Theater: NovelMaster | Language: English | NEW
Synopsis
I had planned to confess my feelings to Logan, my childhood best friend and the guy I’d been secretly in love with for six years.
Instead, a single phone call made him abandon me on the spot, turning me into the biggest laughingstock on campus.
Later, I found out the call was from his younger classmate, Serena.
Everyone could see Logan had a soft spot for her.
And yet, somehow, I became the "homewrecker" who was supposedly trying to come between them.
When I begged Logan to clear my name, all he gave me was a cold sneer: "Can you stop being so overly dramatic?"
In that exact second, my six-year crush died.
Yet, when another guy confessed his feelings to me later, Logan gripped my wrist until it bruised, begging through tears that he regretted everything.
"Hey, Logan, where are you?"
I held my phone to my ear, my voice sweet and giddy with anticipation.
A moment later, Logan's voice came through, warm and casually teasing.
"Almost there. Ten minutes. What’s up with you today, calling me over and over? What, did you set up a surprise for me?"
"You'll see when you get here."
I hung up quickly, terrified that if we kept talking, he'd guess I was about to confess my feelings.
Logan and I had known each other for six years, and I had loved him in silence for every single one of them.
We first met back in high school when his family moved in next door to mine.
I was chubby back then, constantly mocked by our peers, which left me drowning in insecurity.
The first time I saw Logan, I kept my head down, terrified he would laugh at me just like the rest of them.
But he didn't.
Not only did he never mock me, but he also stood up to the bullies and drove them away.
In that instant, Logan became the light that illuminated my entire youth.
For six years, I followed behind him, working tirelessly just to keep up with his pace.
Now, we were on the verge of graduating college. It was time.
Looking around at the fairy lights and flowers I had spent hours setting up, I could already picture the look on his face.
I knew this wasn't one-sided. Over the years, the way Logan treated me had crossed the line of mere friendship a long time ago.
That was why I was brave enough to plan this.
Fighting down the butterflies in my stomach, I waited eagerly for him to arrive.
Soon, a familiar figure appeared down the pathway.
I spotted Logan instantly and rushed over to meet him.
Logan smiled at me warmly, and I couldn't wait to drag him into the center of the setup.
He glanced at the decorations, and for a split second, hesitation flickered across his face. His posture stiffened.
I caught the shift immediately and asked with worry, "What's wrong? Are you feeling sick?"
Logan forced a tight, awkward smile. "No... Mandy, what is all this?"
He gestured toward the romantic display around us, waiting for my answer.
Blushing, I lowered my gaze, inhaled deeply, and looked straight into his eyes. "Logan, we've known each other for six years. You've always taken such good care of me. I set this up today because I wanted to tell you... I like—"
*Ring! Ring!*
A piercing ringtone cut me off mid-sentence. It was Logan's phone.
He pulled it out, took one look at the screen, and answered immediately.
"Hey, Serena? What happened? Okay, I'm on my way. Wait for me."
The second he hung up, without even a glance at how lost and frozen I was, he turned to leave.
I reached out and grabbed the edge of his jacket. He turned back, looking guilty. "Uh, Mandy, I've got an emergency. Can we... talk about this later?"
With that, he yanked his jacket from my grip and hurried away.
I was left standing there completely alone, staring blankly in the direction he had vanished.
It took me a long time to come back to my senses. Looking at the setup I had poured my heart into, not a single piece of it had mattered.
Numbly, I began tearing it down. A sickening feeling twisted in my gut.
What kind of emergency was so urgent that he had to abandon me like this? And... who was Serena?By the time I packed everything away by myself, an entire hour had passed.
I took out my phone and dialed Logan's number.
After a few rings, he hung up on me. Staring at the darkened screen, I refused to give up and dialed again.
This time, an automated voice told me the phone was switched off.
I sent him several messages on SnapChat, but they vanished into the void with zero reply.
When I got back to the dorm, my roommates weren't around. I washed my face and collapsed onto my bed.
A while later, Chloe came back.
