My Roommate Stole My Love Story

The day before I was finally going to meet my online friend of ten years, my roommate stole the ending of my comic and used it to become his girlfriend.

I'd drawn that ending three weeks early. It wasn't even published yet. She copied the spot. She copied the last line. Straight off my heroine, word for word. Auden said yes.

Back in the dorm, all she did was smile at me. "Sorry for borrowing your idea. He and I will take you out to dinner sometime." I had been in love with him for eleven years.

We had only been talking for ten. I picked up my phone and sent Auden one line. Me: [Marlowe isn't me.] Chapter 1 The message went through.

Marlowe was still watching my face. "Or is there something you want and can't afford?" she said. "I could have my boyfriend get it for you." Our other two roommates had heard enough. "We all know Bly has a thing for Auden.

How could you use her idea?" "That's not borrowing. That's stealing." Marlowe started to cry. Nobody moved to comfort her.

I'd been posting a webcomic called Time Won't Sleep since the summer after high school. In college I drew it right there in our room, drawing tablet on my knees.

All three of them knew I was the artist. All three promised to keep it quiet. In return I bought them things with whatever the comic paid me that month.

Then it blew up, and somebody figured out the male lead was based on Auden Ross. Marlowe asked me about it back then. "Bly.

You don't have a thing for the campus heartthrob, do you?" I didn't answer. She laughed. "He's been the biggest name on campus since orientation.

Top ten in the math department, I hear. Half the school is after him." "But you probably don't know how guys like that work. Goodlooking, old money.

They say they're single in public. In private there's always a line." I cut her off without thinking. "He's not like that." That was how all three of them found out.

Marlowe squealed. "Then I'm shipping you two." After that she begged, on and off for days, to see the ending I'd already drawn. I didn't think twice about it.

I just told them to keep it to themselves. Tonight one of them called me and told me to open the campus group chat. That was how I learned what had happened.

People had posted the same three minutes from a dozen angles. A bright, pretty girl stepping into a boy's path on the West Lawn, the sun going down behind her.

She had staged the whole thing. Big. Romantic. Out in the open where the entire school could watch. Exactly the way my heroine did it.

At the end of the video Marlowe's eyes were wet. "I've never done any of this for anyone else. Everything I feel, every bit of nerve I have, all of it is yours.

Will you be with me?" My heroine says that line in the finale. Word for word. Auden didn't pull her in the way I had drawn it. He just lifted a hand and wiped her face.

The crowd erupted. Everyone was chanting for him to say yes. I heard his answer through my phone speaker, clear as anything. He said, "Yes." Chapter 2 May 20, 2026.

They were together. [My dream girl was hung up on somebody else for two years?? I'm destroyed.] [Does nobody think her ask was actually moving?

Laying out your whole history like that. Guys used to be the ones who did that.] [Same. They're each other's first love!] [Anybody else read Time Won't Sleep?

I swear the two leads just walked off the page.] Thousands of people in that chat. It hit 99+ in seconds. Marlowe had already dried her face.

Her voice came out stubborn. "I just wanted to be brave one time. Is that a crime?" "Don't let this ruin things between us.

Okay?" One of the others opened her mouth to go after her.

I put a hand out and stopped her. "You and I," I said. "We're not friends anymore." Marlowe's face crumpled and she ran out. She didn't come back until late.

The lights in our room went off. That was when Auden answered. Auden: [Hm?] Auden: [What makes you think I got the wrong person?] I stopped, thumb hovering.

The messages kept coming.

Auden: [When Marlowe said those things, the ones that sounded like she knew me, there was a second where I thought you'd come early to meet me.] Auden: [Then she finished telling me about her past, and I knew it wasn't you.] I read it twice.

The anger drained out of me. So did the part of me that wanted somebody to admit I'd been wronged. What crawled in behind them was shame. I couldn't have explained it to anyone.

I still wasn't going to swallow what I'd come to say. Me: [Marlowe read my finale.

