Thanks to a fateful food delivery order, two women became fast friends when one needed it the most.
On May 1, Breanna Dabila, who lives in Princeton, Texas, posted a 14-second video that quickly went viral and, at first glance, appears to show longtime friends hanging out.
“Not, ‘My buns don’t look like that!’ That’s crazy,” Dabila says as she chortles with joy.
A woman is hunched over, laughing and eating a burger with Dabila in a kitchen. It’s the kind of casual hang that usually comes with years of friendship, but Dabila and her DoorDash driver, Quiana Reliford, had just met moments prior.
“I ordered sour candy be it helps w my anxiety and panic attacks & I literally told my doordasher im depressed,” Dabila wrote on the video, adding context that she invited Reliford in to “make her burgers” because she didn’t want to be alone.
“That was literally like not even 10 minutes,” Dabila tells TODAY.com, adding that she recorded the moment for future hard times, never expecting it to go so viral.
“The first thing she did when she saw my buns was she was like, ‘I don’t have buns like this in my house,’ because it was those bakery buns, but it was like the Great Value buns from Walmart, so I started laughing,” she says. “We just immediately clicked.”
The comments were entirely supportive of this friendship, calling it “cute as hell.”
“This is how the same of the best friendships are formed,” said one TikTok user.
“Please tell me yall friends now,” added another.
And someone could relate, writing, “Me and my uber driver went to the bar.”
“you doordashed a new bestie,” one more wrote.
‘She Needed Me in That Moment, and I Had Time’
In a screenshot of her DoorDash chat, Dabila tells Reliford, “Just a heads up I’m a mess and sad so don’t be alarmed if I’m crying I can’t stop once I start lol,” adding, “Don’t judge please I’m literally a mess I’m so depressed, just need a hug honestly.”
Reliford replies, “Stawwwwp everything happens for a reason here I come love.”
Dabila says she has struggled with anxiety and depression for most of her life, which led her “to coping in unhealthy ways” with alcohol.
That night, there was no one home who could help Dabila, and Reliford says, when she arrived, she knew immediately that she could.
“I sat there for about an hour, and I had a birthday dinner to go to afterward, but I did make it,” Reliford tells TODAY.com.
“I was just like, you know, I always give my friends a gift if I don’t make it, but I thought, ‘There’s literally a life on the line, I feel like they could wait,’” she adds. “You can’t really always please everybody, but real recognize real. She needed me in that moment, and I had time.”
Dabila says she cut off friends who could affect her sobriety, so she was feeling especially “desperate.”
“I just needed a hug, not from my husband, not from anyone close to me, from a stranger,” she says.
After their interaction, Dabila realized she hadn’t gotten Reliford’s number to thank her. People on the internet helped her find her, and Reliford then posted her own TikTok.
Reliford says a former coworker sent her Dabila’s video.
“She was like, ‘Is this you?’ I’m like, ‘Oh Lord,’ because I couldn’t see the video, but then I go to the video, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ I almost just started crying.”
Since the video went viral, the pair have texted and spoken, and plan to hang out again soon.
‘She Really Saved Me That Night’
Reliford revealed to viewers that she also suffers from anxiety.
“When I’m feeling a certain type of way, I don’t want to push my negative energy onto my friends,” Reliford says, which then causes her to go low-contact.
“We shouldn’t do that,” she says. “We laugh together, why can’t we cry together or sit in the dark moments together, you know?”
Reliford says her faith, as well as being raised to be kind to others, led her to help Dabila that night.
“I pray all the time and that will give you the discernment,” Reliford says. “If anything in your mind is telling you to help someone, talk to them.”
Meanwhile, Dabila says she can’t thank her new friend enough: “She really saved me that night.”
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988, or go to 988lifeline.org, to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.