My Online Boyfriend Was My Brother's Ice-Cold Best Friend

"That girl he met online?

She said she was done with him for the fortyfirst time this month." "Nobody else on this planet would put up with that." My brother finished talking trash about his own iceprince roommate, and I stopped breathing.

Because I also broke up with my online boyfriend roughly twice a week. The one who was all frost in public and all hands in private. I stared at the phone in his hand.

He was recording a voice note. The length of it. The pause he took in the middle. Even where that low laugh landed. Identical to the one sitting in my earbuds three minutes ago.

And he was still talking into it. "I'll message you when we're done here, okay?" Chapter 1 Nobody at that loud table noticed my phone buzzing. Four times in a row. I opened it.

My online boyfriend, checking in. No way was I putting that on speaker. I dug my earbuds out first, then hit play. Three seconds in, something didn't add up.

Him: [Babe, it's my buddy's birthday. I'm out to dinner with the guys.] Him: [Don't worry, the only girl here is his sister.

Nobody else.] Him: [I'll message you when we're done, okay?] The words in my ears were familiar.

Familiar enough that I was fairly sure I'd heard Damon Hale say them out loud about sixty seconds ago. My pulse picked up.

Across the table, he was turning his phone over in his hand. Waiting on somebody, from the look of it. No. That kind of coincidence doesn't happen. I typed something to test it.

Me: [What's your buddy's name?] The reply came fast. Him: [His last name's Marsh. Nolan Marsh. I'll introduce you two sometime.] My last name is Marsh. I shortcircuited.

I think I actually died for a second. I didn't want it to be true. It was true anyway. The guy I'd been dating online for the past couple of months was Damon Hale.

Bestlooking of my brother's roommates. That face was famous at Ashford, and about half the girls there were taking a swing at it. We'd met in person for the first time an hour ago.

I'd stared at a face that looked CGI'd for a solid five seconds before I remembered how to be a person. Lucky for me, I've been around.

I pulled it together and said hi like a normal human. "Junie? You look awful.

What's wrong?" My brother pushed a drink across the table at me. "Nothing." I shook my head and opened the chat again. Me: [Okay.

Go eat.] Damon kept it going on Instagram for another ten minutes. Sweet, clingy, ridiculous. He was the one who finally let it end.

I bit into the shrimp my brother had peeled for me. My eyes kept sliding back across the table. We'd only been together a couple of months.

It started in a SoundCloud comment section. Something about the way he wrote made me stop scrolling. One thing led to another and we were in each other's DMs.

Playlists, bad days, the stuff you don't say out loud to people who can see your face. Dating online just sort of happened after that.

We'd never met, and he still hit every item on the list. His voice. How gentle he was about everything. His hands and his abs were, frankly, criminal.

We'd never traded face pictures. But I knew exactly what he looked like under the shirt. Thinking about the things he'd said to me online put heat in my face. My thumb slipped.

Half a sentence went out before I could pull it back. A second later, across the table, a phone chimed. Damon looked down at his screen.

From all the way over here, I watched one corner of his mouth lift. Then he raised his eyes. Right into mine.

Chapter 2 I could not get the guy in my phone and the campus ice prince to line up as the same person. My brain refused to do it.

Somebody down the table cackled. "Hale, it's bad enough you pull every girl at school with that criminally goodlooking face.

Now you've got Nolan's sister staring." My head snapped up.

He wasn't done. "Honestly, as long as you're in the room, the rest of us are at a zero percent shot." The back room lost it. Damon's eyes came to me.

Something pulled tight between his brows, so small I almost missed it. "Don't start. She's probably just zoning out." A beat. "And I have a girlfriend.

She wouldn't like hearing this." I took a sip of my drink and kept my eyes on the glass. His girlfriend heard it.

His girlfriend was sitting three feet across from him and couldn't say a single word. "Yeah, leave my sister out of it." Nolan put his fork down, in full guarddog mode, same as always. "Her school's crawling with goodlooking guys.

You think she's impressed?" "Besides, she's not that shallow. She doesn't pick a guy off his face." They kept going, one line stacked on the next, until my ears burned. Right.

Not shallow. That's me. It's just that Damon Hale is eight inches. Which, on its own, puts him ahead of a whole lot of people.

After dinner everybody headed down to the parking garage. I ended up walking behind him. First time I'd been that close.

He had a hard line of brow, and skin pale enough to look lit from inside. Up close I could smell cedar on him. Clean and cold. He barely talked.

He had a way of standing there that made you decide not to try. Nothing like the guy in my phone. In the elevator I put myself in the corner. My phone buzzed.

Him: [Done eating, babe. What are you up to?] I looked up. He was two feet away and slightly to my left, facing the doors. Me: [I'm out.] Two words. That was all it took.

He blew up my phone. Him: [You're OUT?] Him: [With who? Doing what?] Him: [It's late. It's not safe with nobody walking you.] Him: [Send me your location.

