Chapter 1
The blue glow of the screen was the only light in the room as Lee scrolled through the endless feed of the internet. A notification banner cut through the silence: "Hey bro you want to hang out."
Lee checked the time—2:00 AM. It was an odd hour to wander the city, but it was Frost. Since they were kids, they had spent more time together than with their own families. Their bond was legendary, a duo that bridged continents with Frost from Africa and Lee from Asia. Because it was Frost, Lee didn't even hesitate.
"Sure what time?" Lee replied.
As soon as the address flashed on his screen, Lee got ready and headed out into the night.
The city was unexpectedly restless. Even at this hour, the streets were crowded with people chasing the night. Lee scanned the faces until he caught sight of Frost standing at the edge of a building, his head down, scrolling through his phone.
"Hey bro!" Lee's voice tore through the noise of the crowd.
Frost looked up, catching a glimpse of Lee through the sea of people. He waved him over, and as Lee reached him, they fell into their signature handshake—a rhythm they knew by heart.
"What's good bro?" Lee asked.
Frost didn't truly answer. He offered an incomplete smile, a ghost of his usual self. Lee felt a pang of worry; he knew Frost better than anyone. He knew that smile was a mask.
As they walked toward an open restaurant, Lee thought about their lives. They were famous online, the inseparable duo, and for a while, it seemed they both had found love.
Frost had met Kara two years ago at an amusement park; it had seemed like a fairytale amidst the bright lights and rollercoasters. Lee had found Christy a year ago in an American airport, a chance encounter that turned into a relationship. But as they sat down, the air felt heavy. Frost remained silent, his eyes fixed on his phone.
Suddenly, a single tear gathered in Frost's left eye. He swiped it away quickly, hoping Lee hadn't noticed.
"You good bro?" Lee asked, his curiosity replaced by genuine concern.
Frost didn't say a word. With a trembling hand, he stretched his phone across the table. The screen revealed a cold, jagged message from Kara.
The truth was devastating. She was breaking up with him, but the sting went deeper than a goodbye. She admitted she had been cheating, finding it too difficult to keep two relationships afloat. She made it clear that her feelings had been a lie; she had only dated him because of his fame. Now that she had met a wealthy man, she was leaving Frost behind without a second thought.
In the middle of the crowded restaurant, surrounded by the noise of the world, Lee watched his best friend's heart break in total silence.
The silence between them was heavy. Lee watched the flicker of the neon signs dance in the unshed tears in Frost's eyes. He wanted to reach out, to fix the shattered pieces of his friend's heart, but words felt useless against a betrayal that deep.
Then, Lee reached across the table and firmly took the phone out of Frost's hand. He held the power button until the screen went black.
"If you keep staring at it, it'll only hurt more," Lee said softly, his voice a steady anchor. "Don't look at it. Not tonight."
An idea sparked in Lee's mind—a desperate attempt to drown out the noise of Kara's cruelty. He gave Frost's shoulder a reassuring pat. "I know how to take your mind off this. Trust me, it'll be fine."
Lee stood up, disappearing into the back of the restaurant. Minutes later, he returned with an array of liquor bottles. To them, in that moment, the only cure for a broken heart was to forget it existed.
They spent the next few hours in a haze, mixing different spirits with a reckless abandon. The world blurred at the edges as the alcohol took hold. By the time they decided to leave, they were both stumbling. They tossed an excessive amount of cash onto the table—certainly overpaying—and staggered out into the cool night air, clutching one last bottle between them.
Frost's apartment was nearby, a sanctuary that felt miles away in their state. When they finally burst through the door, Lee collapsed onto the couch, the world spinning in slow motion. Frost struggled with the lock, his fingers fumbling until the bolt finally clicked. As soon as he was done, he slumped to the floor, the weight of the booze and the heartbreak finally pulling him down.
The excess caught up to Frost first. He forced himself up, staggering instinctively toward the bathroom. He collapsed by the toilet, his vision fuzzy and his head throbbing as he began to throw up.
As he finally stood, shaky and weak, he felt a sudden warmth. A pair of arms wrapped around him from behind—Lee had followed him, his own movements clumsy and uncoordinated. Frost turned in the small space, his hands finding purchase on Lee's neck.
