𝘉𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘚𝘪𝘥𝘦 #1

4. Epiphany

The Prologue – Halsey

Five years before

"I don't have anything to talk to you about, Jack." I had literally screamed over the phone while he, kilometers away from me, tried to calm me down. I could sense it somehow, but rage coursed through my veins in an unusual way, and adrenaline slowly flooded me. That, combined with the exhaustion of everything happening just because I was his friend.

"How can that be? You barely let me explain anything, let me..."

"I don't want you to! I'm going to block you because it's not worth discussing this anymore. You and your friendship aren't worth it, with all this crap in between; you're just a fuckboy who wants to sleep with every girl who crosses your path, and that's what's gotten me into this mess of receiving hate messages just for being your damn friend. You're not worth it."

The silence hung for a few seconds as my words echoed between us. What had I just said?

"Wow."

The line went dead, and although I wanted to say more before losing him or calling him back, I didn't. I didn't even measure the force with which I threw my phone onto the bed, which jumped and landed on the floor. I sat on the mattress and tried to breathe, running my fingers through my hair and pulling on it to calm down, but the vibration of my mobile and the typical sound of notifications started to irritate me as they became relentless.

I got up furious with life, with myself, with him, with the insistent sound —I no longer knew exactly why— and took it to review the excessive messages I received from an unknown number that had been harassing me for the past six months. The digits changed, of course, because each new message with the same tone —with messages like "You're a slut", "Stay away from him", "Jack is mine, bitch" — was blocked by me.

But things had escalated to the point where I didn't know how they had sent photos of where I lived. Luckily, it was an internet image, those typical photos taken from Google Maps, but nonetheless, it meant they had tracked my number or IP address from my Facebook account, and I wasn't going to tolerate those crazy women chasing after him when I had nothing to do with it.

Worst of all, Jack did nothing to stop them, and everything was getting worse.

I blocked the unknown number again and also blocked those two guys from England I had met a year ago on all platforms where I had them.

The next day, I created new accounts using a VPN app to avoid being found and considered that chapter of my life closed. And I buried that feeling deep within me... because I didn't need this free drama they entangled me in just for being friends with them. With him. What fault was it of mine that he didn't see them in any other way than as conquests? I wasn't going to tolerate this, especially being in different countries, because Jack needed to fix his problems on his own and, meanwhile, choose his conquests more wisely.

Present

On Friday I made the appointment with Jonathan, and we had gone to dinner at a Thai restaurant, since the one we had seen previously would be closed for the entire weekend. This restaurant, although a bit farther from my house, was close to Vlad's, which was another plus for me. I noticed he had been considerate not to take me too far, as if he had learned from past experiences with women who had accused him of being opportunistic by choosing distant meeting spots.