Golden Friendship

“Sophie~ this is my boyfriend, Reese Colt. Reese, this is Sophie, my best friend who has been with me through thick and thin.” Beaming with happiness, Remi introduced her boyfriend to me and me to her boyfriend.

Fuck. Are you playing with me, God?! I can’t believe this!

“Hello, I am Reese. Nice to meet you.” He must have recognized me, seeing he was a bit awkward when greeting.

“Likewise. My name is Sophie.”

“Sophie~ Reese is incredibly handsome, isn’t he?” Remi, squealed beside me, “I can’t believe the two of us are actually dating!!”

“Yeah... me too” I muttered under my breath.

“What was that? I didn’t catch what you said just now.”

“Oh, well, I just said the two of you look really good together.” I smiled, quickly changing my words.

Remi is my closest friend. The two of us were together as far as our memory goes. No matter what, we were each other’s pillar of support. Whether it be her, helping me cope with my broken family or me, helping her after her father’s death, we were always together. Sometimes there would be a few small quarrels, but nothing major. In my twenty something years of life, I never felt so awkward before! And it’s all because of the bastard sitting next to my bestie, Reese Colt!

“Ohhh! I see a chocolate cake, excuse me for a minute. Meanwhile, the two of you get together.” As always, the oblivious girl did not even notice the awkwardness between Reese and I.

“Wait Rem-“

“Be right back!” With that, the girl ran off without even listening to what her boyfriend wanted to say.

“Uhh. I-“

“Stop! You don’t need to say anymore” I cut him off. I have no desire to hear what the boy wants to say, “I’ll say this frankly. Forget whatever happened that night. Just think it ever happened. And don’t you fucking dare say anything to Remi about it.”

The guy looks relieved by the words. I wonder if it’s because he genuinely like Remi or not. I hope it’s the former. If not, I’ll have to plan how to kill him without anyone finding out.

“I wonder if I should just cut him into pieces and flush him down the toilet”

“Excuse me?”

“Ah no, it’s nothing” I just waved it off.

First of all, does this bastard really deserve Remi?

His looks pass, which is obvious due to being the, I quote, ‘most-handsome-guy-in-this-freaking-campus-full-of-, or so the girls in my major say. Hmmm. I think I know why the girls swoon over him so much. I mean, I’m not blind. With his most likely soft, fluffy black hair and those deep, bottomless electric blue eyes play a really good role. Not to mention, he’s fit. Not buff. Nor scrawny.

Well looks don’t determine everything.

What about his behavior? And his manners? Let’s see… What did Amelia say about him again?

 “Reese is truly the perfect guy! Let’s forget about his looks, his grades, or the fact he is freaking good at sports for a moment. He has so good manner!! You know what, today a lady’s shopping beg was ripped at the bottom and all her stuff fell out. Reese, who was passing by, actually helped her!!! Helping a stranger in need!! He’s so kind!” Amelia’s words rang in my head and made me speechless for a moment.

No need to think of his grades. I thought. Or how good he is at sports.

Thinking it again, I really can’t find any flaw to him… well except that. However, that’s not included. Unfortunately. If I want Remi to break up with Reese, I can never say that as a reason.

Is it possible for a guy to be so perfect? I couldn’t help but narrow my narrow my eyes and stare at him.

“Is there something on my face?”

“What?”

“Oh. No. it’s nothing.” Shit. I got caught staring. So embarrassing. I hope he better not overthink it. I thought, sipping on my smoothie.

“I’m back~ I hope you two got to know each other while I was gone~” Remi said, with a her plate in hand.

“What took you so long?” I inquired, pretending to stir the smoothie and not look at her.

“Oh, don’t tell me about it! There were so many people!! Well, at least, I got a big slice!” Grinning, she indicated to her cake.

“That’s quite a huge slice. Are you going to be fine, eating all that?” Reese spoke in, looking worried.

Is he worried for her health or worried she may get fat? I couldn’t help but ponder.

“Reese! You said you couldn’t join us because you were going out with your girlfriend! What a coincidence we see each other here” A brunette, with light brown eyes, tan skin and muscular frame suddenly came to our table.

“Sei-"

“Oh my god! Reese! You’re dating Sophie Millers?! You sure are lucky, to get the No.1 girl wanted by the campus as your girlfriend!!”

“Ah n-“

“I am not dating Reese.” I snapped. Opps, that was a bit too rude. But whatever.

“I am the best friend of his girlfriend, Remi. Remi, go introduce yourself.” I said, whispering the last bit to Remi.

“Yeah. Hello, my name is Remi. Remi Hilton. Nice to meet you”, Remi stood up and introduced herself.

The brunette looked a bit taken back. “Is that so? I’m sorry for misunderstanding. I saw them together at the bar together last week so I just assumed… Don’t mind, okay?” he said sheepishly, “Oh I have to go now. Bye, see you guys later.”

