The Wrong Match, The Right Obsession

I was scrolling through my phone in the middle of the night when I saw a post from Cole, the school's golden boy.

[Been dating a girl online for three months and we're about to meet IRL, but I just found out she's a 250-pound catfish. What the hell do I do?]

The top comment cut straight to the bone.

[Give the account and the girl to the guy you hate the most. Let those two losers deal with each other.]

Cole gladly took the advice. Not long after, I was out on a perfect date with my boyfriend when Cole stormed over. He stopped right in front of us, jabbing a finger aggressively at my boyfriend's chest.

"You son of a bitch! I'm the one who's supposed to be Piper's boyfriend! Give her and the damn account back to me right now!"

Chapter 1

I was just about to go to sleep, but the post immediately woke me up. I recognized the original poster. It was Cole, the undisputed golden boy of our campus.

A guy that hot was actually dating someone online? Cole was currently venting his frustration in the thread:

[God damn it, she told me she was 5'6" and gorgeous, and I believed her for three whole months!]

[Turns out I forgot to ask about her weight!]

[I ordered her some DoorDash today and asked the driver to keep an eye out. The driver texted me saying the girl who answered the door was super plus-sized, with legs thicker than a barrel. Just thinking about how I've been sending "Baby girl" and flirty texts to a woman of that size for three months makes me want to claw my own eyes out!]

The comments below were eating it up:

[Get too obsessed with an online girlfriend, and one photo will snap you right back to reality.]

[Fate loves to play cruel jokes on guys who only care about looks.]

Cole was losing it:

[It's way past a joke now. When I remember we actually agreed to meet up in person next week, I want to hurl myself into oncoming traffic!]

What a coincidence. My boyfriend and I had also agreed to meet up next week. That thought prompted me to switch back to my messages. My chat history with my online boyfriend stopped at early evening.

[I'm heading to the lab tonight. Don't wait up for me.]

It was creeping up on ten o'clock. I tapped out a reply:

[You still busy, baby?]

[I just saw the most infuriating post!]

He must have been swamped. I waited, but my screen stayed dark. I knew he wasn't allowed to keep his phone on him in the lab, so I didn't sweat it and flipped back to the forum. In that short time, Cole had fired off several more replies, and they were getting nasty:

[Give me a break. This catfish can't stop for one second. She just messaged me again.]

[Looking at her profile picture makes me sick to my stomach now, let alone talking to her.]

[Nope. I need to go throw up.]

The thread was a mess. Most people were reveling in his misery, but a few users actually stood up for the girl. Cole immediately ripped into them:

[If you're such a saint, you date her.]

[Did she apologize to me for trying to date online looking like that? The fact that I haven't ripped her a new one directly is me doing her a massive favor!]

People kept tossing out ideas. I skimmed through them for a bit, quickly losing interest, and switched back to my chats. Weird.

Why hadn't he texted back yet? This had never happened before. Was he pulling an all-nighter in the lab?

My eyelids were too heavy to stay open. I sent him a quick goodnight text, locked my screen, and passed out.

The next morning, the first thing I did was check my phone. Still nothing. What the hell was going on?

However, Cole's post had a major update. I stared at the top comment, my brow furrowing:

[This is an easy fix. Give the account and the girl to the guy you hate the most. Let those two losers deal with each other!]

Jesus. That was ruthless. Plenty of replies underneath called it out for being messed up, but Cole thought it was a brilliant idea:

[Genius! I'm sick to death of my arrogant prick of a cousin anyway. That's exactly what I'm going to do!]

Cole had a cousin? I had never heard of him. Whatever. Cole and his cousin's drama had nothing to do with me.

The only thing I cared about was why my boyfriend was still ghosting me. I scrolled back up through our texts from yesterday. Nothing seemed off.

He had even ordered me sushi for dinner last night and let me know he was heading to the lab. So why the hell was he ignoring me?

Chapter 2

I was just debating whether to call him and demand an explanation when my phone finally buzzed.

[Morning, baby.]

The knot in my chest instantly loosened, replaced by a flare of annoyance.

[Why'd you ghost me all night? ??]

[Sorry, baby. Things got crazy at the lab.]

Just as I thought. I let out a breath.

[Fine. I guess you're forgiven. ??]

