After witnessing Yosefin’s behavior during the double date, I was at a point of not giving a single care about what was going on in her life. She had some serious issues she needed to work out by herself. One of those issues I felt she needed to let go of was me. If she could just let go, she would be happy. Our plan wouldn’t work if she wouldn’t move the fuck on from me. What was I supposed to do, ignore what disgusted me? I hated the fact she reminded me of all the fun things we did. We made it seem like we were a joyful couple, cuddling, kissing, and making special moments. But, those days were gone. I had to face other issues like jealousy, envy, and ego.

At the beginning of a new week, several days after the double date incident, I clocked off from work expecting Naomi to be waiting for me outside the game shop. She wasn’t there but when I checked my phone, I saw she left a message she would be running late. I unconsciously sat at the table Yosefin and I sat at every time we clocked out. I didn’t realize it until I looked to my left where she worked. I saw her mixing and making coffee. She wasn’t wearing her cap. And, the lack of makeup and short hair made her look boyish. If it wasn’t for her big boobs, voice, and the fact of what she was, I would have assumed she was a guy.

“Maybe I should find another spot,” I said out loud to myself.

The second I questioned if I should leave, she glanced up at a guy walking past her and then gave me a double take when her eyes crossed my path. She stopped what she was doing. She stared at me for three more seconds before looking down at the counter. I hid the side of my face with my hand so she wouldn’t be able to see it. Naomi came to my rescue from the awkward moment seconds later when she surprised me with a hug from the side.

“Heyah!” Naomi said. “I’m craving for some churros!”

“Naomi?!” I somewhat screamed from being surprised. I stood up to block her from seeing Yosefin. “You’re... hungry?”

While she was answering my question, I led her away with my hand on her lower back to get away from Yosefin. I didn’t want to have an awkward conversation about why I was so close to her. We ate and hung out for a bit before heading home. I thought Yosefin would text me or call about why I sat at our table. Hours went by without a notice. When night came, I thought for sure my phone would light up with her trying to contact me. I turned the volume of my phone down so it wouldn’t scare me out of my sleep. It never rang all through the night. The silence was so quiet that I had some trouble staying asleep.

On the last class day of the week, our professor assigned us groups to work on a project the week before. We were told to get into a group of three. Naomi chose me before I could think of who I should be with. She pulled in a random woman to fill in the spot. I went to class to get an early start on what we had to do as far as researching what type of entry-level game we were going to make. Along the way, I ran into Kat.

“Oh, god,” Kat said. She looked over her shoulder, behind me, and down all two hallways. “Where is she?”

“Don’t worry about her,” I said. “We don’t talk much anymore.”

“What?” Her eyes shot open. “You guys were like this!” She crossed her fingers to show how close Yosefin and I were. “What the hell happened? I noticed she cut her hair short. Was that related to y’all not talking or something?”

“I don’t know. I tried so many times to talk to her.” I told her about how our friendship went down the drain after I began dating and every emotion she showed me in vivid detail. “Do you know what’s going on with her?”

“I think she’s trying to make you regret not picking her.” The suggestion didn’t sound too far off from how I had been treated. “Speaking of the devil,” she mumbled and looked out at the ground. I looked to my right to find Yosefin with her arms crossed, looking directly at Kat. “Don’t worry! I’m leaving!”

“You don’t have to,” I said to take my stand against Yosefin’s fearmongering. “Go to class,” I said, staring at Yosefin while pointing into the classroom. She dropped her arms to her side and balled her hands into a fist. They were tight enough to make her veins bulge out. The side of her right index finger and thumb turned red.

“Joshua, she’s scaring me,” Kat whispered. The moment Yosefin turned to square her shoulders with us, I jumped into her personal space but kept my finger pointing at the classroom. She tried looking around me to get a view of Kat but I wasn’t going to allow that to happen. I had to somewhat shove her closer to the door to make her stop. She touched and looked at the side of her shoulder I pushed, then looked me in the eyes with a confused expression. After a five-second stare-down, she walked into the room without saying a word. “Jesus fucking Christ,” I said loud enough that she could hear me as I walked back to Kat. “If she bothers you again, let me know.”

“Thanks,” Kat said before sighing. “I’ll do just that, but...”

