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Eli couldn’t focus all day.
Every time Ava spoke — the soft rhythm of her voice, the words she chose — he felt that strange pull again.
In class, when she laughed at something the teacher said, he froze.
It was the same laugh he’d imagined through the screen.
No way, he thought. It can’t be her.
Still, the thought refused to leave him alone.
At lunch, Eli sat beside her again, pretending not to notice the curious looks from other students.
“You always sit here alone?” he asked.
Ava nodded, unwrapping her sandwich. “People like space.”
“Or maybe they just don’t deserve to sit with you,” he said quietly.
Her hands stilled. No one had ever said something like that to her before.
She turned away, hiding the blush rising to her cheeks. “You say nice things too easily.”
“Only when they’re true,” he said, smiling.
That night, Ava opened CloverChat like always.
FacelessGirl: Do you ever feel like you’re two people? One online, one real?
Starboy_17: All the time.
FacelessGirl: Which one do you think is more real?
Starboy_17: The one that feels.
She stared at the message, her heart beating faster.
Maybe she was falling for him — the voice behind the screen.
The one who didn’t see her scars.
The one who only knew her heart.
Meanwhile, Eli sat in his room, phone glowing faintly in his hand.
He couldn’t stop replaying their messages — and Ava’s face kept slipping into his thoughts.
He wanted to ask, Are you her? But he was afraid of what the truth might do.
So he typed instead:
Starboy_17: I think I might be falling for someone I’ve never seen.
Ava read the words, frozen.
And for the first time, she let herself whisper the truth into the quiet room:
“Me too.”
- Writer