[Don't let me off the hook so easily. You can be mad at me, baby.]

My cheeks warmed at the rapid-fire 'babies'.

[Why are you being so sweet today?]

[Missed you.]

My face flushed hotter.

[We text literally every day.]

Three pulsing dots appeared on the screen, then vanished. His reply popped up.

[Missed you a lot.]

[I really want to see you, baby.]

Where was all this aggressive flirting coming from? A tiny prickle of unease ghosted across my skin, but my heart was hammering against my ribs. I quickly swapped over to Instagram, mindlessly scrolling to cool off.

X and I had been talking online for almost four months. He usually had this untouchable, bad-boy vibe going on. Sure, he'd call me 'baby', but he rarely got this clingy.

Something was off. Majorly off. Did he do something messed up behind my back?

My mind immediately flashed back to Cole's unhinged forum post from last night. The butterflies in my stomach died on impact. I switched back to our chat, fingers flying over the keyboard.

[You're acting weird. Spit it out. What did you do?]

The screen stayed quiet for a moment. Then, an audio message popped up. I pressed play.

"You caught me, baby. I ordered you some fancy cupcakes. Guess I'm ruining your diet for the day."

A satisfied smirk tugged at my lips. He had sent me voice memos before, but he usually put on this forced, raspy vocal fry. It wasn't bad, but it was nowhere near as clear and genuinely attractive as his voice sounded right now.

I couldn't stop myself from saving the audio file. I held down the microphone button. "You're being so weird today. You're acting weird, talking weird even your voice sounds different."

Another audio message shot back almost instantly. "But do you hate it?"

Hell no. I was a sucker for a guy acting sweet. I cleared my throat and held down the mic again. "I don't hate it. Keep it up."

A low chuckle vibrated through the speaker. "You got it, baby. Come downstairs and grab your cupcakes."

Cupcakes first thing in the morning. Absolute sin. I silently cursed my total lack of willpower while throwing off the covers and sprinting to the bathroom to wash up.

"Piper, you're up early," my roommate remarked, raising an eyebrow.

I flashed her a grin. "My boyfriend sent me cupcakes. You got any deliveries down there? I can grab them."

She waved a hand. "Nah, I can get it myself."

I clicked my tongue. "You grabbed my packages yesterday. Let me get yours today."

She was already standing up, slipping on her shoes. "We'll go together. I need the stair-climbing for my cardio anyway."

She had some health issues and was constantly on medication. The side effects made her gain a lot of weight, so she was always quietly working on her diet and getting her steps in.

I wasn't going to argue with that. We headed down to the lobby together. All the deliveries were dropped off on the designated shelves near the dorm entrance.

It was still early, so the lobby was pretty empty. I spotted the bakery bags almost immediately. Actually, there were two of them.

The receipt taped to the front was crystal clear:

[One for my Piper baby. One for Piper's roomie.]

I stared at the receipt for a solid two seconds before a laugh bubbled up. I grabbed the bags and shook one at my roommate. "My guy bought you one too."

She took the bag, her eyes widening as she read the label. "Hell yes! Thank you, Piper, and thank your man for me!

Is it your anniversary or something? How'd I get so lucky?"

Chapter 3

Honestly, I was a little thrown. X rarely ordered me food over the last few months, let alone bought extra for my roommate. Did he cure cancer during his all-nighter at the lab or something?

Was he just delirious with joy? I was just reaching for my phone to ask him when someone called out from ahead.

"Piper?"

I looked up and paused. "Cole."

It was actually Cole. He closed the distance in a few long strides. His gaze casually slid to my roommate, and his nose visibly crinkled in blatant disgust.

Then his eyes dropped to the bakery bag in her hand. The corner of his mouth twitched upward.

I didn't like the way he was looking at her. I stepped slightly in front of her, cutting off his line of sight. "Can I help you with something, Cole?"

Cole snapped out of it and cleared his throat. "My fraternity is throwing a mixer next weekend. Should be a pretty good time. You want to come hang out?"

I furrowed my brow. Didn't Cole have a girlfriend? Why was he inviting me? Wait.

I paused, remembering the update on his forum post from this morning. Cole had pawned his account off on the guy he hated.

So technically, he was single right now? What a toxic way to be single.

I shut it down instantly. "Sorry, Cole. I'm meeting up with my boyfriend next weekend. I don't have time."