“Yeah?” She took out her phone and showed me a list of texts she sent during and after the day I blocked her number months ago. “I don’t think my messages are getting through.”

“I blocked you.”

“I figured.” She smirked but I didn’t see it as a happy one. I felt like an ass blocking her number. I unblocked the number and flashed my screen to show her I did it. “Sweet! Does that mean we’re good?” She glanced into the classroom. I looked to see if Yosefin was watching us. The angle of the room didn’t show where she sat.

“If she gives you trouble, call me. Kay?”

“For sure,” she nodded.

I got into class five minutes before it began. A lot of the students were hard at work on their computers. Their voices filled the room with talk. Naomi was the only one I saw that wasn’t on a computer. She was scrolling through her phone until the moment I sat down.

“Heya!” Naomi said, beaming her gorgeous smile at me. “I was thinking we should make a worm game.”

“A what game?” I said.

“Look at this.” She showed me her notebook of a game idea she jotted down the night before. There were two full pages of notes of a game where players had to eat to grow bigger to out-eat rival AI-controlled opponents. The game sounded simple to play, but I knew it would be a pain to code.

Stolen story; please report.

“We can try that.”

Seventy minutes wasn’t enough for us to create movement mechanics for our project. We got the main things down like different worm models rendered. Before our class ended, she created a plan for us to maximize the work during weekends since we didn’t have to work on those days. I’d come to her apartment to work or she’d come to mine if her place had bad wifi.

I left for my second class for the day. I didn’t take five steps before Kat texted me asking what I was up to after class. She made me laugh at how quickly she wanted to talk. I thought it would be days until we spoke since we hadn’t chatted in months.

“Work,” I texted.

“Ah, shoot!” Kat messaged. “I was thinking we could hang out and hear me apologize some more about what I did.”

“Maybe another time,” I chuckled, ending our short talk. The moment I turned to push the stairwell door open, I saw Yosefin reaching her hand like she was about to grab my backpack. She froze for a second then put her hand down. I moved away from the door and waited to hear with arms crossed for what she wanted.

“Why are you giving me that look?” Yosefin said.

“What do you want?” I said to avoid having to explain why I was annoyed with her.

“I wanted to know what you were laughing at.”

“None of your business.” She got red in the face. Her brows dipped over her eyes and the corner of her lips pinched inward to make them frown. “Oh, stop it.”

“Was it Kat?” I went into the stairwell after rolling my eyes at her. “Bro, are you dumb? You know she’s not good for you!”

“Enough!” Out of sheer spite and anger, I told her I was going to her apartment on the weekend.

“Are you insane?” She said nearly stumbling down the steps to get to me. “What’s going on in that stupid head of yours?”

“I could ask the same thing.” Her head turned halfway to the right while her eyes stayed on me. She raised her brow and tightened her lips. “Yeah,” I chuckled out of frustration. “What’s going on in your stupid head?”

“Nothing... I’m good.”

“Have you looked in a mirror?” I ruffled the top of her head to show what I meant. “You cut your hair, ruined a double date, and demanded me to avoid Kat.” She lightly slapped my hand off her head and combed her fingers through her hair to straighten it out. “You’re not good.”

“Natürlich bin ich das nicht! (Of course, I’m not!“), she said through her teeth. Some spit flew out her mouth. Luckily, her lips caught it. “Ich fühle mich wertlos! (I feel worthless!“)

“English!”

“How about you go take a German class to learn how to speak it,” she said, walking back up the steps.

“God,” I shouted yet strained my voice to be silent. “Why are you acting like this?”

She left without giving me an answer. I stayed in the stairwell for a good minute, staring blindly at the door, trying to find a logical reason as to why she was acting weirdly. My mind was a white void of nothing. The more I tried searching, the whiter it got. I gave up after another minute passed. I decided then and there to let my worries go and let any questions remain hidden.

**

Naomi and I worked from the morning to late in the afternoon on our project. We made our worm mobile, minus its competitors. The level we made for it was a black environment with nothing in it. I debated with her on whether we should do different colors that weren’t black or white.

“Joshua,” Naomi whined as she punched my shoulder lightly several times. “We don’t have to go all out on this.”

“I think it should stand out.”

“O, Theé mou. (Oh my god.“) She giggled, shaking her head with her forehead resting on my shoulder. “Honey...” My heart for a split second stopped. No girl called me that before.

