Bryden is silent for a moment, but then simply laughs. “Oh, genie. You’re so funny. We all know that’s not true.”

The genie sighs. “I already knew that you wouldn’t believe me, but I’m afraid it’s true.”

“Oh, come on! How could that be true? Sure, maybe that group of boys doesn’t like me for some reason, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that everyone else does. Just admit you’re jealous.”

The genie floats away from Bryden. “If you don’t believe me, then ask that roommate of yours. Mr. Zier, was it?”

Bryden scoffs. “Rory? Pshh! He may act like he doesn’t, but I know that deep down, he secretly loves me too.”

“Just ask him,” the genie insists. 

Bryden waves his hand. “Fine, fine. I’m going to prove you wrong, you know.”

The genie smirks. We’ll see about that.

When Rory returns to the dorm, Bryden immediately gets to the chase.

“Hey, Rory!” Bryden exclaims, wrapping an arm around him. “Best bud, roommate. Welcome back! Where have you been this whole time? You’ve been out for so long!”

“Um…” Rory stiffens his body, confused. “I went out to see a movie with Nora. I told you this morning.”

“Really? How come I didn’t hear?” Bryden pats Rory’s shoulder. “Hey, Rory. We’re friends, aren’t we? You love hanging out with me, don’t you? Aren’t you happy that you’re roommates with the most popular guy on campus? Lucky you!”

“Um… sure…” Rory purses his lips.

“Great!” Bryden shoots him a cheeky grin. “See? A certain someone disagreed with me and told me something different, but we all know the truth. Everyone loves me.” He turns away from Rory. “I’m going to take a shower now. Later.” He hops his way to the bathroom, humming a tune happily.

Rory grits his teeth and clenches his fists. That man is so insufferable! If only everyone could confront him together and tell him that he is not popular—that everyone hates him! Wait, I think I have an idea! He takes out his phone and texts Nora.

RORY, 8:34 p.m.

hey nora

I think I have a way to confront Bryden together

Bryden wipes his hair with a towel and thinks to himself, Ah, nothing beats a good shower. He steps out of the bathroom and notices Rory grinning. Huh, it’s pretty rare to see him smiling like that. I wonder what the good news is.

“Hey, Bryden,” Rory hurries over, his grin unfaltering. “Want to come over to the park real quick? Theresa’s handing out free food!”

Bryden’s eyes sparkle. “Free food? Really?”

Rory nods excitedly. “Yeah! Nora texted me about it just now. We’d better head over there before the food runs out!”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Bryden half-pushes Rory out of their dorm while Rory laughs, a mischievous smile playing on his lips.

When they arrive at the park, however, the sight that greets them is not one that Bryden is expecting—a crowd full of individuals both students of Maystone and non-students, all glaring at him.

“Hey guys!” Bryden attempts to lighten the mood with his cheeky grin, not knowing what’s going on. “So where’s all the food? Did you guys eat it all? Where’s Theresa?”

“Right here.” Theresa steps out of the crowd, her hair unkempt. “Sorry, but there’s no food. Do you know why we called you here, Bryden?”

Bryden frowns, furrowing his brows. “Okay, what’s going on here? Is this some sort of joke?”

Theresa nods to Rory behind Bryden. “Thank you, Rory. We’ll take it from here.”

Rory nods back. “No problem.”

Bryden glances behind him. “Uh, Rory? Care to explain what’s happening?”

“What’s happening is that we’ve all gathered here to talk about you,” another girl explains.

Everyone around her nods in agreement.

“Raise your hands if Bryden has ever dated you,” Theresa prompts, raising her own hand. Nearly every girl around her also does so. “Look around, Bryden. Look at all the girls you’ve dated—and all the hearts you’ve broken. Both inside and outside of Maystone. You were only able to date a certain number of girls on campus, since word spreads around quickly about your player-like tendencies, so the rest of the girls refuse to go out with you. But that didn’t stop you from dating outside of Maystone.”

Bryden chortles. “Yeah, so?”

“What do you mean ‘Yeah, so’?” another girl retorts. “Are you seriously proud of dating this many girls?”

Bryden squints, scrutinizing the girl’s face. “Wait, have I really dated you before? I don’t remember ever dating you. What’s your name?”

The girl’s face burns with fury. “You… You really don’t remember me?”

“Of course he doesn’t,” Nora scoffs, flipping her dark hair. “He was always on his phone during all of our dates and never listened to what any of us had to say. He couldn’t have cared less about us.”

Bryden gapes. “N-Nora? You’re here too?”

“Of course I’m here,” she retorts. “Why wouldn’t I be? You broke up with me mere days ago! And you’ve already begun to flirt with other girls.” She beckons them forth. “Come on out, ladies.”

Three girls step out of the crowd—the only girls who hadn’t raised their hands when asked if they had dated Bryden.

Bryden’s eyes widen. “T-Taylor? A-And Denise? Sasha? Y-You girls are here too?”

“Of course,” Taylor says. “Look’s like the cat’s out of the bag.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe we were so stupid,” Denise remarks, shaking her head. “I thought you were just a cute guy flirting with the three of us. Who knew that you were actually like this.”

“Yeah,” Sasha agrees, crossing her arms. “I’m quite disappointed, actually. I really thought you were a nice guy, Bryden.”

“I guess we were all just naïve,” Nora states. “I was too. Despite every girl urging me that Bryden Stalling is bad news, I still insisted on giving you a chance. And that was the biggest mistake I ever made.”

Bryden scoffs. “Oh, come on. We’re young, aren’t we? Shouldn’t we get to try new experiences, date new people? What’s wrong with that?”

“What’s wrong is that you never gave us the time of day,” Nora explains. “You never listened to a single thing we’ve said and you break up with us as soon as you get bored of us. Do you still remember anything I told you on the day we broke up?”

