Unexpected Pings
Leila wasn’t looking for anything that night. The chatroom for online friends had become her escape—a virtual lounge where usernames replaced faces, and people came and went like flickering lights. It was coincidence, really, that Luca messaged her first. And an even stranger coincidence that they both happened to live in the same state.
Luca_ahah: hey, do i know you from somewhere else? you seem familiar lol
Leila_sma: doubt it. unless you hang out in coffee shops in Blueridge?
Luca_ahah: wait. Blueridge? seriously? i live like 40 minutes away.
It started like that. Casual. Light. Nothing serious. Luca was charming, younger—four years her junior—but he didn’t act it. Their conversations drifted from books to music to what it felt like to be misunderstood.
A week in, Leila realized she was checking the chatroom not for the company, but for him.