Seeing me lying there, she asked tentatively, "Mandy... did you and Logan get into a fight?"
I lifted my head. "What do you mean? Why do you ask?"
She unzipped her bag, pulled out her phone, and scrolled through it. "I went to the city aquarium with my boyfriend today, and I saw Logan there with a girl. They looked really intimate. I even took a picture... here, let me find it."
She handed me her phone. The moment my eyes landed on the photo, my heart shattered.
In the picture, Logan was tilting his head, staring at the girl beside him with nothing but pure tenderness.
The girl wore an airy blue sundress. One of her hands was looped snugly around Logan's arm, while the other pointed toward the jellyfish tank. They looked like a picture-perfect couple.
I recognized her. She was a sophomore in Logan's computer science department named Serena.
Logan had mentioned her before. He said she was exceptionally bright, and that he admired her drive.
Back then, I hadn't paid attention to the fondness in his eyes. Turns out, the signs were there all along.
I handed the phone back to Chloe. She took it with a worried frown. "Mandy... are you okay?"
My mouth moved, my voice trembling. "I'm fine, Chloe. Around what time did you see them?"
Chloe thought for a moment. "The aquarium opens at eight-thirty. I think it was around nine-thirty when we bumped into them. Why?"
Nine-thirty. Logan got that call at nine sharp. That meant the caller was Serena. His so-called "emergency" was nothing more than keeping her company on a date to the aquarium.
Tears spilled over my cheeks. Chloe gently wiped them away, pity in her eyes.
Once I finally choked back the sobs, I looked at her. "Chloe, can I borrow your phone for a second? I need to make a call."
She handed it to me without hesitation.
I dialed the number burned into my memory. This time, it connected almost instantly.
"Hello? Who is this?"
Logan's voice came through crisp and clear.
"Logan."
I pretended I didn't know a thing. "I called earlier and you hung up, then your phone went straight to voicemail. Maybe I was being impulsive earlier. I'm sorry. You don't have to take it seriously. Are you... done with your emergency?"
I gripped the phone, desperately clinging to hope. If he gave me an explanation, any half-decent reason, I would have believed him.
Silence stretched on before he finally stammered.
"Uh, Mandy... my battery died. I just plugged it in. Um..."
He stumbled over his words, sounding guilty and awkward.
"Logan! Hurry up! The dolphin show is about to start!"
A sweet, girly voice echoed cleanly through the speaker, destroying the very last shred of hope in my chest.
"Mandy, I gotta go, I'm busy. Talk later."
*Click.*
He hung up mercilessly. Staring at the blank screen, my heart plummeted into an icy abyss.
I forced a weak smile at Chloe, reassuring her that I was fine and she didn't need to worry.
The second she stepped out to give me space, I pulled the duvet over my head, curled into a tight ball, and broke down completely.
Waves of humiliation and betrayal crashed over me. If he didn't like me, or if he had fallen for someone else, why couldn't he just reject me to my face? Why did he have to humiliate me like this?
Eventually, I cried myself to sleep. When I woke up, the sky outside the window was dark.
Massaging my throbbing temples, I dragged myself out of bed.
The moment I looked up, I met the panicked eyes of my roommates.
I instantly sensed something was wrong. "What is it? What happened?"
They exchanged anxious glances before one pointed to her laptop. "Mandy... you need to check the pinned post on the campus forum. It's... about you."
A post? About me?
My stomach dropped. I rushed over and pulled up the campus forum.
The top pinned thread had been posted just two hours ago, but it already had over ten thousand upvotes and hundreds of comments.
I clicked on it. It was a video of me confessing to Logan this morning.
It had clearly been taken secretly.
Because I was naturally introverted and hated grand public displays, I had set everything up entirely by myself without inviting any friends.
The angle was hidden, but the footage was crystal clear.
Beneath the video, the anonymous poster had written a deeply manipulative caption:
*"Happened to stumble across computer science golden boy Logan getting confessed to today. The girl is Mandy from Business Management, his supposed childhood best friend. Looks like Logan shot her down, though. Guess the rumors are true—Logan already has a girlfriend, that adorable sophomore in his department..."*
Beneath the post lay an avalanche of vile, toxic comments. Every word felt like a slap in the face.