“A bar? Last week?” Remi repeated.

Shit. Fuck. That little shit should choose his friends properly! Glaring at him, I indicated him to think up of something.

“Hey. What does he mean by that? The two of you met at the bar last week?” Remi questioned.

“He might have mistook someone else for me… maybe, he saw two people from afar and assumed it was me due to seeing us together here?” I replied, my eyes looking sideways, sweating.

“That’s right. He might have been mistaken. Sein doesn’t have good eyes yet he refuses to wear the glasses, saying that it will ruin his image. Haha.” Reese also spoke up, though I am 100% sure his awkward laugh and quick change of topic gave it away.

“Stop lying. Both of you.” This girl sure is sharp sometimes. “It might’ve been possible if he mistook someone else, but to mistake someone else for her, not possible. Everyone knows that Sophie is the only person in town with that baby pink hair. Even if someone dyed their hair, it would not look natural like hers is. Not to mention, you evaded my eyes when replying, Sophie. And Reese, you, changed the topic too abruptly. So, are you guys going to tell the truth or what?” Even though Remi is usually all sunshine and happy-go-lucky, she is really scary when need it.

Reese and I didn’t reply. We just looked at each other, urging the other to speak.

“Sophieeeeeeee.” Damn. She’s using my weakness. “The two of us had sworn not to lie to each other. We went through so much together and this is what you do to me?” Using her biggest weapon, her teary eyes, Remi gazed into my eyes, her voice all whiney.

“I-I-I’m sorry.” I give up. “Well, this is how it goes…”

A week ago, at the DiaMond Bar.

“Urgh. That Eugene is so annoying. How dare that son-of-a-bitch spew such lies about Remi! While leading her on, not to mention. I’m gonna murder him as soon as tomorrow comes” I muttered, chugging down another mug of beer.

“Hey there pretty lady, you should slow down on the beer. You’re going to get drunk.” The bartender warned me, slightly worried, which was too drunk to notice.

“Nooooo, don’ wanna. Another beer~.” Slurring, I asked, hiccuping from time to time.

“Hey there~ Beautiful, wanna have some fun?” A man came sat next to me. Though, I only saw a blur silhouette.

Fortunately or not, I didn’t pay him any attention and got up from the bar stool to leave. At this time, I bumped into Reese, who was also drunk. Due to the excessive alcohol, I vomited on both his and my outfits so the bartender took us two to a room.

We both were taken to a single room for a reason which I still don’t know. At the beginning, the neither of us noticed the other’s presence and removed our clothes. Once we noticed, it was already too late as we were in our birthday suit.

Then, I don’t know who started it but we kissed.

“And then-“

“And then we slept together.” Reese stated.

“Oh. My. God! Such drama!” Remi remarked, shocked.

I couldn’t help but think what would happen now. Remi could say that it doesn’t matter and keep both her relationship and our friendship but it will become a time bomb if she actually felt sad, offended, angry or anything. Or maybe, she is already thinking of breaking our friendship. Or perhaps, she’ll pretend to be okay and slowly distance herself from me. Or-

“It’s okay.” Remi’s hand circled me, “I know what you are afraid of, and I am certain none of those little possibilities will happen. I’ll make sure of it.”

Hearing her words, I couldn’t help but sniffle. Small beads of tears were threatening to spill from my eyes. “Thank you.” I could say these two words before stating sobbing as I hugged he back.

“There there. It’s okay.” Her small hands patting my back felt so reassuring.

“Oh right. I was going to ask Reese something.” Remi suddenly asked, “I know why Sophie became so drunk, but what about you? Why did you drink so much?”

To be honest, even I am a bit curious on the reason. So, Reese suddenly has two people staring at him with curiously.

“Ah umm that...”

‘Stop being so indecisive and say it already.” I grumbled.

“I WAS JUST BEING JEALOUS AND DEPRESSED BECAUSE I HEARD THAT REMI WAS DATING EUGENE!” Whoa. Reese just huffed all of these in one breath.

Remi was dumbfounded for a while before she started guffawing, “That was why you were so drunk? Hahahaha!”

Even I couldn’t stop snickering.

Reese became as red like a tomato. His whole face to his neck and the tip of ears looked as though someone painted them red.

“Stop laughing” Reese groaned.

It seems this guy might be an okay match with Remi. I am just glad that this event isn’t going to affect my relationship with Remi.

“Remi, I heard that a new café opened near the back gate of the university. Wanna go visit it tomorrow?” I asked.

“Tomorrow? Why wait till tomorrow when we can go today! Let’s go right now!” With that, she pulled both my and Reese’s hand and started pulling us out.

Hiding a smile, I said, “Remi slow down. It’s not like you know the way.”