I'll come get you.] Him: [Are you out buying something? Why didn't you tell your man?] Him: [I forgot to send you money today. Your man is the worst.

What if you needed something?] Him: [Venmo: $143] Him: [Venmo: $831] I pressed my lips together and let out a breath nobody could hear. Same as every other time, I sent both back.

In the note field I typed one word. Don't. Ever since Damon found out I went to Bellhaven, he'd been trying to meet up in person. Our two campuses are one street apart.

As of today he'd asked me the same question nine days running. When can I see you. I thought it was too soon. So I never answered it.

Getting out of the elevator, I hung back on purpose. Me: [It's fine. My roommate's with me.] Me: [Don't worry.] He still sent a few more messages telling me to be careful.

I put my phone on silent before it could go off again. We'd come in two cars. Damon was the only one who hadn't been drinking.

My brother and the rest of them piled into the back seat and left me shotgun. Getting in, I caught the look on his face. Whatever it was, it wasn't good.

I sat there barely breathing. Nobody said anything the whole drive. The car pulled up smooth at the Bellhaven gate. My brother's voice came from the back. "Junie.

Text me when you're in your room." I nodded. I had my seatbelt off when Damon stopped me. "June." He said it quietly. Flat. Polite. Nothing in it.

An hour ago that same mouth had called me babe. Chapter 3 There was nothing in how he said it. Every muscle in my back locked up anyway. "Girls your age.

When you go out this late, where do you go?" I blinked at him. His eyes had gone past me to the Bellhaven gate and stopped there.

Whatever he was thinking, none of it made it to his face. I chewed the inside of my lip. "Latenight food, mostly." "There's a latenight food strip behind our campus.

It's actually good." He took that in and pulled his eyes back. His fingers settled on the wheel, long and unhurried. "Right.

Go on up." "Be safe." I looked at him one more time before I got out. In the dark of the car his profile was clean and cool and about as welcoming as a locked door.

Something in my chest closed into a fist. Back in my room I texted Nolan that I was in. He called while I was still toweling my hair. His dorm was as loud as ever behind him.

Somebody in the background: "We just ate. Why did Hale drive all the way over to the Bellhaven latenight food strip?" "No idea.

Don't ask me." Nolan snorted. "Ever since that man started dating online, has he done one single normal thing?" "He's whipped. Let him go." I held the phone and didn't say anything.

Nine days of him asking when he could see me. Tonight he'd driven to my street instead. That strip is three hundred yards from my building.

I was standing on the balcony drying my hair. If I leaned over the rail I could see the lights. Water ran somewhere on his end. He cleared his throat. "Junie. Long day.

Get some sleep." I made two noises that meant yes. After I hung up, the question wouldn't leave me alone. All that in the car. He'd been asking so he could go find his girlfriend.

I didn't have a name for what that did to me. I looked at his profile picture for a long time. Until my eyes stopped staying open. He got clingier by the day after that.

I started wondering whether every ice prince came with a second personality installed. In person the man was a shut window. With me he was filthy. It ground me down to two options.

One: tell him, and see if he had the nerve to keep talking like that afterward. Two: dump him for real and let him spend the rest of his life not knowing who I was.

Then, that night, he sent me a video. Fresh out of the shower, water still beading on him. It ran down past his abs and you could just make out that V. I swallowed. Loudly.

He hooked a finger in the robe at his waist and tugged it down an inch. That hand, veins standing up along the back of it. Obscene. Genuinely obscene.

I looked away like that would help. A voice note landed right behind it. "Problem, babe. He's crying down here. You want to come make it better?" Low. Rough at the edges. Warm.

Like he had his mouth against my ear when he said it. My whole face cooked. Everything else fell straight out of my head. I dreamed about him working me over all night. Naturally.

Eight full hours of sleep and I woke up like I'd pulled an allnighter. Nolan's text came in right as I finished my makeup. Nolan: [Junie, I'm stuck here.

I sent Damon to grab you at your gate.] Nolan: [Here's his Instagram. Add him.] I looked at the account he'd forwarded. And sat there. I thought about telling him I already had it.

Had it, and had it pinned to the top of my messages for a couple of months. I opened the chat with Damon and typed three words. It's actually me The cursor sat there.

Sat there a long time. Then I deleted them one at a time. Chapter 4 If Nolan found out I'd been dating somebody online, he'd take the roof off.

I grabbed my bag and got out the door. No class today. A few days earlier he'd mentioned a basketball game at his school and asked if I wanted to come.

I had nothing going on, so I'd said yes. I jogged the last stretch to the gate and spotted Damon immediately. No car today. A borrowed ebike parked beside him.

Even like that, girls kept turning their heads on the way past. He looked at me with the same nothing on his face as always. "Driving's a mess in morning rush.

Borrowed it off a guy." "That work for you?" I checked my jeans and nodded. Thank God for whatever made me put those on.

He handed me the helmet, then stopped like something had just occurred to him. Two seconds of looking at me, brows drawn in. "Your brother sent you my Instagram.