—"Confessing when she knows he has a girlfriend? What a desperate homewrecker."
—"Just because you grew up together doesn't mean you own him. Learn some boundaries!"
—"She's literally that classic pick-me snake from high school. Didn't say a word for years, but the second he finds happiness, she swoops in to ruin it."
—"Thank God Logan dodged that bullet. She looks toxic as hell."
Most of these commenters had never even met me, yet based on one out-of-context video, they ripped into me with pure venom.
I tried messaging the original poster to take it down, but the moment I identified myself, they blocked me.
Then I tried commenting on the thread to defend myself, only to be drowned in an even harsher wave of slurs and cyberbullying.
I had never had thick skin. Faced with this kind of unprovoked malice, panic completely consumed me.
And in that moment of terror, the only person I thought could save me was Logan.
All it would take was a few words from him to clear my name, and this nightmare would end.
Desperate, I dialed his number. Still unavailable.
Unable to sit still, I ran straight to his dorm building to confront him in person.I crouched by the entrance of his dorm for what felt like an eternity before I finally saw him walking back.
"Logan!"
I called out, my voice cracking. He froze, turning toward me.
I rushed over, shoved my phone in front of his face with the post open, and choked out, "Have you seen this? I swear I didn't know you had a girlfriend. If I knew, I never would have done that! Can you... please make a post and explain?"
Logan took the phone, skimmed the thread, and looked back at me blankly. "I don't have a girlfriend. Explain what?"
I froze, caught off guard.
"You don't have a girlfriend? Then just tell them that! Tell them you're single, so people stop calling me a disgusting homewrecker!"
To my shock, Logan shook his head.
"I can't do that. If I say that, what happens to Serena? She comes from a broken home; she's already so insecure and fragile. If I publicly clear your name, it'll humiliate her. I can't do that to her."
"What... what are you talking about? How does clearing my name hurt her?!"
"Everyone on campus assumes Serena is my girlfriend right now," Logan said, his tone infuriatingly reasonable. "If I come out now and say I'm single just to defend you, how will people look at her? What will they say about her? She's sensitive, Mandy. What if she does something reckless?"
I stared at him in utter disbelief, tears welling in my eyes. "What about me, Logan? What about what they're doing to me?! Do I just deserve to get dragged through the mud?!"
Logan looked at me with deep disappointment. "Mandy, can you stop being so overly dramatic? It's just internet gossip! Words can't kill you! Stop being so selfish for once and think about someone else!"
In that split second, the boy standing in front of me turned completely into a stranger. My mind flashed back to high school.
Back when I was mocked relentlessly for my weight, called every cruel name in the book.
I had gone to teachers, but all I got were hollow, insincere apologies from my bullies.
During my darkest hour, Logan had stepped between me and the world.
He drove off the bullies, cheered me on, and painstakingly helped me rebuild my self-worth.
It was the exact same person. So why had he changed so completely?
He knew better than anyone how devastating rumors could be. That was why he was shielding his precious little sophomore from them. But me? Apparently, my pain didn't matter at all.
"Logan," I said, my voice eerily calm. "We've known each other for six years. Even if we're just ordinary friends... you really won't say a word for me?"
"Are you guilt-tripping me right now? Just because we've known each other longer gives you the right to hurt an innocent girl?"
Ha. What a noble, heroic speech.
I gave a bitter, empty laugh, gave up trying, and turned on my heel.
It had all been my own delusion. Six years of devotion felt like a giant, humiliating joke.
But fine. At least I stopped the bleeding before it destroyed me completely.
Back in my room, I tapped open my smartwatch. Maybe Logan was right about one thing: I was going to be selfish.
Knowing Logan might refuse to help, I had secretly turned on the voice recorder on my watch before approaching him.
I wasn't a saint. I wasn't going to set myself on fire just to keep someone else warm.