The ask she staged copied the scene out of it.] In case he didn't believe me, I backed out of the thread to pull up the original files. A banner dropped over the screen.

Auden: [I know.] Auden: [She ran out of your dorm and came and found me. She told me the idea came from her roommate's comic.] I killed the upload and went back to the thread.

After that the typing dots ran for a long time. I was typing too. Everything she knows about you. Everything she said that got to you.

All of it probably came out of my comic… I wrote it out and then deleted it, one character at a time.

Because in that moment I sounded exactly like the bitter side character trying to break up the leads. His next message finally landed.

Auden: [I don't care about any of the rest of it. The only thing I've ever wanted is for one person to love me for no reason at all, with nothing attached.

She told me…] It went on and on after that, all of it about how she had gotten to him. That wasn't how he texted.

For ten years we had mostly traded hard problems, with the occasional piece of our real lives thrown in. Exam question or personal disaster, it didn't matter.

He gave you the conclusion. Everything in between he waved off. Tonight the messages kept coming at me, one direction only.

Auden: [Two years ago you thanked me for letting you build a character out of me.] Auden: [Now I want to thank you.

You brought me the leading lady of my life.] My thumb stayed on the glass and didn't move. He didn't need me to say anything. That much was clear.

Back when the comic was at its biggest, he had asked me about it. Auden: [I found the comic. The guy is me. Is the girl you?

You're a girl?] My account was still on the defaults from the day I made it. No gender listed.

I told him that apart from being a girl, she was the opposite of me in every way that counted.

Auden: [Then I want to meet you even more.] Tonight, through the same cold screen: Auden: [I got lucky, getting to be your friend.

The least I owed you was dinner.] Chapter 3 Auden: [But I just started seeing someone. I can't make her jealous or leave her feeling unsure about me.

I think we shouldn't meet tomorrow after all.] Auden: [What do you think?] He wasn't really asking. He wasn't offering to reschedule, either.

He just wasn't going to say it outright, and he wasn't going to say goodbye. He was leaving me the last of my dignity. Turns out you really shouldn't stare at a screen in the dark.

Hard on the eyes. Something wet slid down and hit the glass. Me: [Haha. Yeah, you're right.] He sent money. A lot of it. The note said sorry. I sent it straight back.

Me: [No need.] Me: [It's late. Get some sleep.] Auden: [Mm.] Neither of us typed good night. We always had before. We both let it go, and neither of us mentioned that we had.

That kind of line sat a little too close to something. It didn't fit the two of us anymore. I stared at the thread and checked the corner of the screen. 5/21/2026, 1:17:26 a.m.

Eleven years of work to build one small overlap with him, and it ended right there. Easily. Absurdly. I lay in bed and couldn't get under.

The next morning I dragged myself through my first class. Nothing in the afternoon, so I went back to the dorm to sleep it off.

Voices through my bed curtain woke me up. "I told you while I was filming, I said this is going to blow up. And it blew up." "Lo, you are unbelievable.

You landed the one guy in the math department who's way out of everyone's league." "Wait. Didn't you go see him again last night? Well?

Did you kiss him?" Marlowe's classmates, dropping by. Marlowe drew it out, all sugar. "Come on. Not that fast…" They talked a while longer, then made dinner plans and left.

The door shut behind them. Then nothing. I opened the app. Her video was the first thing it fed me. The ask, under that sunset.

The caption read: year two of loving him, and my onesided crush is officially over. Top school, two goodlooking people. Posted last night, past a million likes by that afternoon.

Marlowe had a little over two thousand followers before this. A hundred thousand overnight. It started looping a second time before I hit pause and opened the comments.

Top comment was a pile of congratulations.

The second one was a wall of text. [Okay I've watched this like six times and it is almost identical to the confession from Time Won't Sleep, which I read religiously.

The comic dropped its finale episode at six this morning, but OP made her ask YESTERDAY. So I'm going to be bold here. You're the creator, aren't you??

Are you giving us the reallife sequel? I'm sobbing.] Under it, mostly agreement. A lot of people telling each other to protect the creator's alt. That comment was eight hours old.

