I Catfished Him—Then Met Him at College

I landed an online boyfriend with a set of heavily edited selfies. The first month, we were insanely in love.

The second month, I admitted I weighed a hundred and fortynine pounds, and got blocked on every platform I had. Two months after the breakup, I was thirtythree pounds lighter.

Then, at freshman orientation, the criminally hot student body president stepped up to give the welcome address.

I looked at a face identical to my online boyfriend's, and my heart went absolutely feral. Great. The breakup diet could stay on schedule.

Chapter 1 I graduated high school, and the number that broke me wasn't on my admissions letter. It was my weight. Five foot five, 165 pounds. Internally, I was a natural disaster.

In my darkest hour, a post came across my feed. [Why does a breakup hurt this much? I haven't been able to eat a thing for a solid week.] I tapped into the comments.

Not one person felt sorry for OP. They were all jealous. [Jealous.

How many pounds do you drop not eating for a whole week?] [OP OP last year I got dumped and threw up everything I ate for 10 days, then I stepped on the scale, saw 16 pounds gone, and my mood was instantly gorgeous.] [I lost 22 pounds off a breakup.] [I want to get dumped too.

Me too!] I shot upright and posted from my alt account. [Online boyfriend? Guaranteed sweet, or your money back.] The photo attached was a selfie I'd edited.

Clean jawline, big eyes, a waist that looked like you could snap it in half. My own mother wouldn't have recognized me in that picture, let alone a stranger on the internet.

What can I say. Three years of high school, three years single. In real life I couldn't get the ones I wanted, and I didn't want the ones I could get.

And breaking up in real life is a hassle. The DMs came flooding in. Not one of them did it for me. Any guy who DMs me is DMing every other girl too.

I don't want a man who casts a net that wide. So I went on the offensive. I scrolled a hundred guys' profiles, read a hundred DMs, and finally found my pick. Hot.

And following only 25 people.

His profile picture was his face in profile by a library window, sunlight landing across the bridge of his nose, so goodlooking he could have walked straight out of a comic as the male lead.

Everything else he'd posted was gameplay clips. My heart was slamming. I went at his inbox like a maniac. [You're way too good at this.

Can you carry me for a game?] [I'm new and kind of terrible. I want to play with you.] Playing the sameage card probably wouldn't do much.

But playing an older girl who still needed him to carry her? That would work like a charm. The photos were fake anyway. Adding two years to my age was standard procedure.

Sure enough: one new follower. One new like on that photo. My future boyfriend had answered. [I'm honestly mid. We can be trash together.] The hot guy took the bait.

From that day on, I pinged him to get online at the same time every single day.

I told him his voice was gorgeous and his aim was elite, and every so often I sent him another edited photo. Then, on day twentyone, I went dark.

The hot guy couldn't take it. [What are you doing? Why aren't you answering me? Are we not playing today?] [Why are you ignoring me?] [You there?

Are you there or not!] The aloof heartthrob turned into a clingy puppy in about two seconds.

I smiled to myself and took my sweet time answering him. [Got together with some friends from high school today. We got to talking and I lost track.] And there it was.

He couldn't help himself. [How could you do that to me? You ignored me all day.

You owe me!] Chapter 2 I couldn't keep the corners of my mouth down. [Owe you what?] [Pay me back by being my girlfriend.] Something went off like a string of firecrackers in my chest.

There were fireworks in my head. I put the phone down, did several victory dances, and then answered him like a person who was calm. [Fine. Date me.

Guaranteed sweet, or your money back.] I had Damian, my designated weightloss tool, locked down in a single move.

I was going to have an epic, earthshaking relationship with this man. Then I'd ride the honeymoon high and drop 22 pounds.

And when he finally met me in person, realized he'd been catfished, and dumped me, I'd drop another 22 pounds and come out the other side a goddess. The plan was flawless.

We agreed to meet in person in a month. In that month I dieted like a lunatic and lost 16 pounds. But as the date got closer, I chickened out.

I think I'd actually fallen for Damian. What an absolute rush. Let the storm come down harder!

I fired off messages at Damian. [Baby, want to video chat?] [Don't you want to see what I look like.] Damian sent a GIF with hearts for eyes. [Can I, baby?] My hands shook as I started the call.

Damian picked up instantly. "Baby, what's with you today…" The grinning face on the other side of the screen froze the second our eyes met.

Damian's face, alive and gorgeous, hit harder than any photo of him ever had. I held my breath. Silence. Silence, and nothing more. Oh shit, I was reciting Poe.

I cleared my throat. "Actually, I've been meaning to tell you. All my photos are edited." Good sign. Damian didn't hang up right away. My eyes darted. "Uh.