I clipped the crucial few seconds of the audio and uploaded it directly to the campus forum. In crystal-clear audio, Logan's voice rang out: *"I don't have a girlfriend."*
Along with the audio, I attached my own calm statement. Several mutual classmates who knew the truth immediately stepped up in the comments, confirming Logan had always been single. Just like that, the slander painting me as a homewrecker evaporated.
The original video post was quickly deleted, but internet sleuths on campus tracked the IP and user history of the anonymous OP.
It led straight back to Serena.
The backlash was instant and brutal. The very mob that had attacked me turned their pitchforks on her, calling her out for playing the victim and framing someone else.
Logan didn't escape unscathed either. The campus labeled him a manipulative two-timer, the absolute poster boy for toxic fuckboys.
That was when Logan finally came looking for me.
"Mandy!"
He blocked my path as I was walking back from class.
"You uploaded that recording to the forum, didn't you? Delete it right now! And post a clarification saying the audio was AI-generated and that I never said that!"
He stood over me, furious and demanding, acting as if I owed him obedience.
It had been an entire month since I begged him for help. In that whole month, he hadn't called once, hadn't checked on me once.
The only reason he showed up now was because his own reputation was burning.
"Ha."
I scoffed right in his face. "Logan, can you stop being so overly dramatic? It's just a few words on the internet, right? What's the big deal?"
I threw his exact words right back in his teeth. Seeing the veins pop on his forehead gave me a rush of pure satisfaction.
Turns out, people only scream when the knife is stuck in their own chest.
"You...!" Logan choked on his rage, unable to form a coherent sentence.
Taking a deep, ragged breath, he tried another angle. "Fine! But what does this have to do with Serena? You dragged her into this mess for no reason! Don't you owe her an apology?!"
"An apology?" I stared at him like he was insane. "Are you blind, or do you just not use the internet? She was the one who secretly filmed me and posted it with a fake caption! She slandered me first out of pure malice! I defended myself with facts. How on earth am I in the wrong?!"
My outburst caught him off guard. His eyes shifted away guiltily.
"She... she didn't mean it. Why do you have to be so relentless? Besides, she already took it down..."
Watching his shifty demeanor, cold realization washed over me.
"Logan... you knew it was her from the very start, didn't you?"
He went dead silent. That silence told me everything. He was complicit.
"Logan..." A lump formed in my throat. "Six years. I can't believe I spent six years blind to who you really are."
I should have realized it sooner. Logan was a top-tier computer science major. If he wanted to trace an anonymous account, it would have taken him five minutes.
Tears silently traced down my cheeks. For weeks, I had held it together, but in that moment, the dam broke.
The sheer feeling of betrayal—of realizing I had been systematically deceived by the person I trusted most—stripped away the final illusion.
Logan had probably always been this cowardly, selfish person. My childhood crush had simply painted a golden halo over his flaws.
Now that the halo was shattered, his ugly, pathetic true colors were completely exposed.
"Mandy..." Logan stepped forward, his voice softening with fake pity. "Don't be like this. Serena knows she messed up. She'll change. Just forgive her and take down the post, okay?"
I reached up and wiped away my tears. Along with them, I wiped away the last remaining trace of affection I had for him.
"You want me to delete it? Fine. Have her come to me in person, apologize on her knees, and post a public statement admitting that she maliciously framed me to smear my name. Once she comes clean to the entire school, I'll delete it."
I turned to walk away, but Logan grabbed my arm tightly.
"Why do you have to be so vicious?! Serena isn't like you! She doesn't have an easy family background; she had to fight tooth and nail just to get into this college! You're going to ruin her life! Just let her apologize to you in private, and you take the post down. Isn't that enough?!"
I violently ripped my arm from his grasp, disgusted. "What makes her so damn special?! Who at this university didn't work their ass off to get here? Why does she get a free pass to ruin people just because she's poor? I've said my piece. Think whatever you want."
Before he could utter another word, I walked away without looking back.
Chapters (3)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Watch & Promotions
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