I feel so stupid even asking this, but he literally sends a blank black screen every single morning to keep our 518-day Snap streak alive, yet my actual WhatsApp asking about his weekend has been sitting on read since Tuesday. We flirt at our lockers between classes so maybe I'm just being completely dramatic and needy, but opening Snapchat and seeing that little fire emoji while he ignores my real message makes me want to crawl into a hole.

Short, sharp truth: You aren't dramatic—you're just dealing with someone who cares more about a digital fire emoji than an actual conversation. A blank snap takes exactly 0.4 seconds of zero-effort muscle memory. It doesn’t mean he’s thinking about you; it means he doesn’t want to lose a streak number he probably maintains with thirty other people while half-asleep. Meanwhile, leaving a genuine text on read for days while chatting by the lockers is classic situationship cherry-picking: all the perks of your attention, none of the effort. Time for a little reset. Let the streak die. Yes, all 518 days of it—it’s just pixels, not a marriage certificate. If he brings it up at school with a shocked "Why did you break our streak?", give him a calm half-smile and say: "Felt weird keeping up a streak with someone who doesn’t reply to my texts." Never apologize for expecting real communication over a blank wall photo.