Quit Being the Extra

When I tapped on Alex's account and transferred the money over, Alex acted as if he was upset about what just happened.

"It's alright, Jim. It's my treat…"

He had barely finished when Sally snatched his phone and accepted the transfer, like I'd get my money back if she was a second too slow.

"Take it," Sally said. "You don't have money after buying those stocks last month."

She really knew every detail of his life even though they had only met six months ago, and more than what she knew about me.

After the movie started, I was about to tell them it was time to go in when Sally's eyes lit up, exclaiming, "Hey, that's a new profile picture! It's that new anime character, right?"

"So you know about it too?" Alex laughed heartily, and they started to talk loudly without a care.

I sat there, my outstretched hand hanging in the air as I was completely ignored.

It wasn't the first time—Sally had just met Alex no more than six months ago, but they really hit it off when they did, never running out of things to talk about.

In contrast, neither of them would even look my way even if I talked to myself.

As such, I entered the movie hall alone and had already taken my seat for twenty minutes when they came in.

Our seats were next to each other with me in the middle, but Alex eyed me and then whispered into Sally's ear.

Then, they moved to another row, taking up a couple of unoccupied seats.

Sally then sent a text: [We'll take other empty seats with a better view.]

And with that, she turned off her phone, clearly not bothered about how I would respond.

Soon, she and Alex were chatting again, and the people a row below turned in exasperation. "Come on, man. Quit it with your girl already—we can't even hear the movie over you talking."

"Sorry. I'll stop her." Alex smiled and nodded, not correcting them even though I was nearby.

From my seat, I could see that Sally was smiling, and my phone remained silent.

She wasn't even bothered to defend herself.

Hence, I sat there, muddleheaded for the next hour or so, my mind blank by the time I left.

Sally came chasing after me, asking me as if nothing happened, "Did you catch the moment leading to the male lead beat up that mob character? I missed it."

"No, I didn't."

Stumped for a moment by my curt response, Sally frowned, her tone annoyed as she demanded, "What's your problem? You chose this movie!"

"No, I didn't," I repeated.

In fact, both Alex and I had picked different movies yesterday, but Sally went with his pick—just as she had done countless times before.

Awkwardness ensued, but as always, Sally didn't find anything wrong about what she did these days.

We were childhood friends and had studied together since grade school, and she always had my back, supporting all my decisions.

She could have studied at a better college too, but she decided to stick with me.

Our friends had always said that Sally's world revolved around me, but all of that changed since Alex showed up.