Chapter 3

I didn't know when Jessica and Colin had gotten so close.

One day, the lunch our housekeeper delivered suddenly became three portions instead of two.

My voice shook as I said, "There's nothing I like here today."

Jessica didn't even look up from her reports and said, "We're eating light today. Colin said we should have salads once in a while to cleanse our system."

Colin walked over with his coffee and sat down next to me. "Sorry about that, buddy," he said.

I looked at him.

He raised an eyebrow and smirked. "I forgot you don't eat salads, but eating healthy really is better for you. You should try it more often. You're wearing XXL now, right? Not like me—"

He deliberately left the sentence hanging, but his smug smile finished it for him.

My voice came out quiet. "You love playing buddy-buddy with everyone?" I paused and narrowed my eyes at him. "That fake tone of yours is ridiculous, and you're only a month older than me."

The office went silent.

Colin's face looked like he'd been slapped, and his eyes twitched behind his colored contacts.

Jessica finally put down her files and frowned at me. "Ryan, that was too much," she said.

The girl who used to fight anyone who called me a "mama's boy" was now defending another man and telling me I'd gone too far.

I let out a cold laugh. "I went too far? Looks like I'm the one interrupting you two," I said and turned to leave.

Jessica grabbed me on instinct, the same way she did when those thugs cornered me in an alley back in eighth grade.

But this time her embrace carried an unfamiliar man's cologne, and her voice was impatient when she said, "Okay, okay. I'll have the housekeeper make your favorites tomorrow. Don't be mad anymore, alright?"

Colin's face darkened instantly.

*****

The next day, Colin's targeting got worse.

I showed up to work with my backpack that had a Minion keychain hanging from it, and he immediately slapped a hand over his mouth.

His voice shot up an octave. "Oh my god! A grown man who likes Minions? Ryan, your taste is seriously tragic. Nobody our age is into that anymore. We're all buying Labubu now, you know? So basic!"

A few female coworkers around us started laughing.

During lunch, I wiped down my plastic fork with a napkin, and Colin elbowed the girl next to him.

He pinched his voice into a high-pitched mockery of me. "Oh no, the fork needs to be disinfected first! Is this a prince?"

The girls immediately made exaggerated faces at each other, like this was the funniest thing they'd ever seen.

The company's annual desk shuffle came around, and I was carrying my monitor when my arms started aching.

I set it down to catch my breath for a second, and Colin jumped up from his desk like a street performer.

"Everyone look! The prince can't carry his monitor! Any knights willing to come rescue the damsel in distress?"

He and his little crew laughed so hard they were practically falling over, and some of them were openly taking photos and recording videos.

Jessica frowned at first and said under her breath, "Okay, that's enough. Don't go too far."

But Colin just grinned and whined at her in that playful way of his. "Oh come on, it's just a joke! Ryan's always so uptight. I'm just trying to get him to loosen up a little."

Jessica went quiet for a moment, and then she actually nodded along. "I mean, he is kind of reserved. Are all guys this sensitive nowadays?"

Colin laughed and patted her head. "Hey! Don't lump me in with everyone else. I'm different."

Jessica smiled. Her eyes were full of admiration and warmth.

My heart clenched.

Yeah, Jessica always thought I was spoiled, dramatic, and introverted.

To her, liking anime was childish, being clean was obsessive, and being quiet meant I was antisocial.

But she used to accept all of that about me.

Until that day when I finally snapped.

That year during winter break, I went on vacation with my parents.

The ocean breeze was gentle, the sun was warm, and I had a great time.

So when I came back from the trip, my skin had turned a deep tan.

Usually when I got tan, I'd stay inside for two weeks, and my skin would lighten back up, so I wasn't worried about it.

But on my first day back at work, I walked into the office wearing a pink puffer jacket, and Colin's eyes locked onto me like a predator.

"Oh my god!" He suddenly raised his voice and covered his mouth dramatically. "Ryan, you don't actually think pink suits you, do you?"

His laugh was sharp and grating, like nails on a chalkboard. "You don't look like a prince. What prince princess looks like you?"

He turned to the coworkers nearby and smirked. "Look at him! He looks like the ugly duckling now!"

A few coworkers snickered.

I froze in place, and blood rushed to my head.

Jessica stood right next to him. She looked at me, and a small smile played on her lips.

Something inside me shattered in that moment.

Maybe it was our eighteen years of childhood friendship, or perhaps it was the feelings I had for my fiancée.

I grabbed the coffee cup from the table and threw it straight in Colin's face.

Colin screamed, and his makeup immediately started running. Coffee dripped down his cheeks and left two black streaks like tear tracks.

He frantically wiped at his face. "Oh my god! Ryan, are you insane?" His mascara smeared into a total mess.

I let out a cold laugh and mimicked his usual tone. "Oh wow, so you're actually a guy who wears a full face to work every day? Eyelid tape, false lashes, lipstick?

"You're more put-together than the women in this office, so how can you call yourself a man? And you have the nerve to make fun of me?"

Several coworkers rushed over to stop me. Jessica snatched the cup from my hand, and her eyes turned ice cold.

She crossed her arms. "Ryan, apologize."

I stared straight at her, my eyes burning, but my voice came out eerily calm. "When he was humiliating me, you were laughing. Now I'm just telling the truth, and you want me to apologize?"

She frowned at me like I was some bratty kid. "Stop throwing a tantrum. Fighting with words is one thing, but throwing coffee at people is completely out of line. You screwed up, so own it."

I shot back, "Yeah? Screw you."

The air went dead silent for one second.

The next second, her hand cracked across my face.

The slap echoed through the office.

My ears rang, and through the noise I heard Colin's smug crying, heard coworkers whispering, heard eighteen years of childhood friendship shatter into pieces with that one slap.

I slowly lifted my head and looked at this girl who used to fight my battles for me.

My voice came out soft. "Jessica, you're really something. We're done."