Marlowe hadn't corrected a word of it. The phrase people were searching under the video: Time Won't Sleep creator confesses, gets a yes. I opened my creator dashboard.

The top reader comments had turned into this: [Creator, @marlowe.doesnt.play is you, right?

I'm going to lose my mind over you two.] [Begging for a sequel about their everyday relationship. I'm on my knees.] There were pages of it. I picked one and replied.

Me: [The creator has never been in a relationship. So there won't be a sequel.] Chapter 4 I set the phone facedown. Silence came back in.

The heroine I built for that comic is named Birdie. She's a ray of sunshine. Both parents alive, plenty of money at home. Not much of a student. Everybody loves her anyway.

Whatever hits her, she stays bright about it. She and the male lead are childhood sweethearts. She grew up happy. I got it wrong.

I never should have flipped the madeup part and the real part. I tried to bury it in a problem set. One long proof, turned over and over, and no way in.

There was a version of this where I sent it to Auden and we argued about it for an hour. Not anymore.

I shut the notebook harder than I needed to and picked the phone back up, thumbing through one hit of nothing after another. The next clip was geotagged at our school.

One of those longlens angles that always does numbers. A guy and a girl walking side by side down the treelined walk. I knew him from the back of his head alone.

Two years in the same department and I had almost never crossed paths with him. Bad luck, mostly. Even the big gen ed lectures put us in different sections.

One semester of differential equations, we shared a room. His roommate liked to save them the secondtolast row by the window.

So that was the only class I ever sat in the back row for. Three hours a week. Look up, and there he was. In the clip his back was to the camera.

The girl beside him came up to his shoulder. She snuck her hand toward his. His hand pulled away fast. The tips of his ears turned red anyway. The shot zoomed in and held there.

Big text across the frame: MY SHIP IS SO PURE. Caption: ran into our school's brandnew bestlooking couple on my way to dinner!! I tapped through to whoever posted it.

One of Marlowe's classmates. The one always dropping by our room. I deleted the app. After that I studied, ate, slept. Same as before. Nothing about my days changed.

Only now and then, between classes, I would catch the people next to me talking. "Saw Auden bring his girlfriend to lecture this morning.

She looks even better in person than in the video." "Bestlooking couple on campus, obviously. So sweet." "I heard he bought each of her closest friends a Tiffany necklace.

Could you get me a boyfriend like that? For me?" "You'd have to find a second Auden Ross first." I kept my head down and stayed with the proof I hadn't cracked. No rush.

Problems like that always have a way in. You just haven't found it yet. Class ran short.

I was shoving books into my bag on the way out the door. "Go, go, go, I'm starving." Somebody came up behind me at a run and clipped my shoulder. Not hard.

But a few loose sheets slid out of my notebook and hit the floor. He apologized fast. The guy waiting for him outside got there first and crouched down to help. "Sorry about that.

My roommate didn't mean it." Something jumped under my ribs. My hand went for the same sheet as his, and our fingers touched. I pulled mine back.

He had already picked it up. "You're working on this one too." It took everything I had to lift my head and look at Auden Ross.

In the version I had built in my head, the two of us met properly at sunset on the West Lawn. Big. Romantic. Out in the open where the whole school could see. Not this.

Not rushed and off balance and crouched on a classroom floor. But the second he saw my face, something lit up in his eyes. "Blythe.

It's you." Chapter 5 "Did you get this one out?" I froze. "You know who I am?" He smiled. Pale gold light sat in his eyes.

It was a good look on him. "First calculus lecture of freshman year. That welcometocollege problem the TA put on the board.

You were the only person in the room who solved it right there." He shrugged. "I'd guess plenty of people know who you are." It had never once occurred to me that somewhere back there, without my knowing, he had looked at me. "We… were in the same calculus section?" Something sheepish crossed his face.

He pointed at the guy beside him, who actually was in my section. "Roommates. He can't get up in the morning. My calculus happened to be in the afternoon.

