Chapter 1The Comment Section is My Wingman

I was just about to confess my feelings to my online crush in person when floating text suddenly appeared in front of my eyes.

It looked like a live stream chat.

[This side chick needs to give it a rest. The Male Lead is avoiding her like the plague. He’s mortified he spent all that time chatting with the wrong girl.]

[It's totally the side chick's fault for using a profile pic that looks just like the Female Lead's. No wonder Xavier got confused.]

[Ugh, thinking about how the Male Lead poured his heart out to her after losing that game makes me sick. All those deep convos were meant for our girl, not this extra.]

[Tell me about it. Xavier is disgusted, and our baby girl, the Female Lead, is bummed out too. She just added him yesterday!]

[This side chick is toxic.]

I stood there, frozen, staring at the floating words, when Xavier walked right into my line of sight. He’d just finished a basketball game.

When he saw me, his eyes darted away. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.

I sidestepped him and shoved my love letter into his roommate's hands instead.

Online crush?

Please. I have, like, five of them.

Those "goodnight" voice memos? I send those out on a mass broadcast list.

* * *

Seeing the floating comments really threw me for a loop.

Standing outside the basketball court, watching the text scroll by, I started to piece things together.

According to these comments, I'm just a cannon fodder side character in some cheesy college romance novel.

And my online crush, Xavier, is the Male Lead.

I looked down at the pink envelope in my hand and it clicked.

No wonder his replies had been slow and dry lately. He sounded annoyed in every text.

Turns out, he thought I was the Female Lead, Lily, this whole time. That’s why he added me, why he flirted with me, why he caught feelings over our "good morning" and "goodnight" texts.

Now that he knows the truth, he's avoiding me like I have a contagious disease.

He probably thinks I'm the villain blocking his true love.

A cheer erupted from the court.

I looked up. Xavier was walking toward me.

He was wearing a blue jersey, white headband, looking like every college girl’s dream. He took a water bottle from a teammate and took a swig, sweat glistening.

He was the Main Character, alright. He literally sparkled.

He looked up, saw me, and froze.

Then he stiffly looked away and started talking to his teammate, pretending I didn't exist.

I sighed. The comments were right.

[If I were the side chick, I’d run away. Why embarrass yourself?]

[Exactly. The Male Lead and Female Lead are destined. Why is she trying to butt in? So desperate.]

[Look, he won't even look at her.]

Xavier really wasn't looking at me. He was glued to his phone, smiling at a text.

Probably from the "real" Female Lead, Lily.

As he was about to walk past me, I reached out and lightly grabbed his wrist.

He looked shocked. I smiled. "You're Xavier, right?"

The comments went wild. Everyone was roasting me.

I ignored them and stared straight at him. "Is Kai your roommate?"

"Do you know where he is?"

Xavier blinked. "Why are you looking for Kai?"

I waved the letter in my hand. "I have something for him."