chance meeting,
love lasting.
on a seemingly normal night, a famous creator raids a smaller streamer and sets off a chain of events that lead him to his dream girl.
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My hands clamped over my mouth, heart beating wildly in my chest.
Rye met my gaze, his trademark grin gracing his lips. His body was still, relaxed, but his eyes danced. They were filled with unbridled excitement, the same excitement that coursed through me for him.
"Thank you," he said to the camera, one hand in his curls. "This is unbelievable."
The chat spammed the words "dream raid" over and over, drowning out the rest of the messages.
"To all the dreamwastaken viewers, welcome to the dark side. We have cookies!" He laughed, sitting back in his chair. "That was a joke, by the way. The darkest thing on my side of Twitch is my chat's humor."
My phone vibrated beside me, a text from Rye illuminating the screen. I glanced over at him. His phone sat in his lap, out of view of the camera.
Today 12:28 AM
rye :) who's dream?
I took to Google to answer the question we both had. Dozens of wiki pages and articles popped up, all about a young man who shot to fame in a short amount of time. The videos and images tab showed a green Minecraft character in various challenges with friends within the game.
Today 12:33 AM
Lani Popular youtuber. Very popular.
Rye's eyebrows shot up when he read my reply, blinking in disbelief.
"So, what should we do with the newcomers, chat?" he coughed, adjusting his headphones.
After some discussion, Rye settled on a mini Q&A to let the new viewers get to know him. Naturally, his chat went wild with the most outrageous questions, things they'd been dying to know for months. It was civil, until someone threw out a question about me, or "that girl." Soon, it was all the chat could talk about.
Though I knew they couldn't see me, I still ducked behind my laptop with my head burrowed in my hoodie. Their judgments seeped through the screen and invaded my brain, making my palms sweat and cheeks flush.
Rye did his best to change the subject to anything else, but his chat was relentless. When he briefly looked my way, the expression on his face said it all: he had to say something.
"Girlfriend," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "It's not a huge deal, guys. She helps me out on stream and stuff."
I covered my smile with my sleeves, struggling to slow the beating of my heart.
"Her name?" Rye pressed a button on his keyboard, angling his head out of view. "Help me out here," he whispered, eyes pleading.
I stared at him, frozen. My mind went blank, my throat dry.
