My Online Boyfriend Never Knew My Face

The day I decided to meet my online boyfriend in person — and the guy was an absolute ten — I found out the whole relationship might have been a revenge job he was running for a buddy.

The comments told me he was going to stand me up on purpose, then humiliate me for being "too ugly" and block me for good. So I didn't go.

I tested him instead and told him I was already there.

Sure enough, he claimed he could see me, went through with the humiliation exactly the way the comments said he would, and deleted me at record speed. Then I started college.

On movein day, I was hauling two suitcases toward the dorms when a clear voice came from somewhere above my head. "Hey.

Let me get those for you." "Mind if I ask, do you have a boyfriend?" I saw that familiar face. I smiled.

Chapter 1 Of all the times and places, I never imagined I would run into Adrian here.

And I really never imagined he wouldn't recognize me as the girl he had humiliated, blocked, and deleted not that long ago.

When I didn't say anything for a while, he kept looking at the face in front of him, the kind of face that stops people cold, and prompted quietly, "Hey?" I came back to myself.

My mouth curved, full of meaning. "Thank you, Adrian," I said. "I don't have a boyfriend yet." A pleased look flickered across Adrian's face, and he drew the words out. "Is that right.

I'm a junior, I know every corner of this campus. Which building are you in? I'll walk you over." "Sure." And that was that.

The guy who had been sneering at me not long ago was now carrying both of my suitcases up four flights without stopping once.

Before he left, he pulled out his phone and offered, "Want to trade contacts?

If you're ever confused about anything, you can ask me." I hadn't decided how I was going to get back at him yet. So I nodded, and followed him from my finsta.

After Adrian left, I started unpacking. The comments were having a great time. [Male lead, are you blind??

That's the girl you played!] [We're doomed, the male lead seriously did not recognize her.] [Did you see that smile the side character just gave? She's cooking up something nasty.

The male lead is about to get run in circles.] I glanced up at the ones hanging in the air. They had guessed right. I had no intention of letting Adrian off easy. Ha.

Played with my feelings. Then called me ugly. I was going to settle those accounts one by one. Not long after, my three roommates showed up one at a time.

Their eyes landed on my face and went bright for a second. Then they said what they were actually thinking. "Everly, how are you this pretty?" "Right? Prettier than an actress.

Wait, the freshman Adrian is going after, that isn't you, is it?" I had no idea what she meant. "What?" She pulled out her phone, thrilled. "It's up on the anonymous campus app!" "Adrian Keene is the official aloof hottie of this school.

Junior. There's nobody here who doesn't know him. Look at this picture. The girl next to him, from the back, that's you exactly." I paused. My eyes went to her screen.

That photo had been taken a little while ago, when Adrian was carrying my suitcases. Only my back was in it.

Most of the comments were guesses about who I was, with a smaller share marveling at my face. [I've seen this freshman. She genuinely takes your breath away.] [Saw her too.

Godtier face. Adrian going after her tracks perfectly.] [Does anyone have this freshman's contact?

URGENT.] [begging u, if u have her contact pls DM me, $500 for your trouble.] My roommate was thrilled. "Everly, what do you think?" I was thinking about how to play with Adrian's feelings.

Chapter 2 Except I never got the chance to open my mouth. A voice dripping with attitude cut us off. "Could you all stop talking nonsense?" "Adrian just likes helping people.

Some people really think they're the eighth wonder of the world, like everybody is supposed to be in love with them." It was another one of the roommates.

Her name was Bree Whitlock. Blunt bangs, ponytail, white Tshirt, jeans. The kind you would lose in a crowd instantly.

Nobody expected words like that to come out of someone who looked like that. For a second everyone froze. Nobody said anything else.

I frowned, thought about how we had a whole year of living in this room together, and didn't start anything with her. That was when the comments showed up. [Bree is the female lead?

She's kind of… plain, though. Cute at best, and that's being generous.] [The female lead seems kind of… classless?

A little?] [The female lead and the male lead went to the same high school, she's had a crush on him forever.