Why didn't you add me?" Everything in me stopped at once. The blood left my face. "Um.

You said last time that you have a girlfriend." I bit the inside of my lip and reached for something that sounded reasonable. "So, Mr. Hale, I didn't think it was a good look.

Adding you on my own." He laughed at that. Short, out of nowhere, like I'd said something he agreed with. "You know your place.

Good." Then he looked at me, calm, nothing moving behind his eyes. "Since you're so good at knowing your place, drop the Mr. Hale too." "I love my girlfriend.

If she found out some other girl was calling me that, I'd be dead." I opened my mouth and nothing came out.

The girlfriend who'd kill him was standing right in front of him, wearing the helmet he'd just handed her.

He gave me a flat little pull of the mouth and didn't bother softening any of it. That settled it. Whatever politeness I'd gotten at dinner was on loan from my brother.

Oneonone, his face was long enough to trip over. Some heartthrob. The man is a walking scowl. He walked me into the gym.

The guys who were playing had already changed out and were warming up in a clump.

I was scanning for Nolan when somebody in a number eighteen jersey stepped into my line of sight. "Whoa. Hale.

When did you start knowing girls who look like this?" He had a ball on his hip and was looking me over, entertained. There was something jealous under it. "Hold up.

Is that your online girlfriend? Did you two finally meet up?" I opened my mouth to explain. Damon's voice came from beside me, bored. "What online girlfriend.

That's Nolan's sister." Three words, and he'd lifted me clean out of the girlfriend seat. I stood there. I actually smiled. The guy came alive on the spot.

Excited, and a little shy about it. "Damn, the Marsh genes are unreal. Can I ask her out, then?" "Go ahead. I'm changing." Damon turned his watch a quarter turn on his wrist.

Didn't look up once. "Though, Reese. I'd drop it. Nolan finds out and he'll put you in the ground." I stood there and watched him walk off. It sat on me, whatever it was.

Was it because he'd been cold? Then again. I'm nothing to him. He treats me the same way he treats everybody else on the planet, and that isn't a crime.

Reese was still introducing himself. His family's business, his star sign, his MyersBriggs. He got through the whole list. I didn't hear a word of it.

Because my phone was buzzing in my bag. On and on and on. I knew who it was. And I knew that when I pulled it out, the first word on that screen would be babe.

Chapter 5 Reese's running commentary cut off midword. I looked up. Nolan had turned up at some point without either of us noticing.

He got Reese's head under his arm and locked it there. Reese started howling. "You. You want to ask out my sister. You." "Not a chance in hell.

Go eat dirt." Reese was too squeezed to argue. He pulled a face at me over Nolan's arm, going for sympathy. I didn't know whether to laugh.

Nolan finally hit his limit and got two guys to haul him off. Blessed quiet. He blew out a breath and pointed at the bleachers on the right. "Junie.

Saved that spot for you." "When it starts, I want to hear you." "You got it." I grinned and gave him a high five.

The game started, and that's when I found out how popular Damon Hale is at that school. My brother is goodlooking. I already knew that. A handful of people were yelling for him.

Everybody else was screaming one name, and it wasn't his. Damon never once looked at the stands. A lot of girls up there had been waiting for it. At halftime my phone lit up.

Him: [We're up three at the half, babe.] Him: [Doesn't feel like it though. You're not here watching me, so I'm playing like garbage.] Him: [I'm so tired.

If you were in this gym I'd pick you up in front of everybody just to recharge.] Him: [I miss you so much it's becoming a problem.] Him: [cheekpoking GIF] Him: [When do we get to meet up already.

I want to kiss you. I bet your mouth is soft and sweet and worth every second of this.] He was getting worse by the message. Face hot, I checked around me.

Nobody was paying me any attention. Only then did I answer. Me: [Okay, okay. Sit down. Drink some water.] Me: [I miss you too.] I put a little hug emoji on the end.

He is, as always, extremely easy to fix. You could hear him lighten up from one message to the next. He kept me on there a while longer.

And I was so busy typing that I never noticed. Behind me, somebody had their eyes locked on me. The game ended and I moved out with the crowd. Nolan texted.

Wait by the campus pond, we'll all go eat. At that hour most people were already at the dining hall. By the time I got to the water there was almost nobody around.

I was about to ask him how long he'd be. A voice came from behind me. Sweet. Light. "Hey. Are you waiting for Damon Hale?" I turned around. Two girls in long dresses.

Both a year or two older than me, from the look of them. One was beautiful, and her smile was very sweet. So sweet it took me two full seconds to catch it.

Her eyes weren't doing any of the smiling. My head emptied out. "Sorry. Who are you?" "This is our homecoming queen.

Whitney Vance." The other one put a little scoff on the front of it. "You don't go here, do you?" I'd never seen either of them before.

But they'd led with Damon's name, so I started paying attention. "No.

I don't." I looked at the two of them and kept my voice level. "So what do you want with me?" Whitney didn't answer