Cerita Pendek & Novel Best Friend Face Slapping

It happened on the last shipment run I ever went on. My boyfriend and my best friend left me behind at the transfer station. I waited there for half an hour before they remembered they were one person short. Lawson called me, impatience all over his voice. "Why didn't you get in the truck?" "We're in a hurry for the celebration dinner tonight. We can't turn around." "Stop making a scene. Figure it out yourself." My mouth opened. No sound came out. Beth's voice carried through the line, clear and grating. "We're all adults here. Why does every little thing have to be handled for her?" "She has to grow up sometime." I listened to all of it and hung up without a word. The old me would have apologized on the spot, then done everything I could to catch up with them without causing a single problem. But this time, it all just felt pointless. I canceled every arrangement the family had made for me. I sent my mother a message: [I want to go to Northbay and take over the family business there.] They had always looked down on Northbay for being too small. But I had always wanted to go. I would never have to chase after them again. I would follow only myself.

When my best friend was being beaten by her ex, I was the one who paid off her treatment, bought her an apartment, and put up the money for her to open a clothing boutique. Six months later, she was pregnant with my fated mate's child. She knelt in front of me and cried. "You've had him for ten years. Just let me have him this once." My mate told me she would be the pack's new Luna. As for me, I could stay on at the company, making money for them and cleaning up their messes. He said it like it was obvious, because for five years I had been the one closing the clients and holding the team together, the one who turned a nearly bankrupt Blackpine Group into the leader of its industry. But a woman like me never allows a single crack in her own relationship, and as for those two, I was going to show them exactly what regret feels like!

My girlfriend's male best friend had only been abroad for two weeks, but when he came back, he claimed that he was transgender. He stopped wearing underwear and openly slept in my girlfriend's bed. He used my girlfriend's razor without asking and joked that they should both shave themselves completely smoothly. He even insisted on going into the women's restroom with my girlfriend whenever they went out together. When I could not take it anymore, I confronted him and demanded to know what he was playing at. He simply rolled his eyes and said, "Come on, man. I may have been born male, but I identify as a woman. Can a man obsessed with competing against other guys stop making our friendship sound dirty?" When I saw him walk into the women's restroom again, I let out a cold chuckle. I turned around and called my underworld-connected father. "Dad, send a few of your women over." Did he not say he was a woman? Fine! Let's see how far you're willing to take this game.

When I am diagnosed with congenital heart disease, I am forced to leave the dance company and give up the career I have spent my entire life working toward. My best friend, Vivian Carter, steps into my place, promising to fulfill my dream in my stead. My boyfriend, Ethan Bennett, proposes to me on the spot. He swears that no matter what happens to me—or what becomes of me—he will never leave my side. Over the next five years, I devote myself to helping Vivian rise through the ranks until she becomes the company's principal dancer. With my support, Ethan's career flourishes as well. And through it all, they never stop telling me they are searching for a way to cure me. This year, while both of them are busy preparing for an upcoming competition, I go to my follow-up appointment alone. But when I receive the results, I am stunned. There is nothing wrong with my heart. Overwhelmed with joy, I clutch the medical report to my chest and rush home, eager to share the news with them. Then, before I can step inside, I hear voices coming from within. Vivian speaks first. "Evelyn's follow-up appointment is coming up. Are you sure nothing will go wrong?" Ethan's voice is calm and unconcerned. "I already took care of it. Her test results will still show that she has heart disease." He pauses before adding, "Besides, she hasn't danced in five years. Even if she somehow finds out, what can she possibly do?" Vivian lets out a quiet laugh. "You're right." I freeze outside the door. The blood drains from my face as their words sink in. So this is the truth. My best friend and the man who promised to love me forever have been lying to me all along. Every promise. Every act of devotion. Every sacrifice I thought they had made for me. It has all been a lie.

I consistently score above 1,550 on mock tests, yet I only score 467 on the actual college entrance exam. Mom gets so worked up over the abysmal results that she suffers a fatal heart attack. Winnie Cooper, my best friend, goes from around 640 to 1,560, earning herself the title of a gifted student in the media. I find out the truth ten years later. Winnie suddenly gets drunk and leans close to me. She then whispers with a chuckle, "Your college entrance exam score became mine because you kissed my rosary, Hazel." I open my eyes again, only to realize that I have returned to a day before the exam. Winnie brings the rosary to my lips again. "You should give it a kiss for some good luck, Hazel." I nod with a smile, then turn around and pass the rosary to the top 20 students in the class. "If it's really effective, then everyone should kiss it!"

