hearts

  Poor Anthony. The kid had no idea what he was getting himself into when he slid into my DMs. We both have our versions of how we became a couple, mine being the legit one, of course. Anthony insists I ignored him the first time we met in person, but that’s not how I remember it. Hey, we can agree to disagree on the backstory, but the one thing we agree on is that we have been together since March 2020, and it just keeps getting better.

  It’s pretty rare for me to talk about our relationship at all. We decided we were going to deal with it our way by keeping things between us and out of people’s mouths and the media. No need to overshare and blast it across the internet.

  I see lots of social media couples go through such drama—breakups, make-ups, and major Twitter wars. We were determined that would not be how we went about this. Ain’t nobody’s business but our own! We stand by that, but I couldn’t write a book about me without including my beb. I can picture him reading this now, getting all red in the face because he thinks I am about to embarrass him and get all mushy, and he is right.

  Before I met Mr. Anthony Reeves (aka @luvanthony), I wasn’t really a person to let down my walls. I still don’t, not really, because I don’t know what walls I have up. But Anthony understands, and he likes that about me. Go figure. I’m a woman of mystery! That said, he doesn’t need me to explain everything. We have this unspoken secret language and Anthony can just tell what I’m thinking from the tone of my voice or my facial expressions. No one in my life has ever caught on so fast. That’s something really special, when someone just gets you and you don’t have to work so hard because the connection is there naturally from day one. It immediately put me at ease and made me feel safe. By not pushing, nagging, or issuing ultimatums, and by accepting me for who I am without ever questioning or judging, Anthony made me fall for him… hard.

  Our beginning, though, was kind of complicated. We first started DMing on Instagram in June 2018. Anthony followed me first when we were both posting fashion and barely had any followers. Then he posted something about being in Kentucky. I was just about to go there for a gymnastics camp, so I reached back out. I look at our conversations now (yes, I saved them all) and it’s so weirdly random: “How’d you find your style?” and “Where do you shop?” Short messages, back and forth—just silly small talk. It got a little strange, and I guess we weren’t hooking each other’s attention. Then, around February 2019, it just stopped cold. We stopped interacting on Instagram, texting, everything. He had a girlfriend from his school and he was taking her to prom. Meanwhile, I was going to prom with Jaden. Jaden and I had met on social media and went as friends. Sometime after prom, I saw on social media that Anthony had broken up with his girlfriend.

  The following October, months after he’d gone radio silent, Anthony reached out once or twice. I think I replied: �
�Hey.” That’s it. I thought that was the last I would hear of him. Shoulda known better because the boy is hard to shake. We had both been at these two events, one in September and one in October. This is where our stories differ drastically: He says that at the first event, I walked right by, paid him no attention, and gave him the cold shoulder. He even thinks he said hi and I ignored him and shoved right past. For the record, I believe this is false. Dude, I didn’t even see him! But then we were at another event and I waited in line at a meet-and-greet to take a picture with the Sway boys. We had both blown up on social media at this point, but I acted like a fan and stood there thirty minutes for my turn. Then, when I got up to Anthony’s spot, I posed with him and made him feel very awkward. Again, there was no exchange of words at all. It was like our online flirtation had never happened.

  A month and a half later, we had another encounter. I was really good friends with Bryce Hall and Taylor Holder before either of them blew up on social media. I was always at their house, and Anthony, who was friends with Bryce, flew down to stay over. When I would go over there, I did not see Anthony once. He was living there, so either he was avoiding me by locking himself in his room, or I just had blinders on. Once when one of the boys posted a TikTok with me, Anthony commented: “She’s mine.” But he never actually spoke to me. I remember I sent a screenshot of his comment to my friend Riley. “Okay,” she told me. “You need to find out if this man likes you.”

  Nice idea, but who knew when I would have the opportunity? I finally saw him at Halloween. I was at Taylor’s house, doing all the boys’ makeup and hanging out with some friends. Believe it or not, Anthony was there, but again, I swear I never saw him. I took a video on my phone and, when I watched it back, there he was right behind me. We actually rode to the party in the same car with everyone else. The party was at this house someone had rented, and there was a big living room with long couches. I remember sitting down on one. I was just keeping to myself because I was new to LA and didn’t like to socialize much. Just then, Anthony came along and sat down next to me. I don’t remember what the conversation was or who started it (def him), but it was probably just some random stuff to break the ice: “You know this one? That one? You been here or there?” It was really awkward at first, but then we didn’t leave each other’s side for the rest of the night. We walked around together, and everyone was whispering about us. Addison Rae was there, and she told me she had been waiting for this moment to finally happen. When she was around the guys, she would always text me to let me know, “Anthony won’t stop talking about you!” I didn’t understand it. “How is he talking about me? We don’t talk!” But apparently, I had been on his mind, a lot.

  Once we started talking, we realized we knew everything about each other from our texts way back when. We talked through the entire party and had our first kiss that night. You are not getting more details than that, but let’s just say it was nice enough for us to start hanging out every single day until we both went home, me to Indiana and him to Kentucky. I remember looking at the meet-and-greet picture I took with him on my phone and thinking, So this is when it started. I wasn’t sure what “it” was just yet, but on March 7, 2020, he asked me out.

  Anthony’s my first boyfriend—unless you count some little boy from elementary school, a middle school crush, or this one other person on social media, but that did not go down well. It was a bunch of lying and then a good ghosting. But Anthony and I were friends first, good friends. We spent a long time talking, getting to know each other, and figuring out what we were about as individuals before we ever coupled up. I love how protective he is. He stands up for me time and time again, without ever being asked. He’s my hero.

