Toxic Meme Novels & Stories

What made a person so cruel? For the first time I realized that my feelings of hate toward her had become toxic. I tried not to think about them, but knowing I'd be facing both her and Zander next period wound the dark emotions tighter and tighter around my heart, and I couldn't ignore them. She was like VX, the most lethal nerve gas in the world and categorized as a weapon of mass destruction, or so Mr. Neff said in freshman Biology. If one drop of its gas made contact with your skin, you were toast. Yeah, that was Zena. Or should I start calling her VeX? I chuckled to myself, drawing a few curious gazes. Ruthie would get a kick out of the new nickname. Until then I needed to concentrate on

Following that, I received an invitation from Alexis to join a group chat named "Future Unicorn Core Members" When I joined the chat, the group happened to be active, with messages flying by my screen. However, what caught my attention was that most of the messages were meme stickers of that unflattering photo of me.

Selena hurled the tablet onto the sofa. The screen was still lit. A meme kept sliding up her timeline. It was that photo of Ava, startled by the flash, a french fry caught between her lips. Across it, in huge bold letters, someone had written: "Her only crime was buying this many chips and not sharing with the rest of us." Under it were fifty thousand likes. "I’m so done with this!" Vivian cried, covering her face. "Has the whole internet gone collectively insane? It’s an oversized gray hoodie. It’s cheap junk food. Why do they even like her? Some people are literally analyzing the fabric of that hoodie."

It didn’t take me long to figure out what was going on—Jaxon was going viral. “This is going to be fun,” Kade chuckled and then kissed my cheek. “I’ll see you later.” I watched him disappear and then kept walking. I stopped in front of a locker to peel off one of the stickers. It was a cartoonish meme of Jaxon, complete with exaggerated wide eyes and a speech bubble that read: "Bidding $5000 on an ex? Obsessed much?" I scoffed, shaking my head. The next one was even worse—"Jaxon’s Punch: Weakest Move of the Year."

“Once in college, Damen and his lab partner went out on a date.” “What no! Stop!” He tried to stop her. “The girl was allergic to sunflower seeds. She didn't know it at that point. She had a severe attack after having only one bite from her salad. He got so scared. He thought she was dying, and he almost started crying.” She said between fits of laughter. “What?” Penelope laughed. Damen was so embarrassed. He covered his face with his hands. “I hate you. I hate you so much.” He shook his head. “Ah! It's fine we are all friends. And friends should know about each other's embarrassing moments.” She patted her shoulder.

He sat at a table in a corner and got a black coffee, his back to the wall. And he finally gazed. He opened social media apps. He was trending. The picture was everywhere. It had been memed. Clarkson' painful face had the "When they're out of avocado toast" and "Me realizing I left the oven on" captions. Their clasped hands were photoshopped onto different romantic movie posters. The ridicule was worse than the ill will. It twisted something as weak and genuine as his most honest moment into a poor joke. It stripped all of its force and significance and turned it into a joke.

Comment sections were filled with thousands chanting Justice for Tessa while calling her the pick me girl. Everywhere she looked, Tessa’s face was plastered. Tessa smiling, Tessa crying in the hospital bed, Tessa trending. And Chloe? Chloe was being mocked, insulted, turned into a meme. She clenched her fists so hard her manicured nails dug into her palms.

I looked up at Alfred. He couldn’t meet my eyes. “Well,” I said. “This is bad.” Nathan let out a bitter laugh, sharp and humorless. “Bad? This is fucking humiliating. Do you know what people are saying? Do you know what my friends are doing right now? They’re making memes. Memes, Mom. Of my dad in bed with some random woman. They’re sending them to me. They’re tagging me in them. They’re laughing.” “Nathan…” Alfred started.

One makeup company reposted a clip of Julia’s fatphobic rant and captioned it: “We stand for empowerment. Not shame. Not hate. Effective immediately, our partnership with Julia is over.” Boom. Ten million likes. A lingerie brand followed, then a shoe company. It became a chain reaction, each brand trying to be the first to do the right thing and win public favor by cutting ties with the falling goddess. And Julia’s face was Memed into oblivion. One particularly viral clip featured her shouting, “STOP FILMING ME!” with captions like: “When your sins find you in 4K.” “POV: You bullied your cat and thought it wouldn't bite back.”

Just emptiness. It terrified me more than the rejection itself. “Are you still there?” I whispered into the storm. No answer. My vision blurred again. Maybe she hated me too. Maybe she blamed me for ruining our only chance. A bitter, broken laugh escaped my lips. “My toxic trait is being fat.”