“Oh, um…” Bryden purses his lips, thinking hard to remember.

“See? He clearly doesn’t remember a single thing.” Nora places a hand on her hips, sizing him up. “All you had to know was that I landed an internship. That was literally one of the first things I said!”

“You landed an internship?” Bryden grins at her. “That’s awesome, Nora!”

Nora huffs, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. 

“All you had to do was listen,” another girl tells him. “Is that so difficult?”

“Oh, come on, guys,” Bryden says. “You all know I’m not a good listener.”

“You sure do pay close attention to what’s on your phone,” another girl remarks. “And anything that involves yourself. More so than to me whenever I speak to you.”

“And then he dumps us without even batting an eye,” Theresa says. “And moves on to the next girl on his list.”

“And he thinks that he’s cool by doing that?” another girl scorns. “Listen up, Bryden. That does not make you ‘cool’ or ‘popular.’ Not one bit. You think you’re the most popular guy on campus? Well, guess what? You’re not.”

Her words send a shiver down Bryden’s spine. 

A boy in the crowd chuckles. “I can’t believe you also thought that everyone wanted to be your friend.”

Bryden’s shoulders jerk. “Sebastian? Hey, why’d you and your friends lie to me about the tickets to that hockey game? They weren’t sold out! Not even close!”

Sebastian sneers, crossing his arms. “Haven’t you figured it out already? It’s because none of us wanted you to come.”

“But why? I thought we were friends.”

Another boy smirks. “Friends? Do ‘friends’ flirt with their friend’s girlfriend?”

“Okay, for the record, how could I have known that she was your girlfriend?” Bryden asks. 

“Maybe by not carelessing flirting around,” he suggests, face hardening.

“So is that why you all gathered around here?” Bryden laughs coldly. “To tell me how much you guys hate me?”

“Well, duh!” everyone shouts in unison. 

Bryden glances behind him. “Rory, did you really bring me here for this? What did I ever do to you? I’m your roommate!”

Rory sneers, fixing his glasses. “What did you do? Well, let’s see. You did whatever you wanted in our dorm, like inviting strangers, without ever asking me. Whenever you made a mess, like leaving crumbs of food over the floor, I had to clean it up for you. You also have a weird hobby of collecting a bunch of mannequin heads and wigs sprawled over the room—”

“Hey!” Bryden interrupts, pouting. “Those wigs are gorgeous! I styled them myself. Are you just jealous you don’t have that kind of talent? You could always just ask if you wanted me to give you a haircut.”

Rory grits his teeth, nearly steaming with exasperation. “At this point, you’re still acting arrogant? You’re lazy, rude, and, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but incompetent! You have such a big ego that you can’t tell that everyone around you is annoyed with you! You think you have so many friends? You think everyone on campus wants to be friends with you? It’s actually the opposite. No one wants to be friends with you anymore.”

Bryden’s body goes stiff, struck speechless.

“Oh, and where’s the food, you ask?” Theresa takes out a bottle of whipped cream from a paper bag on the ground. “Well, here it is!” She squirts the whipped cream at Bryden.

“Hey!” Bryden exclaims, glancing at the whipped cream splattered over his hooded sweatshirt. “This is my favorite hoodie!”

“Serves you right!” Theresa shouts, now taking out a cupcake. “Come on, guys. All together, now.”

The crowd is equipped with a variety of food in their hands, which they all throw at Bryden. He loudly expresses his dissent and disgust, pleading for them to stop, but they only keep throwing more and more food. A cupcake lands on his head, spaghetti and tomato sauce stains his clothes, and someone even smashes a pie on his face. Bryden chokes on the cream, spits it out, and wipes his face with his sleeve, the cupcake on his head falling to the ground. In such a situation, he has no choice but to run away from them.

“Ha, what a fool,” Nora smirks, shaking her head. “Can’t take it like a man.”

Bryden continues to run even when they’re already out of sight. He doesn’t stop until he’s too tired to go on, pressing his palms against his knees and panting.

Someone whispers in his ear, “Coward.”

Bryden, face hot with both fury and shame, yells out, “Genie!” He turns to the side to face the genie. “You had something to do with this, didn’t you?”

The genie laughs. “Oh, you think too highly of me, Mr. Stalling. What makes you think I had anything to do with your current… predicament.” At the last word of his sentence, he can’t help but laugh again, and he doesn’t stop until Bryden glares at him. “You’re the only one who can see me. How could I have done anything?”

“Come on, you’re a genie, aren’t you?” Bryden points an accusing finger at the genie. “You can do anything with that magic of yours. You could’ve turned human and provoked them into gathering together and…”

“Hmm, you’re right,” the genie agrees. “I most definitely could have, but there was no need to. Your roommate, Mr. Zier, did everything without me needing to do anything. Even if it was me who started it, would it have changed a thing? Everyone would still harbor those feelings of resentment towards you.”

“You—” Bryden groans and sighs, exasperated. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

The genie snickers at the food splattered over Bryden. “My, my, you look quite laughable right now. They did such a good job at covering you up.”

Bryden clenches his fists, his face darkening. “Shut up.”

“And you actually ran away,” the genie continues, ignoring him. “I thought you were the proud and confident Bryden Stalling, and yet you ran away from them like a coward. What a stain on your supposed ‘good reputation.’”

“Shut the hell up!” Bryden shouts. “Go back to your ring!”

“Gladly,” the genie says, unruffled. “Make sure to shower first. You look and smell quite awful.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Bryden mutters on his way to the dorms while tomato sauce and icing drips down from his face and clothes.

You don’t want to be friends with me? Fine! I don’t need friends, I’m more than happy on my own. None of you deserve my love and friendship!