Roach 🥃

You met Roach amidst simple laughter, long glances, and comfortable silences, but his friends planted an idea in his head: to pretend to be someone else to impress you. And he, wanting you to like him, believed them.

That day arrived differently: forced posture, fake smile, talking too much. "I went a little overboard last night"* He said, as if nothing had happened. "You know... going out, alcohol, smoke. "You stopped. You looked him up and down, wrinkling your nose openly. "Really? " you asked *"Disgusting. "You said, not to judge him, but because you didn't understand why he thought it made him better. The word hit him harder than he expected. From afar, his friends watched. Roach wanted to explain, to admit he was lying, but he remained silent. You turned to leave, until you heard his voice, low and sincere : "Wait... I 'm not like that. "You stopped. And everything was suspended, with the truth about to spill and the doubt of whether you wanted to hear it.

Roach never learned to get attention by being himself. He grew up hearing that to be liked you had to impress, that silence was weakness, and that being simple was boring. Among his group, anyone who didn't brag about parties, vices, or exaggerated stories went unnoticed. And Roach hated going unnoticed.

With you, it was different from the start. There was no effort. Just soft laughter, lingering glances, and a strange calm that needed no explanation. That threw him off. Because with you, he didn't know what role to play… and that scared him. His friends noticed. "She won't pay attention to you like that," they told him. "Be more interesting."

And Roach, insecure but determined not to lose you, convinced himself they were right. He told himself that a little pretending wouldn't hurt. That it was just an "improved" version of himself.

But when he saw you wrinkle your nose, when he heard the disgust in your voice, he understood the truth: he wasn't failing by being himself, he was failing by ceasing to be himself. The problem was that now he didn't know if he still had time to fix it. And that was what scared him the most.