Somebody says he likes another girl, of course she gets worked up.] [She talks like that and you call it normal?] That shut me up for a moment.

In that case, she and Adrian were a pretty good match. I was still off in my own head when my phone chimed. [Done unpacking? Want to grab lunch?] I couldn't be bothered to answer.

A little while later, Adrian sent another one. [By the way, you still haven't told me your name.] For a stretch after that, my phone would not stop going off.

I had just switched it to silent when the roommate in the next bed looked over at me, curious, with a knowing little expression. "Everly, that isn't Adrian, is it?" I raked a hand through my hair, thoroughly annoyed. "It's him." The words were barely out of my mouth when Bree's phone hit the floor with a bang.

Her face was awful. I looked over without thinking. Her screen was open to a DM thread, a full screen of bubbles all stacked on the right side.

The person she had saved as "Adrian <3" hadn't written back a single word. The comments were baffled. [Does the male lead actually end up liking the female lead though?

He's icecold right now, doesn't even answer her, makes her look like a total simp.] [Same doubts.

I think the male lead actually goes for a stunner like Everly.] [Be patient, the male lead comes around eventually.

Where's the fun if they get together in chapter one?] Something clicked. While the other two roommates were out getting food, I walked over to Bree.

I showed her the screen full of messages Adrian had sent me. I hadn't answered a single one. Bree's expression shifted.

Her face went cold, and she demanded, "Everly, what's your point?" I got straight to it. "You want this account? You can have it. It's my finsta." Bree stared hard at me.

She clearly wanted it, but she still asked, wary, "Why would you do that?" Why? To get back at Adrian, obviously.

But I didn't want to stay tangled up with someone like him any longer than I had to be.

When he found out the person behind that account wasn't me, his face should be something worth seeing. On top of that, I didn't want Bree knifing me in the back over Adrian.

Neither of them struck me as a decent person. Might as well let the two of them tear each other apart.

On the surface, though, I kept up the bored look. "He's annoying." "If you like him, take it." There was a lot going on in Bree's face. Resentment, and envy.

Chapter 3 In the end she took my account, and forced a sentence out through her teeth. "Everly, you're going to regret this." Back at the start, Adrian was the one who followed me first.

When I asked about it, he explained, a little sheepish, "Sorry, followed the wrong person. Just take it as one extra follow, yeah?" My following list was long.

I didn't think twice about it. But after a while I noticed that Adrian posted his gym photos constantly. He had a beautiful build. Muscle definition on full display.

And when he lifted the hem of his shirt to wipe off sweat, those abs going in and out of view did a lot of work on the imagination.

Every time one came across my feed, I quietly gave it a like. After all, men with that kind of "giving spirit," willing to serve the general public, are hard to come by.

Then one day Adrian sent an abs photo straight to my DMs.

His next message didn't arrive until ten minutes later. [Sorry, wrong person.] He unsent the photo. [You've probably already seen it… can we just pretend you didn't?] I'm slow about these things.

But even I caught up eventually and realized he was baiting me. Adrian had a face so goodlooking it was offensive. And I have always had a very high opinion of what I deserve.

I have never once wavered on it: only a ten is good enough for me, and every ordinary guy who came after me got a flat no. So Adrian and I started dating online. He was good.

Abs whenever I wanted them, and he did whatever I said. I actually fell for him. Later, the comments warned me that Adrian was playing with my feelings as a favor to a buddy.

I didn't entirely believe them. Not until he blocked me and deleted me. And called me ugly.

My whole life I had only ever heard words like "beautiful" and "gorgeous." The word "ugly" was something that came out of my mouth, never into it. It hurt for a good long while.

It was only afterward that I put it together: no wonder Adrian was always baby this and baby that, and never once asked what my real name was.

Turned out he never had any intention of actually dating me. [The side character hands the female lead her account to get back at the male lead, and she would never guess that's exactly how those two end up catching feelings.] [Honestly, nobody can blame the side character for getting a little revenge on the male lead.] [Right?