I'm 149 pounds." Damian's eyes went blank. "And?" And? Weird. What was I panicking for? I gritted my teeth. "And I'm a liar.

Go ahead and block me." Damian frowned. "Do you think you're funny?" I bowed my proud head in shame.

Damian propped his chin on his hand. "Honestly, I knew something was off from the first time I asked to video chat and you said no." I sat there like an idiot. "Then why didn't you call me out?" He was quiet for a long time.

Then Damian sighed. "Because your voice is beautiful. Because you answer every single thing I say like it matters.

Because any time I needed company, you came online and played with me. Because I fell for you." My eyes stung.

The next second, Damian turned it around. "That said, I really don't like being lied to. So—let's end this…" Let's end this.

Holy shit, he stabbed me and then went back for the heart! I proudly took delivery of the complete allplatform block package. Right after Damian told me he'd fallen for me.

Clean and quick. Colder than me! Badass. Absolutely badass, bro!

I stared at the empty chat window with tears pouring down my face. "He says he likes me, and then he blocks me without blinking.

What else could it be, except that he never wanted me." I cried at home for three days and couldn't get food down. The power of a breakup, exactly as advertised: big, and it works.

Miserable, sure. But my motivation was through the roof. I was going to get thin. I was going to get thin as a lightning bolt and then add Damian back.

Let him see what kind of worldclass beauty he'd turned down. I dieted like I was on something. Before, I'd just eaten less. Now I added exercise.

Up at six every morning to run, salad and boiled chicken breast at noon, one apple at night.

Chapter 3 When I got so hungry I was seeing stars, I'd open my phone and look at pictures of Damian. The more I looked, the more I liked him. The more I liked him, the worse I felt.

The worse I felt, the more fuel I had. In one month I went from 149 to 132. A jawline appeared. Collarbones appeared. My waist went from 29 inches to 27.

In September, college started. I saw Damian at freshman orientation. The instant I heard his name, I dropped my phone. The hall was a wall of noise.

The host's voice circled overhead. "Please welcome our student body president, Damian Lockwood, to the stage." I picked my phone up off the floor and told myself nothing in this world was that big a coincidence.

My eyes went to the stage anyway. Under the lights, a guy in a white buttondown walked up to the mic.

Six foot one, 165 pounds, a high, sharp brow, thin lips pressed flat, carrying a coldness that told you not to come near. In person he hit about ten times harder than the photo.

Damian was just criminally hot. Even better was his voice. He said, "Faculty and staff, incoming students, hello, everyone." That voice. Low, clear, easy.

The voice that had said "Good night, baby" into my headphones more times than I could count. My blood ran backward.

When I came back to myself, I could hear the stifled screaming around me. "How is Damian this hot ahhhh, I'm going to scream right here!" "I'm sobbing, how is one person allowed to have the face and the brains!" "Frankie, did you know?

He's got a 4.0, and his family's in business." "I know, I know. I heard he's already starting his own company." I took a breath.

That was the guy who used to hound me for voice chat every single night and call me baby. No wonder he didn't want me.

I looked down at my 132pound body, then back up at the person glowing on that stage. And just like that, something in me made up its mind. The remaining 33 pounds. I was on fire.

I applied to student government. On the day of the interview, I wore a white dress I'd picked out carefully, with light makeup. In the mirror, I looked unbelievably good.

My mom used to say I had a 165pound body and a 110pound face. Now I'd lost 33 pounds and my face had gotten even smaller.

Big almond eyes, a small face with sharp definition, sweet dimples. Unfortunately, during the interview, Damian never once looked up. "Keep it short.

Why do you want to join the communications committee." Same cool, distant voice.

I cleared my throat. "Because I want to build my communication skills, and I want to serve the student body." The moment he heard my voice, Damian's hand stopped turning pages and he finally lifted his head.

Those beautiful eyes landed on my face and stayed there for two seconds. Then he frowned, slightly. "Your voice… sounds familiar.

Have we met before?" My pulse took off, but my face didn't move. "I don't think so.

If I'd met you before, how would I not remember?" He looked at me for a few more seconds, then dropped his eyes and wrote something on my application. "That's all.

Wait to hear from us." I walked out of the interview room, leaned against the wall, and let out a long breath. He hadn't recognized me. Thank God. It made sense, really.

The whole time we were together online, we only ever did voice. We never did video. Chapter 4 I'd lost 33 pounds and my features had sharpened up.

It would have been a miracle if he'd recognized me. The one thing that could give me away was my voice.