Cole's face stiffened. "You have a boyfriend?"

I kept my voice perfectly level. "Yeah. We've been together for a while now." Ignoring the deep crease forming between his eyebrows, I grabbed my roommate's arm and pulled her toward the dorms.

"Piper, you really don't like Cole, do you?" my roommate teased, nudging my shoulder as we walked. "Didn't he low-key try to hit on you before? Leaving all those vague shoutouts on the campus confession page?"

Leaving a few ambiguous comments counted as hitting on someone? I called that borderline harassment. Besides, if he'd had an online girlfriend this whole time and was still flirting with girls on campus, his character was absolute garbage.

Back in our room, I held a full-blown photoshoot for the two cupcakes from every possible angle. I picked the best nine photos and spammed them to X.

[Thanks for feeding me, boss! ??]

X replied almost instantly, hyper-fixating on the exact wrong word.

[Boss?]

I grinned, holding down the microphone button. "My bad. I meant, thanks for the food, boyfriend."

[Say it again.]

I decided to humor him. "Boyfriend."

The other end went quiet for a few seconds. Then, my phone started vibrating like crazy. I stared at the endless stream of Cash App notifications popping up on my screen.

$500, 0-0000, and then a straight $5000 transfer, followed by a screenshot showing he had just cleared out my entire Amazon cart. I was floored.

[Are you insane? Why are you dropping so much cash on me?]

Keep in mind, X had only ever sent me money once in the entire time we'd been talking, and it was for my birthday. He sent me a random $5 and then $20. It was the weirdest, cheapest gesture ever.

[I'm just really happy right now. Had to make sure my baby was happy too.]

I couldn't stop the smile spreading across my face. I was just typing a reply when another text came through.

[Baby, I want to come see you earlier. Is that okay?]

My stomach did a little flip.

[How early are we talking?]

He just sent a screenshot of a flight confirmation. The departure date was this Saturday. The destination was my city.

I zoomed in on the time of purchase6:03 AM today. Meaning, the second he woke up this morning, he booked a flight to come see me.

A rush of pure sugar flooded my veins, mixed with a sudden spike of nerves. I glanced at the passenger name on the ticket one more time.

Declan. Yeah. I liked the sound of that.

Chapter 4

Seeing I didn't reply right away, he started getting anxious.

[Baby?]

[Is it too sudden?]

[We can stick to next week, please don't be mad]

How could I possibly be mad! I quickly typed back:

[I'm not mad, just a little surprised.]

[Come on over! I'll pick you up at the airport!]

Declan instantly relaxed, sending back a string of hyped-up emojis.

[Hell yes! ??]

What an idiot. I rolled my eyes, but I couldn't fight the massive grin taking over my face. I chewed on my lower lip for a second before texting:

[Should we exchange pictures first? Just so we don't walk right past each other.]

Declan and I had met playing games online. We only had each other added on our burner Snapchat accounts, and neither of us had a single personal photo posted on our stories. Declan didn't reply.

The minutes ticked by, and my stomach started doing anxious flips. Was he catastrophically ugly or something? I hesitated for a long moment before sending another message:

[Can you at least tell me how tall you are? Narrow it down a bit?]

Didn't they say if a guy was over six feet, he'd find a way to bring it up within three sentences? Still nothing from Declan. I was bordering on a minor meltdown. It hit me thenI was starting to understand exactly how Cole felt!

Just as I was about to crack and FaceTime him, my phone buzzed. Declan had finally replied. It was just a straight-up selfie.

Black t-shirt, buzz cut, his eyes sharp and chillingly cool, with two silver barbells pierced right through his eyebrow. I stared blankly at that face for a solid second before slamming my phone face-down on my desk.

Holy shit, he was hot.

How the hell did a girl like me bag a guy like that?!

My phone vibrated against the wood again.

[I know I'm not that good-looking, baby My roommates say I look mean.]

[I'm not mean, baby.]

[You can be mean to me, baby.]

Where the hell was my inhaler?!

I practically shrieked into my pillow, taking a few minutes to force my breathing back to a normal rhythm before I tried to act cool.

[You don't look mean. You're really hot.]

Then the panic set in again.

If he looked like that, what the hell was I going to do?!

