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Patty: Aunt Karen thinks graphic novels are “picture books for adults who fear paragraphs.”

Sloane: Your aunt has clearly chosen violence as a lifestyle.

Patty: I knew I liked you.

We spent the next hour discussing the series, the catastrophic screen adaptation and its terrible casting, and whether the main character should have ended up with the groundskeeper of the cemetery instead of the cursed prince.

Patty sent long messages full of capital letters and over-the-top punctuation. She had incredibly specific opinions, but it made it easy to talk to her because she never paused long enough for me to become self-conscious. Every time I considered whether my response sounded too eager, she had already sent three more messages.

Our private chat didn’t stop with the books.

I quickly learned that Patty was twenty-four and a freelance artist. She sent photographs of a jacket she was painting and asked which colors worked best. I helped her adjust the composition of a print she wanted to sell.

The following day, Byron posted a homework problem in the main chat.

Byron: This equation is wrong.

A photograph followed.

The problem involved two cyclists leaving different towns at different speeds, because math textbooks were committed to creating unnecessary transportation emergencies.

Hudson: It isn’t wrong.

Byron: Then why doesn’t my answer match?

Hudson: Because you distributed the negative incorrectly.

Byron: I didn’t.

Mason: You did.

Byron: Nobody asked you.

Another photograph appeared, this time showing Mason’s handwritten attempt. He had made it farther than Byron but complicated the equation by introducing an extra variable.

I recognized the error, which surprised me. I hadn’t taken algebra in years, but the solution returned from whatever highly organized storage unit in my brain still held standardized testing material.

Sloane: You don’t need the second variable. Combine the travel time first, then solve for the distance.

Byron: Oh.

Mason: She’s correct.

Byron: Again, nobody asked you.

Hudson: Thank you.

Hudson: I was making that harder than it needed to be.

Sloane: That’s a legitimate problem-solving strategy. Exhaust every complicated option until simplicity feels earned.

Hudson: I’ve built most of my life around that principle.

I smiled at the screen.

When Byron sent a follow-up question, I answered it.

The conversation should have ended after I explained the final step. It didn’t. Suddenly, Hudson and I were in a private chat.