After Leo blocked me
, the nights in London felt
very long. I didn
't want to talk to my school
friends because I was afraid they would bring
up his name
. I just wanted to escape
. One night,
I turned off my room lights, sat under my
blanket,
and opened Roblox on my phone
. I
scrolled through the games until I saw one
called "Life Together
.
" It looked peaceful—a
place where you could build a house and just
live a digital life
. I joined a server
,
and my
character appeared in a bright, sunny town that
felt much bet er than my real worldI was walking around the town square
, looking at
the different houses,
when I saw another player
standing near a fountain
. His avatar looked
simple but cool. For some reason
, I felt a bit
brave that night. Maybe it was because nobody
knew me here
. I walked up to him and typed
into the chat box:
"Will you date me?" I wasn
't
actually looking for a boyfriend; I think I was
just testing to see if anyone in this digital world
would actually talk to me instead of blocking
me
. I waited for him to ignore me or walk away.
52But he didn
't walk away. His character stood
still for a second,
and then a speech bubble
appeared above his head.
"To how many people
have you asked this today?" he typed back. I
felt a lit le embarrassed, but I also laughed. It
was a fair question
.
"Just you
,
" I replied.
"I'
m just
bored.
" He stayed there
,
chat ing with me for a
bit. He told me his name was Caleb. He didn
't
act like the boys at school who were always
trying to be
"
cool"
or mean
. He was just...
normal.
And in that moment,
normal was exactly what I
needed.
5We spent the next hour walking around the
"Life
Together
"
map. We looked at the different cars
and the houses we could "buy
"
with game money.
It was funny because even though we were just
pixels on a screen
, the conversation felt real. He
asked me what I liked to do
,
and I told him I
liked writing. He didn
't call it boring. He told
me he liked music
. We stayed in that game
until my phone bat ery was almost dead. When
it was time to go
, I realized I didn
't want to lose
this connection
.
The next day, the first thing I did when I got
home from school was open Roblox
. I searched
for his username and sent him a
"Connection
Request.
" In the game
, you could choose to be
"Partners
"
or
"Best Friends.
" I clicked on the
Best Friend option
. I wanted someone I could
actually talk to without feeling like I was
being
"
annoying.
" To my surprise
, he accepted it
almost immediately. A lit le notification popped
up on my screen: Caleb is now your Best
Friend. I felt a tiny spark of happiness that I
hadn
't felt since September
.We started meeting in the game every single
day. We would go to the digital cafe and sit at
the tables for hours just typing to each other
. I
told him about London and the rain
,
and he told
me about his life
. At first, I thought it was just a
game
"
relationship,
" like a joke
. But the more we
talked, the more I realized that I actually
liked him
. He was the first person who didn
't
make me feel like I had to give 100% just to get
1% back. He was just there
One evening,
we were sit ing on a bench in the
game
,
watching the digital sun set over the town
.
Caleb typed:
"You seem like a really kind
person
, Elara
. I'
m glad we met in that fountain
.
"
I felt my face get warm
. It was such a simple
thing to say, but nobody had said anything like
that to me in a long time
. At school, people saw
me as the
"
obsessed"
girl or the
"lonely
"
girl.
But to Caleb, I was just Elara
. The screen in
the dark was becoming the brightest part of my
dayOne evening,
we were sit ing on a bench in the
game
,
watching the digital sun set over the town
.
Caleb typed:
"You seem like a really kind
person
, Elara
. I'
m glad we met in that fountain
.
"
I felt my face get warm
. It was such a simple
thing to say, but nobody had said anything like
that to me in a long time
. At school, people saw
me as the
"
obsessed"
girl or the
"lonely
"
girl.
But to Caleb, I was just Elara
. The screen in
the dark was becoming the brightest part of my
dayI started to tell him more about what happened
at school—not the whole story, but just that I had
a rough time with a friend. Caleb didn
't judge me
.
He didn
't tell me I was being
"dramatic
.
" He just
typed:
"That guy sounds like he lost something
great. His loss.
" For the first time
, I started to
believe that maybe Leo was the one who lost out,
not me
. Caleb'
s words were like a bandage on a
wound that was finally starting to heal.
The best thing about Caleb was that he didn
't
have an ego
. If I didn
't reply for an hour
, he
didn
't get mad. If I was sad, he stayed in the
game with me until I felt bet er
. We weren
't
"dating
" in the way people at school talked about
it. It was deeper than that. We were two people
who found each other in a huge digital world and
decided to stay. I wasn
't the
"Back Bench"
girl anymore
. I was a friend,
a partner
,
and
someone who mat eredAs the chapter ends, I am lying in my bed,
looking at the Roblox chat one last time before
sleeping. Caleb had sent a final message:
"See
you tomorrow at the fountain
.
" I closed my eyes
with a smile on my face
. The blocklist was
still there on my phone
, but it didn
't hurt as
much anymore
. I had found a screen in the dark,
and behind that screen was a boy who actually
wanted to hear what I had to say. I didn
't know
then that this
"Roblox friend"
would one day be
the man I would marry