“Hey, you play League?”
A simple question.
But not one that I ever expected to have the guts to ask anyone, not during a cursed time when my anxiety was at its peak in an environment designed to give me anxiety: high school.

In my usual routine of skipping lunch during lunch to grab a much needed half an hour of sleep, off in a solitary corner of campus where the faculty doesn’t even bother to patrol, I suddenly noticed a mostly unknown trespasser.
The name eludes me, I feel like she’s been called Gina or Gisele or something. I can’t quite remember because she’s probably the one person in school that manages to be even quieter than me and that’s basically all I know about her.
I usually try to ignore stray passerby, but I couldn't help but feel unnerved somehow just being alone with her. It was a vexing thing, an aura of uncertainty that penetrated me deeper than the simple familiar discomfort that I feel around the majority of people that make no effort to hide their obnoxious intentions.

Whatever was this bad juju coming my way, I wanted nothing to do with it.
But if I just ran away, that would surely make things even more awkward if I happened to encounter her again, and the thought of someone else thinking that I was actively avoiding them was utterly dreadful. I could not bear that imagined weight on my shoulders.
I had to perform the ancient rite of “Just Keep Walking and Then Pretend That You Suddenly Got Lost or You’re Looking For a Friend”.

My best attempt at walking casually immediately made me trip and crash into a wall, and I felt like my heart was gonna explode.
After regaining my composure and getting past the shock of the situation, I felt comfortable enough to sneak a glance in her direction to gauge her reaction.
To my relief and dismay, she seemed even less interested in giving me her attention than I was interested in getting it.

There was something on her phone that had her captivated in a way that I had never seen from her before, and I felt an urge to see what it was. After all that transpired, and the fact that she didn’t seem to be trying to hide it from prying eyes, I felt it wouldn’t hurt to satiate a minor curiosity and take a closer look.

I was not prepared to feel a sense of familiarity to what was on screen.
Top-down perspective, the Summoner’s rift, ASSFAGGOTS gameplay.
It was League of Legends. She was a fan. And so was I.

In that moment, I certainly achieved Nirvana, because there were absolutely no thoughts running through my mind.
I didn’t think about the fact that she was a girl and I was a boy.
I didn’t think about whether or not I was good enough to deserve respect.
I didn’t even ponder the possibility that a girl would ever not want to be interrupted from whatever she’s doing to hear me babble about my middling Top/Mid/Support skills in Silver II.

What mattered is that I had a true peer in this world. I don’t know if she’d say anything to me, now or ever. But for the first time in my life, I truly understand that poster in the hallway that proclaims “You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take!”

A microsecond passed and the silence was already starting to wear on my spontaneously peppy attitude, but just as I was about to prepare a flight to save us both the trouble, I could see the beginnings of a smile.
But then that smile became something both great and terrible, but like in a cute way.

Her gentle lips so graciously parted to reveal a slightly bigger secret than her love of League.
I was taken aback by such large carnivorous looking teeth inside this girl’s mouth, but upon noticing the metal framework that could be nothing other than dental braces, they really lost their… bite.
And if that weren’t enough to remind me how non-threatening she is, she also said with a bit of effort and saliva “You can call me Gigi”.