The male lead played her first. A little payback is fine, no?] [And his reason for playing her doesn't even hold up. Dustin was the one harassing her nonstop.

Of course she said something harsh to get him off her back.] That name rang a bell.

Senior year of high school, right in the thick of application season, there was a guy repeating the year who would not stop coming after me.

His looks were painfully ordinary and his grades were nothing special. I didn't just have a face people called unreal. My grades were near the top of my class.

Wanting somebody in my own weight class is pretty normal, isn't it? So I turned him down politely. But Dustin acted like human language didn't apply to him.

The more I shot him down, the harder he came. He wrecked my study time, and spent all day saying smarmy things that made my skin crawl.

I finally hit my limit and said something a little vicious. "Looking like that, where exactly do you get the nerve to chase me? I really need to do some soulsearching here.

What did I do to give a guy this mid the impression he was in my league?" "Being liked by someone like you belongs on my permanent record." Good news: after that, Dustin stopped harassing me.

Then he turned right around and started spreading lies about me. [Guys, I've been going after this mid girl, totally averagelooking, and she's got the nerve to say I'm not in her league.] [Ha.

She really thinks she's something.] Right after that, he dropped my handle into the group chat. Adrian took his word for all of it.

Chapter 4 To go to bat for his buddy, he turned around, followed me, and conned me out of my feelings. And once I was all in, he went after my face.

If I hadn't been born with this one, I might genuinely have spent the rest of my life feeling small. After she got my account, Bree had her phone in her hands all day.

Eyes locked on the screen, terrified of missing a single message from Adrian. A week later. It was Bree's birthday.

She came back with a cake, smug all over her face, and handed it around to us. "My boyfriend bought it for me. There's more than I can finish, so, here.

You all have some." Then, with the most aggressively casual flick of the wrist I have ever witnessed, she showed off the bracelet she was wearing. "Guess what brand this is." "Van Cleef & Arpels.

A bracelet like this runs a few thousand dollars. My boyfriend bought that too." The other two roommates got a little curious. "Who is your boyfriend?

He's really generous." "Do we know him?" Bree's face changed the second she heard it, and she tucked the bracelet down under her sleeve.

Without letting anything show, she flicked a glance at me. Her face was tense, and her voice came out cold. "None of your business.

Asking around about my boyfriend, are you trying to poach him?" One of the roommates made a face. "What are you even talking about? Nobody wants him." "We just asked.

Why are you so triggered? Unless you took him off somebody else." Something must have landed, because Bree went a shade paler and stopped talking.

She turned and climbed into her bunk. Pulled the bed curtain shut, tight.

After midnight, you could hear Bree on the phone with someone the whole time, putting on a breathy little voice that made it even more irritating.

The other roommates said something. "Bree, keep it down, you're keeping me up." "Seriously, it's past one.

If you're not sleeping, the rest of us still are." She acted like she hadn't heard a word. That did it for me.

I yanked her curtain open and asked her, cold, "Want me to have a word with your boyfriend?" It went quiet over there very fast. The next day.

I noticed out of nowhere that Adrian had taken my main account off his block list. He had also sent two messages. [Jealous?] [Is that why you're picking on my girlfriend?

Because I dumped you?] I punched a question mark back at him. [?] There was something seriously wrong with his brain.

Adrian did not catch a word of what I actually meant. [Everly, you are seriously too ugly. You're not on my level.] [I like pretty girls, girls like Bree.

You got dumped, and there's nobody to blame but yourself.] I answered coldly. [Fucking moron.] When it comes to cussing him out, I'm always willing to type.

The comments were scrolling fast. [The female lead is prettier than the side character? Is there something wrong with the male lead's eyes?

Don't tell me he's in love already.] [No, the male lead has the female lead mixed up with the side character.] [Calling it now: once the male lead learns the truth he's going to regret ever playing the side character.

Man is a pure facechaser.] [Forget the male lead, I'm about to fall in love with the side character's face myself.] Adrian didn't write back.

But five minutes later he threw a screenshot at me. It was the photo of me and my mom. [Why is Bree in the photo you posted?] [Everly