Luckily, back when we were on voice chat, I'd used that unbearably cutesy baby voice the whole time.

Talking normally, with my voice pitched down a little, he shouldn't be able to tell. On the third day, I got a friend request on Discord.

The moment I saw Damian's avatar, I nearly threw my phone across the room.

It took me a second to unfreeze and hit accept. "Almost forgot I added him on my alt back then." I patted my chest to calm myself down, and sent Damian a cute kitten GIF.

Damian answered fast. [Congrats on the interview.

Adding you to the group now.] The second I was in, messages started popping up. [Welcome to comms, new blood.] [Whoa, the president himself added her?

Okay then.] [New girl's not gonna drop a pic? We wanna see!] I was getting excited, already typing a reply.

Damian DMed me. [Ignore them.] I got even more excited. [Okay, Damian.] [Damian can I follow you on TikTok?] I attached a GIF of a kitten nodding. Damian sent a username.

I hit follow, and got a follow back almost immediately. Good. Back when we broke up, Damian was following 25 people. Now, counting me, 26. Not one extra.

I threw my phone aside and let my imagination run away with me. I was going to simp for Damian and get brutally rejected.

Then I'd keep at it and get deeply, thoroughly humiliated by him. I'd want to die of shame and rage, wouldn't be able to eat, and drop 22 pounds in one shot.

I rolled over and started doing situps. I had more energy than I knew what to do with. The next day I got another message from Damian. [Meeting at 8 tonight in the conference room.

Don't be late.] Please. I finally had a chance to be in the same room as Damian. Late was not happening. That evening, I very strategically did a full nomakeup makeup look.

By the time I got to the conference room, almost everyone was there.

I picked a corner on purpose so I could openly creep on Damian, and the second I sat down, Pierce peeled away from the cluster around him and came straight at me with his eyes lit up. "Hey, I'm Pierce Bishop.

Welcome to student government." I smiled and put out my hand. "Hi, I'm Ashlyn Vance." I'd asked around. Pierce had been Damian's closest friend since they got to college.

If I wanted to land Damian, getting on Pierce's good side could only help. "We're starting." I was reaching for Pierce's hand when Damian spoke up. It was exactly eight o'clock.

Pierce rolled his eyes at Damian, then pulled out the chair beside mine and sat down. "Ashlyn, do you have a boyfriend?" "Ashlyn is really pretty." Damian rapped the table, impatient. "Pierce.

If you can't follow meeting rules, you can leave." Whoa. Even stern, he was gorgeous, and so alive. I propped my chin on my hand and gave Damian a long, careful look.

This was the version of him I could actually see and touch. Online, Damian was gentle with a cocky streak.

He'd trash his teammates when we lost and come running to brag and get needy at me when we won. "That's your aim?

My grandmother's more accurate on a controller." "Baby, I could take ten guys like them by myself.

Impressive or what?" "Baby, let me sort your inventory for you." In real life he was the distant, cold, don'tcomenearme student body president.

I was the only person who had ever seen that contrast.

Chapter 5 The meeting ended half an hour later, and Damian kept me back alone. "We need to put out a campaign promo post for the election today." I nodded without really understanding any of it.

Damian said, "I'll walk you through the first one. After that you write them yourself." I nodded obediently and dragged a chair over to sit beside him.

From layout to images, Damian covered every detail. By the time we finished it was ten. I pretended to be scared and begged Damian to walk me back to my dorm.

He hesitated, then nodded.

On the way I kept asking him questions, and eventually worked my way around to dating like it had just occurred to me. "Looking like you do, you must have had a lot of girlfriends." Damian shook his head. "Only one, actually." I stopped walking.

I couldn't believe it. "Seriously?" Damian made a small sound of agreement. "Before high school, my family kept telling me to focus and not get distracted." "In college there were girls who came after me, but they weren't very interesting." I made a face.

Of course they weren't interesting. To people in real life, Damian was the impressive one. They'd put him up on a pedestal.

Only with me, with a screen between us, could he drop all of that and be himself. "So your girlfriend…" "We broke up," Damian said mildly. "She was a liar." "Her weight was fake.

Her pictures were fake. Even her name and her age were fake." "I'd never dated anyone before. Shame, really.

My first one turned out to be a liar." "So if you ever saw her again, what would you do?" I asked it with my stomach in knots.

Damian turned and looked me in the eye, asking like he genuinely wanted my advice. "I don't know, Ashlyn. What about you?

If you ran into a liar like that, what would you do when you saw her?" I laughed, awkward. "No idea. Punch her, probably. Hard." Damian gave a smile that committed to nothing.

Back in my room, I knew right away that something was off