My best friend is known throughout the school as a woman of integrity. So, when she's offered a coveted spot in Austin University's special admissions list, she rejects it in front of the principal, our homeroom teacher, and the top students in our grade. She explains, "I've worked hard for all these years just to take the college entrance exam fairly. Taking a shortcut like this would just be unfair to me and everyone who has been preparing for the exam." Everyone is moved by her words. However, I know something they don't. Yesterday, she was clutching the admissions brochure in our dorm room. She was so excited that she didn't sleep at all. She refused only because she wanted the school, the teachers, and her classmates to beg her to take it. Unfortunately for her, when the principal asks her about it one more time, I raise my hand and say, "Sir, if she doesn't want to accept the offer, I'll take it instead." The entire room becomes silent. Her self-righteous facade nearly crumbles, but she forces herself to persuade me, "Nina, you can't take something that doesn't belong to you just because you want to avoid taking the college entrance exam." Yet, I laugh at her words. I retort, "It doesn't belong to me? If a certain someone is refusing a huge opportunity out of false modesty, it should go to someone who actually wants it."

Before I turned fifteen, I lived like a weed. Cold, damp, barely surviving. Then I met Ethan Hayes and Summer Reed. The first home-cooked meal anyone ever made for me was made by Summer. The first dress I ever owned was bought by Summer. The first birthday anyone ever celebrated for me was something Summer planned down to the smallest detail. She would carefully put ointment on the chilblains covering my hands. And she would tell everyone, over and over, that I was her best friend. As for Ethan... He was the one who pulled me away from a group of laughing street punks. He was the one who kicked open a door and rushed me to the hospital when my fever reached 104 degrees. He was the one who broke my drunken stepfather's head open with a single punch, the night the man came at me again. The day he confessed his feelings, his hands were trembling and my heart was pounding so hard that tears filled my eyes. "I swear I'll protect you for the rest of my life." I often thought that in the bleak, gray life I had been given, meeting the two of them was the greatest luck I could ever have asked for. Until my twenty-third birthday. I heard Ethan shouting at Summer. "I can't control what I feel! I fell in love with you. So what? You feel the same way, don't you?" Summer looked into his red, tormented eyes. At last, she burst into tears and threw herself into his arms. "But... what about Mia?" Hidden around the corner, I smiled bitterly. What else was there to do? They were the two people I loved most in the world. I couldn't bear to make things harder for them. So I called my advisor and said calmly, "Can I apply for that twenty-year Antarctic research program?"

Because of my fragile health, my best friend, Eva, kept me on a tight leash growing up. She always told me, "Leah, you can't take risks." So for every date David and I planned, she had to test it out for me first. When the new roller coaster opened at the amusement park and she said it was too intense for my heart, David took her instead. After I booked a bed-and-breakfast by the ocean, Eva said the night breeze was too strong for me. So David spent the night there with her. I made reservations at a romantic couple's restaurant, only for her to say the menu might trigger an allergic reaction. That was why David took her to try it first. Every time they came back, Eva would look me in the eye and say, "That place just isn't right for you." And David would always nod along. "She’s only looking out for you." I believed them every time until the night before our fifth anniversary, when I saw Eva’s latest post on social media. She was wearing the white dress I had spent weeks picking out, sitting at the table by the window I had reserved. There sat the custom cake I had ordered for David. Her caption read: [Tested it out for her first! Completely safe and so magical.] Right below it, David had commented: [You're the best, Eva.] Looking at the screen, it hit me all at once. This twisted game of stepping over boundaries under the guise of "testing things out" had finally run its course.

Mackenzie Holt, my best friend, is dating Caleb Lowe, an abusive man. I grab her and make a run for it after she gets beaten up again and is left with a swollen, bruised face. Caleb, however, catches us before we can get away. Upon seeing Caleb charging at us with a knife, Mackenzie immediately shoves me aside and runs to him. "Adeline's the one who forced me to run away! You know how much I love you, Caleb! How could I ever leave you?" I feel my blood run cold, and in the next second, the cold blade pierces my abdomen. I open my eyes again, only to find myself on a train.

Drugged by my fiancé and my best friend. Dragged into the penthouse of New York’s most ruthless Mafia Don. But instead of panicking, my tight nerves finally let go. I'm finally home. My fiancé thought the drugs fried my brain. He grabbed my jaw roughly. "Listen up, bitch. Our gang's port smuggling route depends entirely on tonight!" "Word is Cassian's been looking for a woman with a specific butterfly birthmark. The one on your collarbone should fool him." "Serve him like the slut you are. Make him happy. Once the deal is done, I'll even toss you a few stacks of cash." My best friend stroked her red lips and giggled. "Yeah! Getting into the Don's bed is a blessing. Don't act like a prude. Once we get the smuggling route, you'll be our hero. Maybe I'll even let you serve drinks at our wedding." The drugs boiled in my blood. They shoved me roughly through the heavy doors. No one noticed the mocking smirk on my face as I leaned against the sofa. I knew exactly whose territory this was. The unpredictable, violent Mafia tyrant they were talking about? The one who treated women like toys? He's my blood brother. Today, out of pure greed, they hand-delivered me straight into his territory. Tomorrow, they’ll learn that staying alive can be far worse than going to hell.