Page 27 of Love Me Stalk Me
I don't breathe.
A possessive hunger tightens in my chest, completely irrational and impossible to ignore. Because I know this isn't from Evan. I know that with absolute certainty. He doesn't see her like that. He doesn't see her at all.
But somewhere, at some point, she wanted this.
She wanted to be called pretty and have it be sincere. She wanted a man to look ather like she was beautiful and precious. And no one ever did.
Until now.
Because that’s how I see her.
It’s insane. I barely know her. We’ve exchanged what—ten conversations, maybe less? She owes me nothing, and yet I’ve found myself cataloguing the curve of her mouth when she’s focused, the exact pitch her voice hits when she’s lying, the way her hands fidget when she’s trying not to feel too much.
She doesn’t even realize how capable she is, like she keeps waiting for someone else to confirm her own brilliance. And giving—fuck, she gives everything. Time, effort, pieces of herself she probably doesn’t even realize she’s handing out like candy. And none of them ever deserved it. Not one.
I can’t explain why I’m like this for her. Why just hearing her name makes my chest tighten. Why I have to physically stop myself from reaching out when I see her across a room. Why her silence feels louder than anyone else's scream.
But maybe I don’t care.
Maybe it doesn’t need to make sense.
Because when I look at her, I don’t see a girl who’s trying to be enough. I see someone who already is. And if no one else ever noticed, then that just means they were blind.
She’s pretty. She’s precious.
And I’m the one who sees it.
Final Step.
Name Him
She should pick something generic. Something safe.
A name that means nothing. A name that doesn't belongto any real man in her life.
Instead, she types?—
Ca-
My pulse hammers against my ribs.
I go completely still, watching, waiting, not breathing as she hesitates.
It's too close.
But then she adds three more letters.
-leb
I exhale slowly, a sharp, tight breath that does nothing to settle the feeling clawing up my spine. She came within a keystroke of naming her perfect digital man after me.
I wait for her to change her mind. To realize what she's done. Except, time passes and nothing happens.
She doesn't delete it.
She doesn't change it.
She just hits enter.