“Yes?” I said in a weak voice.

“Let’s go for the minimalist approach okay?” She kissed my shoulder and grinned before getting off of me.

I agreed to the plan of doing what was required without spending an unnecessary amount of time on a project. We worked a little bit longer before she had to head to work. I left feeling ecstatic and optimistic about how our work would turn out. The mood went up when I got a phone call from Kat when I sat in my car.

“Yo, what’s up?” I said.

“Hey, I was thinking about you. I thought I should say hello at least,” she said. My curiosity went full-fledged alert mode. Simple checkups usually meant more than a conversation. I went straight to the point to know her true intentions.

“Why was I on your mind? What’s going on?”

“I... still feel bad. I feel like I should do something more.”

“Ah,” I said with my hand over my mouth to stop myself from smiling too hard. “Do you still live at the apartment?”

“Yeah? Why?”

“I’ll see you soon.”

She was shocked to see me rolling up in the parking lot. I saw her staring me down on the balcony when I came in. She stayed there when I got up to her level. When I stood behind her, she looked over her right shoulder with her eyes wide open.

“Does Yosefin know you’re here?” She said.

“No.”

“Oh, good,” she said with her hand over her heart. “I wouldn’t want to hear her mouth.”

“Me neither. I can’t stand her anymore.”

“Oh?” She said, stretching out the word as she turned to face her body to me. “I got to hear this.”

She directed her hand up the steps. I headed inside her apartment like it was my own. I sat on the couch with my arms sprawled out on the headrest. Her place was clean and scented with a cinnamon candle on the kitchen counter. There’s a box of matches next to it. The way it was open seemed as if she recently lit them before I arrived.

“So,” she said then plopped beside me. Her right leg crossed over her lap. Half of her body turned towards me. I nearly mirrored the same posture but I wasn’t going to cross my legs. “What’s going on between you two?”

“I don’t fucking know,” I said after trying to come up with the best answer to the whole situation. “I think she’s going through some phase.”

“A phase?” She scoffed nearly giggling. “Like an emo teenage phase?” That analogy didn’t sound too far off from what I saw. Yosefin had short hair, a bitchy attitude, and began dressing more like a tomboy.

“I guess.”

“Isn’t she like nineteen? Somewhere around your age?” I nodded. She slapped the air like she was wafting something away from her face. Her head turned to the right, away from me. Air blew out her mouth followed by a snickering chuckle.

“What?” I laughed out of curious confusion.

“Please, explain what you mean by a phase.”

“She’s changed her demeanor.” I went on explaining every little annoyance I had to put up through since Yosefin and I agreed to date, other people. Including the double date incident.

“Jesus Christ,” she said under her breath. “She’s acting very immature about this.”

“Did I do something wrong?” She hummed rubbing her finger on her lips for a time. I tried to search for faults on my own but found nothing.

“I don’t have a freaking clue. You should go ask her why she’s being a bitch.”

“Hey,” I said and gave her a stern point.

“You literally described it,” she said, shrugging with her hands up. Thinking Yosefin to be considered a bitch felt wrong. It sounded sinful. The word made my stomach turn and gave me a bad taste in my mouth.

“She’s not that but you’re right.”

“I can’t imagine what type of woman she would be if we dated.”

“If we dated?” I gave her a disgusted glance. She wasn’t looking my way.

“Yeah,” she said, smirking. “It would’ve been nice.” Her smirk gave me major red flags. The things we did wouldn’t led to us dating. We were on the verge of becoming fuck buddies if the fear of getting her pregnant and Yosefin being furious at me wasn’t holding me back. I didn’t say or move in any way to give off an inclination to entertain that stupid thought.

Throughout the weeks, I didn’t get the chance to have a one-on-one with Yosefin. My project and my job kept taking my attention away from wanting to seek to understand her sudden attitude change. Plus, Noami and I were getting closer in our relationship. I got to see more of her passion for dressing up in costumes, and her narcissistic side when it came to checking out her physique. She loved showcasing how much of a pump she got during the night when we texted. I was graced with photobook levels of lewdful types of nudes and outfit pictures. I felt like the luckiest man alive to stumbled upon her from the get-go. All I had to do was run through more dating trials before we became official and she would be mine. My outlook looked great, yet I worried how Yosefin would take it.