Online, Offline.

𝐼𝒳

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A/n: A lot of people seem to like this book, so I guess I'll try to update it more often!

Anyway, this starts with a three-month timeskip. It's the winter for them (they all met in the fall).

Also, I'm going to be writing longer chapters!

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MrCheese / Oliver's POV~

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It's been getting colder and colder, every night that went by. Tommy and I would wake up freezing almost every morning.

The cold month of December was just around the corner. Beautiful lights and decorations were being set up. The smell of fresh-burning firewood filled the cool night air. Tommy and I would've enjoyed this if we weren't freezing.

"O-Oliver," he says with a whimper, "I-I'm f-freezing..."

The two of us would shiver every night, wishing we had a coat. We still had a hundred dollars left between the two of us-- but that was to be saved for food if times got really tough.

Honestly, I didn't know how we'd survive this harsh weather. One of us could get hypothermia.

The next day, the two of us walked to school shivering. We didn't want our friends to know that we couldn't even afford a warm coat (much less new clothes), so we kept our cool and pretended all was well.

Eben notices me shivering in class today. "Oliver, is everything alright? You've been shivering for the past thirty minutes-- did you forget to bring a coat?" I nod, hugging myself in attempt to warm myself up a bit. He peels off his coat and drapes it over my shoulders. "There, you should be a lot warmer now."

My face burns over five shades of crimson. "T-Thanks, Eben," I manage to stutter out. As time went by, I had grown to develop feelings for Eben. I didn't know what to do-- I loved Gentleman, but it's clear that we'd never meet in real life. Eben, on the other hand, was very real, right in front of me.

"No problem, Oliver!" He exclaims, "In fact, you can keep it, it looks nice on you."

"R-Really?" He nods.

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Player / Miles' POV~

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Something was off today about Aiden, and I didn't know what. He was a bit distant and less talkitive than he is usually, so I'm starting to get worried...

Aiden and I had all of our classes together. Our other friends mostly had the same classes but had a few that weren't the same.

Usually, Aiden has really high standards for keeping himself neat and well-kept. Today, his hair was all over the place and he had bags under his eyes. He kept his hood over his head, and barely talked to me when I started a conversation. What's up with him? I thought, Is he upset at me? Oh, I hope not...

I sat through class, thinking about ways to ask him what was up. I had tried to contact Veteran while taking a restroom break, but he was offline. I really wish I had someone to talk to right about now...

That's when I saw Captain get online. I was hesitant to reach out to him, but I was desperate to talk with someone. So, pushing my pride aside, I send Captain a message. He replies almost immediately.

"Hey, bestie!" He exclaims in his usual cheery tone, "What's up?"

"Captain, I... I have an issue and I don't know what to do, so I came to you for some advice..." He motions for me to go on. I sigh and mumble, "This guy that I have a crush on at school seems to be mad at me, and I don't know what I did wrong... What should I do? And I've tried asking him for over an hour but he remained distant."