You were close with Nick and Matt. The kind of friendship where you could crash at their place uninvited, steal their hoodies, and they wouldn’t even blink. Chris, though? Chris was… different.

He always had something to say — some sarcastic comment, some eye roll, some annoying little remark that made you want to launch a pillow at his head. And he knew exactly how to get under your skin. He thrived on it.

“Maybe if you listened for once, you’d actually win,” he’d mutter during Mario Kart, not even looking up from his controller.

“You’re insufferable,” you’d shoot back, every single time.

But what you didn’t see — what no one really did — was how his eyes always found you when you weren’t looking. How he memorized the way you liked your tea, the exact hoodie you always stole from Matt’s room, or how your laugh sounded different when you were really happy.

Yeah, he annoyed you. On purpose. But what you didn’t know was that Chris was completely, hopelessly in love with you.

And being mean? That was just the only way he knew how to keep himself from falling harder.