okay gotchu. so I'm 23 now. the fuckin flair makes me feel so old. anyways doing the long distance thing further down the road gives me a bit more perspective... I won't say it's hopeless. I think there's potential to really develop something great with this girl, even if you never get the opportunity to meet her in real life. talk to her as much as you'd like for now, but don't let her impact your irl social life all that much. a good friend is someone you can talk to openly and navigate your emotions with and you don't need to be in someone's immediate presence to have that ability, however as you grow older and evolve socially it is very likely that she will phase out of your life in a gradual and pleasant way (she will experience the same social evolution) and you'll lose touch. nothing about your relationship will be invalidated and you'll retain everything you gained from living through a certain part of your adolescence with a loved one, but her constant presence in your life will no longer be as necessary it once was.

between 15 and 19 I grew emotionally in a huge way. I looked at my 15 year old self and smiled at how naive I was being in certain situations. at 23, can say that I have never thought that I wasted my time talking to someone that helped me uncover a little bit more of who I was. I knew that people would judge me for having "online friends" so I never said anything, but those people are huge influences on who I am today because of how well they treated me.

I guess what I'm trying to say is embrace it while she's here, but at some point you may feel yourself naturally growing apart. don't stress yourself too hard about that - you are younger than most here and you have plenty of teenage years left.