So… you get it." The guy rubbed the back of his neck. "The professor caught us in week three." "Ah." "So, Blythe. Did you get it out?

I've been at it for days and I keep—" A voice cut across him from behind, high and sharp. "What are you two doing?" I didn't turn around.

He held the sheet out to me, apologetic. "Sorry. That's my girlfriend. She might have the wrong idea." I took it. Marlowe was already on us, moving fast.

His roommate jumped in. "Hey, hey, I'll vouch. Auden hasn't said one extra word to another girl all day.

He was picking up my mess, that's it." Marlowe looked between us, not sure yet what she was looking at, then wrapped both hands around his arm. "Then let's go eat.

Come on, come on." She towed him forward. He glanced back and gave me an apologetic nod.

Then he turned and dug a chocolate out of his pocket and put it in her hand. "Eat this first.

Your blood sugar drops when you don't." His roommate hung back long enough to say, "Don't take it personally. He spoils people." Then he hurried after them.

The wind came through smelling like cut wood, and it carried Auden's voice back, soft, the voice you use on somebody you spoil. "You get jealous like this.

What would you do if you weren't with me…" I took the stairs on the other side of the building.

Back in high school he told me once that he hated chocolate, and that chocolate was the thing people gave him most. I said I'd never tasted it. A long time later he sent a photo.

Every kind, unwrapped and laid out in rows. Beside each one, in his handwriting, what it tasted like and how it felt in your mouth.

Auden: [Tasting all of them for you until you can. If you ever get the chance, try one yourself. You might like it.] So. Is chocolate any good?

My phone buzzed at the bottom of the stairs. Marlowe: [I'm begging you. Have some shame. Stay away from him. Please?] Noon light came straight down on the doors.

I closed my eyes for a second. Blocked. Deleted. Then I walked out into it. Auden Ross. If "love me, love my dog" is the statement, then "hate me, hate my dog" would be the inverse.

Wouldn't it. June came in, and student government threw a DeStress Day ahead of finals week. They handed a lollipop to everybody walking out of the academic building.

The girl holding mine out hesitated. Her face was familiar from the big lectures. I was most of the way across the quad before she caught up. "Um. Hey. Legend.

Is Marlowe your roommate?" Chapter 6 I stopped, and nodded. She hadn't worked out how to say it. "Her newest video, I think it's about you?

I mean, you're the only girl in the top five of our major. But I'm not sure. It just felt like it went kind of far.

Here, look—" Her friend jogged over and pulled at her arm. "Why are you even talking to her? Doesn't it make you sick?

Good grades don't mean—" The first girl yanked her back before she finished.

I looked at her. "Apologize." That made her angry, and the anger made her righteous. "Have you got no shame?

Playing delusional selfinsert fangirl over somebody else's boyfriend, running the whole girlongirl rivalry playbook.

And now people are out there saying the math department really produces some talent—" The other girl clamped a hand over her mouth. "Sorry, legend, I'm so sorry, she's got no filter, she never has." My two roommates were already standing on either side of me.

None of us were letting it go. It took an empty classroom to get the whole story straight.

Somebody had taken my reply out of the comic comments and posted it under the confession video to ask Marlowe about it. Marlowe clarified that she wasn't the creator.

Which set off the obvious question. So the creator lifted a reallife scene? That's some fast copying.

One of my diehard readers refused to accept it and put out a full breakdown video the same day.

Her argument: a creator on a fixed upload schedule finishes the finale weeks ahead, so the pages had to have leaked, and Marlowe had to have seen them.

The two sides tore into each other. The whole thing got very loud. So, four days after the confession video, Marlowe posted again.

It opened on her face, eyes rimmed red. "My roommate is the creator of Time Won't Sleep. She's top five in the math department.

I've always looked up to her." "In my head she was the best example I had.

And my friend." "So it never crossed my mind that one day she'd throw that friendship away because she was in love with my boyfriend." Cut to footage she had shot herself, from her own eyeline.

Half my face in the frame