As if he could read my mind through the screen, Declan thoughtfully added:

[I just wanted my baby to know what I looked like. I'll love whatever my baby looks like.]

God, that just made me feel even more shallow. I was about to type out a defense, but Declan changed the subject.

[I've got a final for this class now, baby. Talk to you later.]

I replied with a quick "okay." Staring at the little puppy kissing emoji he sent last, I let out a heavy sigh.

I knew I deserved good things, but landing the absolute jackpot was genuinely terrifying!

I overthought it for a while before saying screw it. Since I didn't have many classes today, I dragged my roommate to the mall.

We cleared out the aisles at Sephora, got a full hair treatment, and I even slapped on a set of obnoxiously long French acrylics

By the time I was fully decked out, my roommate eyed me up and down, hesitating. "What, are the Kardashians coming to our campus to film a reality show?"

I burst out laughing. "No! I'm just about to meet my boyfriend in person!"

My roommate clicked her tongue. "You're dressed up like a literal cupcake. Just stand on the balcony and let him get a look at you from there!"

We were busy laughing and joking as I spun around, accidentally bumping straight into a passerby. I quickly apologized.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry Cole? You're shopping too?"

Cole stared at me, his jaw slacking, the crease between his eyebrows deepening. "Piper, are you dating someone online? Are you and your boyfriend meeting up soon too?"

Chapter 5

Holy shit, dude.

Eavesdropping on us was one thing, but making it all about yourself? My boyfriend was nothing like him!

I brushed him off with a few generic words, grabbed my roommate's arm, and booked it out of there.

By the time we got back to the dorm, it was already night. Declan had a late class today, which he'd told me about hours ago.

With nothing better to do, I lounged on my bed and scrolled through the campus forum. Cole's thread had blown up even more. Mostly, everyone was just dying for an update.

[Any updates from OP?]

[It's been dead quiet since you gave the account away.]

[Did your cousin get busted? Do we need to start a GoFundMe for his hospital bills?]

Cole's replies were dripping with smugness:

[My cousin is a horny idiot. The second I told him she was a 5'6" hottie, he was nodding along like a dog.]

[They're hitting it off great. Calling each other 'baby' non-stop, and I hear they're actually going to meet up!]

[The moment he sees that landwhale's true face, I'm recording his reaction. Lmao!]

My stomach churned at the repeated use of the word 'landwhale'. I had always been a foodie growing up. My grandma spoiled me rotten, cooking whatever I craved, which meant I was a chubby kid.

I didn't care about weight in elementary or middle school. But high school hit, and the bullying and isolation that came with my size made one thing crystal clear: teenagers were ruthless to the fat girl.

So, I starved myself and worked out like crazy. I eventually lost the weight, but those toxic slurs still made my skin crawl.

Not wanting to read anymore, I was just about to close the tab when the page refreshed. Cole had posted another update. This time, the smugness was replaced by confusion:

[Ran into my crush tonight. Turns out she's also online dating and is about to meet her boyfriend IRL. What are the odds?]

The replies were brutal:

[My dog just took a massive shit, you want a taste?]

[What does her dating life have to do with you? Keep your nose out of your crush's business!]

[Don't tell me you think your crush is your online girlfriend? Did that pig knock a few screws loose in your head?]

I narrowed my eyes, let out a harsh scoff, and closed the app.

Saturday rolled around fast. I was up at the crack of dawn, got myself ready, and headed straight to the train station. I saw Declan's departure city when he booked the ticket; he was in the same state, only a two- or three-hour ride away.

I arrived at the station entrance just past nine. Gripping a bouquet of flowers in one hand and my phone in the other, my heart hammered against my ribs. I kept checking the time over and over.

At 9:20, another wave of passengers flooded out of the arrivals gate. A guy dressed entirely in black instantly caught my eye. He wore a black baseball cap pulled low, hiding half his face, but his frame was tall and lean. Just from the way he carried himself, you could tell he was hot.

I took a few steps forward on pure instinct, and our eyes locked.

His body went rigid.

Shit.

Did I get the wrong guy, or was he already disappointed?

Just as panic started to set in, a hand slapped down on my shoulder.

An incredibly annoying voice drifted from behind me. "Piper, what a coincidence. You picking someone up too?"

The sudden voice made me jump out of my skin