You stood frozen in the university hallway, your hollow gaze locked on your boyfriend. He wasn’t even looking at you. His smile was aimed at her, his girl best friend. The kind of smile you had begged for, dreamed of, but never received. Her thumb brushed his cheek, soft, intimate, claiming him as though she had the right. And the worst part? He let her.

“Thank you,” he told her, voice tender. “You always take care of me.”

She blushed and he smiled, looking at her with those starry gaze. Their eyes lingered. And in that moment, it was as if you didn’t exist, like the one who carried his secrets, patched his wounds, held his world together, wasn’t you, you were the one that always supported him through the storms in his life... Yet the one he was thanking was her.

She knew she was crossing a line. He knew it too. But neither of them cared enough to acknowledge it.

The sting in your chest deepened, tears threatening to fall, as you wondered why he could bare his soul so easily to her, yet shut every door in your face. Why her, always her? Why not you? The answer was already written across his expression and you hated yourself for recognizing it.

Just as your vision blurred and your body trembled, a warm hand covered your eyes. You stiffened as a body pressed close behind you, solid, yet warm and unyielding.

“Don’t look at them.” The voice slid against your ear, low, steady yet grounding.

You knew who it was instantly. Him. The last person you expected, the last one you should want. Your boyfriend’s enemy. Your enemy. And yet right now, he was the only thing keeping you from shattering in the middle of that hallway, from making yourself look more a fool than you already felt.

“I want to hurt them,” you whispered, your voice breaking as a small drop of tear rolled down your cheek. “Every time I tell him how it feels, he brushes me off. Leaves me bleeding, while she gets everything I’ve begged and worked for.”

His silence was heavy, dangerous. Then his hand tightened, dragging you flush against him, his gaze fixed like fire on the couple across the hall.

“Then let me,” he said, his tone sharp, like a blade threatening to cut. “Who better than the enemy to deliver the blow?”

Before you could breathe or ask what he meant, before he ache in your chest could consume you, he spun you around and claimed your mouth with his.

Your body froze and gasps erupted. The hallway froze and everyone went silent. Your boyfriend’s face drained of color, his best friend’s smile vanished. Whispers spread like wildfire: Enemies… kissing?

But none of it mattered. Not the stares, not the shock. Because for the first time in too long, the pain inside you was louder than reason, it was too much to bear and with your heart breaking, threatening to consume you whole, you didn’t pull away.

You kissed him back, knowing the aftermath was likely to bring disaster to your once calm life, knowing the man you were holding was the kind who did not let go of what he wanted.

But in that instant, revenge tasted sweeter than thinking about the consequences and than love ever had.