  I never knew what it could feel like to have someone willing to fight for you. Anthony didn’t either because his past two relationships were a mess. Each girl cheated on him with one of his best friends. Taking a leap was hard for both of us, but we had already laid the groundwork. We figured out early on that we had the same interests. We went to a concert together and realized that we liked all the same music artists: Billie Eilish, Tyler the Creator, Frank Ocean, Juice WRLD, X, Mac Miller. We like the same fashion brands, like Golf Wang, Billie’s merch line, Saint Laurent, and Louis Vuitton. We stalk smaller brands that are from Instagram and some of the bigger Japanese brands. And we have never, ever argued (not once!), which is just crazy. I don’t want to jinx it, but we always manage to put out the fire. It gets to a point where we know we’re about to argue over something very little and we defuse it by turning it into a joke. Or we both just go silent for five minutes because we know that it isn’t worth fighting about. I have a temper, so this defusing the tension is all very new to me. I think there is mutual respect and care behind it. We never want to hurt each other, not even a teeny-tiny bit.

  When we compare our relationship to those of other couples, we realize how lucky we are to have found each other. I think it works because we spent a long time in the getting-to-know-you stage—years, really—and now we’re living perfect.

  During quarantine, Anthony was at my house with my fam almost every day. People warned us, “Oh, you’ll get tired of each other and become like an old married couple.” But with Anthony, it’s never boring, and I think because of how chaotic our lives are, it won’t ever get boring. Not that boring sounds bad to me; I could just be happy chillin’ on the couch with him forever, watching movies. We’re both homebodies, but I also like to surprise him for his birthday, Christmas, and Valentine’s.

  I’m usually the planner and gift-giver in our relationship, the romantic one, but it does switch back and forth. People ask me to name the sweetest thing he’s ever done. I think it’s literally every time I see him. He is always attentive, cuddly, and my kinda crazy. There was this one time when all the boys were going on this trip to Texas. It was when I was nominated for the TikToker of the Year Shorty Award, and he told me, “Sorry, I’ll be away for the whole week.” Not gonna lie, I was hurt, but I let him go without a fuss. Then he surprised me by flying back to LA. He was waiting in my apartment when I walked in, ready to watch me win my Shorty. It meant everything and spoke volumes about how he takes our relationship seriously. He put me above everything, even his own fun and friends, because he knew what the award meant to me. I really don’t need little gifts all the time. That day, his presence was the greatest present.

  Some couples have a tough time saying the “L” word. Not us. We’ve been saying “I love you” since before we were formally dating. It was like two or three months in. I don’t remember who said it first, and Anthony will not tell me. He likes to keep it that way: “Doesn’t matter who was first, it was a really good moment.” Then he gets all soft and cute, making me think it might have been him. We have nicknames for each other; I call him “Ant,” “Anfony,” and of course “Beb.” He calls me “Bebe.” I joke that one day we’ll launch a clothing brand, Beb & Bebe.

  People ask why we don’t have any issues, why some couples constantly feud and we’ve been good for a year plus. I think it boils down to respect, trying to be mature, never being jealous, competitive, or shady. Honesty is a big thing for us. I don’t want him to ever hold back or sugarcoat what he thinks or feels. If he’s unhappy, I’m unhappy. Period.

  It also doesn’t hurt that my family is crazy about Anthony. My sisters love him, especially Priya because they both love gaming and Pokémon, so they have a lot to talk about. Priya recently got him a Pokémon card set as a gift. The way that Anthony geeked over it just made her day, and I had to listen to “He loves me more than you!” for hours. My parents know he’s good for me too. When I won’t spill to them, Anthony’s got it covered. They helped me plan Valentine’s outside our house, setting up a little picnic blanket and movie screen, and we ordered in from Mastro’s. Anthony ordered the New York strip, lobster mac ‘n’ cheese, and a Caesar salad while I ordered a petite filet with garlic mashed potatoes. For dessert, my mom made us strawberry shortcake with vanilla ice cream.
It was so yummy! I got Anthony this cute little film-roll photo album with a bunch of pictures of us, a royal-blue Venus et Fleur flower box, and these BE@RBRICK Dr. Martens boots that he’d been wanting for so long and couldn’t find. He got me this humongous rose bouquet that was shaped into a heart (insanely adorable!) and two vintage Louis Vuitton items: a snap-on bracelet and a coin purse. I love anything vintage and had never seen anything like them. They are so freaking cute!

  We celebrated our first anniversary a few weeks later by staying in an Airstream trailer at Joshua Tree. I planned the whole thing. It was parked in a remote area, in a private lot, with an outside bed swing and firepit. It was so relaxing; we could just be chill and watch the sunset. We packed a cooler (I had made lasagna and peanut butter sandwiches and brought hot dogs to grill). It truly felt like we were the only people in the world. This year, we have grown so close. I think we’ve been together every day except for the times we went home to see our families. And whenever we were apart, I missed him… bad.

  Mom’s “Love-ly” Strawberry Shortcake

  My mom’s strawberry shortcake was the perfect sweet, romantic dessert Anthony and I shared during our outdoor Valentine’s picnic. Mama for the win!

  1 quart fresh strawberries, stems removed and sliced

  ¼ cup white sugar

  6 mini sponge cake dessert cups (or one sponge cake loaf cut into slices)

  Cool Whip whipped topping

  Vanilla ice cream

  Place the strawberries in a lidded container (lid off). Add the sugar and mix to coat. Cover tightly with lid and refrigerate overnight.