Exchange Gift

5

Win doesn't even know where he's going. He just had to keep walking.
Moving.
Fleeing.

"Dude. Slow down!," Tay gasps from behind him, holding the side of his stomach. "I ate too much to run a marathon right now."

"You don't need to follow me."

"Where are you going? What's the plan here?," Tay says in between large inhales of air.

"Does it matter?," Win shouts. Not sure if he's talking to Tay or to himself or the goddamn universe.

Because did it matter at all what corner of the world his feet would take him? It's not as if he could outrun his brain and that ring.

What the hell did that ring even mean?
What did he want it to mean?

Win holds on to the panic with two tight fists. Because he did not want his other emotions to surface.

Panic over shock.
Panic over happiness.
Panic over hope.

God, why is he hoping for that diamond ring to mean what diamond rings usually mean?

Isn't he too old for this?

The whole I-am-secretly-in-love-with-my-best-friend-shenanigans are so high school.

So you are secretly in love with him? You are aren't you?

"Shut up!"

"I wasn't saying anything!"

Win sighs and whirls around. "Tay, please just leave me alone."

Tay wheezes from several feet away.
"I would love to but I have no idea where we are."

Win looks around. It is only now he notices how dark it has gotten. And how his ankles are being scratched by overgrown grass and weeds. Great. He brought them into some kind of abandoned lot.

"Signal is pretty bad here," Tay says looking at his phone. "But am sure I can get Milk to fetch us."

"You do that. But just leave me here."

"In the middle of an empty lawn?"

Win simply shrugs.

Tay looks at him like he's gone insane. And maybe he has.

"I don't get it. It's a ring, Win. Not a death sentence. If you don't want it, you can simply say 'no thank you.'"

"No thank you to what, Tay? What does that ring even mean?"

"You're being disingenuous."

"Wow, vocabulary words."

"I'm not Bright. The bitchy sulking isn't going to work on me."

Win huffs.

"You know what it means. Or at the very least, you know what you want it to mean," Tay says.

"Stop being a shipper."

"You keep calling me that. But honestly, I just want you to recognize what's blindingly obvious before it's too late."

"I don't understand what you mean."

"You're a terrible liar."

"I can't...I can't lose him as a friend, Tawan."

"How good of a friend would you be when one day he tells you he's dating someone else? How good of a friend would you be when he's asking you to be his best man? How good of a friend would you be when you stop talking to him and stop seeing him because you cannot stand to see him with someone else?"

Win's skin feels tight around his body. "So what you're saying is either way I am doomed?"

"I am confused. Aren't you Mr. Optimistic? Why is it all doom and gloom when it comes to Bright?"

I am Mr. Optimistic because he's always by my side. He's so grumpy but he always shows up for me, believes in me, supports me. If we date...what happens when he inevitably realizes he's too good for me? What then?

"Tay, we're not sure what the ring means. Maybe he was just being stupid generous and he thought it could be like a bougie friendship bracelet? Maybe it's like one of those cheesy gifts he sometimes gets me that's not really for me but he says it's for my future kid."

"Bright gives you gifts for your future children?"

"My future children. My. And yeah."

"FRIENDS DON'T DO THAT!"

Win turns beet red. But refuses to believe Tay. "Don't shout at me!"

He proceeds to stalk off but Tay shouts again.

"WIN STOP!"

"I told you not to shout Tay Tawan!"

"Sorry but it's important!"

"What is?"

"Don't move! Win don't move."

He follows the direction Tay was pointing towards.

Metawin Seneca Iamkajorn freezes. His heart feels like it was beating so fast he was going to faint.

100 meters away from him is a snake. Head raised, tongue out.

Tay begins to back away.

"Where the fuck are you going?", Win hisses.

"I am going to get help."

"You're leaving me here?! With a snake?!"

"I don't know how to rescue you without making the snake attack. Let me go get help."

Tay keeps walking backwards while Win cannot even bring himself to wipe away the sweat dripping slowly down his forehead.
He can no longer turn his head towards his friend but he's pretty sure that bastard has run away.

Merry fucking Christmas to me, Win thinks as he prays to every god he could remember that the snake slither far far away.