Chapter 2 :A Stranger, Nothing More.

When I was in 10th grade, I first met him.

Ryan Parker.

The first time I talked to him started in a very ordinary way.

A friend request.

I noticed his name and paused for a moment. It looked slightly familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it properly at first. I only knew he was my friend’s classmate, and that was the only real connection I had to him.

Lily Anderson, my childhood friend, my best friend, and the only person I truly trust.

I almost ignored the request.

Not because there was anything wrong with it, but because it didn’t feel important. It was just another stranger trying to add me, and I didn’t see a reason to accept people I didn’t know.

I remember staring at the screen for a few seconds, thinking nothing of it, before I closed the app and left my phone aside.

Later that day, Lily mentioned him casually. Like it wasn’t something worth remembering. She said he had been asking about me, trying to figure out if I was the same person he thought I was.

That was the only reason I reconsidered.

After a bit of thinking, I accepted the request.

At first, nothing happened.

No message. No notification. No reason to think about it again.

I actually forgot about it for a while and went back to my normal routine. It felt like one of those small actions you don’t attach meaning to, something that disappears into the background of your day.

Then a message appeared.

“Hi.”

I remember looking at it for a moment longer than necessary. It was such a simple word, but it still made me pause because I didn’t know how I was supposed to respond to someone I didn’t know at all.

I didn’t feel excited. I didn’t feel nervous either. It was just unfamiliar.

After a few seconds, I replied with a simple “hi” back.

There was a pause after that.

Not uncomfortable. Just quiet.

Like both of us were waiting to see if the conversation would continue or stop right there.

I put my phone down for a few seconds and went back to what I was doing, not expecting anything more.

Then another message appeared.

“You know Lily Anderson, right?”

That was the moment I understood why he had added me.

“Yes,” I replied.

Another short pause followed.

I could see the typing indicator appearing and disappearing. It kept blinking like he was thinking carefully before sending each message. It didn’t feel rushed. It didn’t feel intentional. It just felt like two strangers trying to figure out where the conversation was supposed to go.

“How do you know her?”

“She’s my friend,” I said.

Even while typing, I remember thinking that this conversation didn’t really have direction. It wasn’t interesting, but it wasn’t uncomfortable either. It was just happening because two people happened to be online at the same time.

There was no effort to impress. No attempt to stand out. No reason for either of us to make it meaningful.

It was simple. Almost mechanical. But not in a bad way. Just unfamiliar.

The conversation continued like that, slowly moving forward with one question and one answer. Nothing more.

At some point, he stopped talking directly to me and started talking to Lily instead, trying to confirm something that still wasn’t fully clear to him.

That’s when the misunderstanding came to light.

There was another girl in his class with a name similar to mine. He had thought I was her: Elena Brooks, the same Elena he actually knew from school.

When Lily explained that I was not that girl but her childhood friend, he realised he had made a mistake.

I remember noticing a slight change in the way he responded after that.

Not anything dramatic. Just small things. Slight pauses before replying. Messages that felt a little more careful. A quiet realisation settling into the conversation without being spoken aloud.

He seemed a little embarrassed, though he never directly said it.

And I didn’t mention it either.

It wasn’t something worth making a big deal out of. Just a small misunderstanding between two people who barely knew each other.

For a moment, the conversation felt like it had lost its direction.

Like neither of us really knew what to say next.

But it didn’t feel awkward. It just felt unfinished.

After that, the conversation continued, but in a simpler way.

The questions didn’t lead anywhere meaningful anymore. The replies were short, almost automatic. Like both of us were just finishing something that had already started rather than trying to build anything new.

There was no curiosity growing between messages. No excitement. No reason to continue longer than necessary.

It was just two strangers completing a conversation that had accidentally begun.

I remember noticing how quickly I stopped paying attention to the chat.

At first, I would check my phone every time a message came. Then I started replying when I saw it, without any urgency. And eventually, I would just respond whenever I remembered to, without thinking much about it.

It didn’t take long before it stopped feeling important.

There was nothing about him that stayed in my mind after I closed the chat. No thoughts. No curiosity. No reason to wonder about who he was or what kind of person he might be.

He wasn’t someone I was getting to know. He was just someone I had briefly spoken to.

And when the conversation slowly came to an end, it didn’t feel like an ending at all.

There was no final message. No proper goodbye. No sign that anything was supposed to continue.

It just stopped.

Naturally. Quietly. Without any meaning attached to it.

I remember closing the chat, locking my phone, and going back to my day as if nothing had happened.

It didn’t stay in my thoughts afterward. It didn’t leave any impression on me.

If anything, it blended into everything else that had happened that day and disappeared completely.

To me, it was still just another random conversation with someone I didn’t know.

Nothing more than that.

And it ends.