The height difference was palpable; Frost stood at 6'1", looking down into the eyes of the 5'9" Lee. In the dim, flickering light of the bathroom, the air changed. The grief and the alcohol melded into something else—a desperate need for connection. Frost leaned down, and their lips met in a kiss that tasted of salt and liquor.
The romance ignited instantly, fueled by years of unspoken closeness and a night of blurred boundaries. Frost lifted Lee with a strength born of adrenaline, carrying him like a lady in his lap back toward the living room.
In his drunken state earlier, Lee had unintentionally knocked his camera into a recording position on the coffee table—a silent witness to the shift in their story.
Frost reached the couch and lowered Lee onto the cushions with uncharacteristic gentleness. Their shadows merged against the wall as Frost began to pull Lee's shirt over his head, their lips never losing contact. Lee reached down, his hands finding the waistband of Frost's pants, pulling them down slowly as the heat between them intensified.
Under the influence of the night and the pain, the two best friends crossed a line they could never uncross, surrendered to a moment where the unthinkable finally became a reality.
The harsh glare of the noon sun filtered through the blinds, jolting Lee awake. He was sprawled on the floor of Frost's living room, his head throbbing with a dull, rhythmic ache. His memories of the night were like a shattered mirror—sharp, jagged fragments that didn't quite fit together. The last thing he clearly remembered was collapsing onto the couch in a drunken haze.
He looked over and saw Frost still passed out, wearing only a shirt and underwear. Lee, however, was fully dressed. He felt a wave of confusion, but the hangover was too heavy to let him dwell on it. Shaky and disoriented, he began to scan the room for his phone.
He finally spotted his device and clicked the screen on. His heart dropped. Twelve missed calls from Christy.
She had called in the dead of night, right as the "unthinkable" moment between him and Frost had reached its peak. What Lee didn't realize was that her incoming call had automatically stopped and saved the video recording he had accidentally started earlier. The evidence of the night's secret romance was sitting right there in his pocket, a ticking time bomb he knew nothing about.
Panic surged through him, sharper than the headache. He didn't have time to wake Frost or process the strange tension in the room. He scrambled out of the apartment and raced toward Christy's place. He tried to call her on the way, but every attempt failed. She had blocked him.
When Lee arrived at Christy's apartment, he knocked gently, his hand trembling. When the door swung open, he wasn't met with a hug, but a cold, hard stare. Christy's face was twisted in a deep frown.
"Are you done cheating?" she asked, her voice like ice.
"No, babe, I was with Frost all night," Lee stammered, his face pale and etched with fatigue. "We were wasted. I'm so sorry."
"With Frost?" She crossed her arms, her eyes narrowing with doubt. "You were home at 1:00 AM when we last spoke. You're telling me you left in the middle of the night to go see him? Really?"
"I swear!" Lee pleaded. "Kara broke up with him last night. He was a mess, and I went to cheer him up. We just took it too far with the drinks... I'm not lying. You can ask him when he wakes up. He was still out cold when I left."
The mention of the breakup acted like a sudden brake on Christy's anger. Her expression shifted from fury to intense curiosity.
"Kara broke up with Frost? Why?" she asked, her voice losing its edge.
Lee let out a breath of relief, seeing a small opening. "It's a long story... can I come in?"
Christy stepped back, opening the door wider to let him pass. The anger hadn't vanished, but the lure of the drama was too strong to resist. As Lee stepped inside to tell the story of Frost's heartbreak, he remained completely unaware that his own world was one accidental "play" button away from exploding.
When the sun climbed higher into the sky, Frost finally stirred. His head felt like it had been split open; he had matched Lee drink for drink and then some, leaving his mind a total void. He didn't remember the walk home, the lock on the door, or the fact that Lee had spent the night sleeping just feet away from him.
He pushed himself up from the floor, staggering on unsteady legs. His jacket and pants were draped over the couch, but he couldn't recall taking them off. The last sharp memory he possessed was the chaotic blur of the restaurant—the music, the stinging taste of liquor, and the sight of Lee laughing across from him.
"Lee..." he muttered, his voice raspy.
Panic flickered through his hangover. He needed to know if his best friend had made it home safely. He fumbled for his phone, finally finding it buried in the cushions. Stumbling toward his bedroom, he navigated to Lee's contact. He moved to press the call button, but the exhaustion was a physical weight. Before his finger could make contact with the screen, his body gave out. He collapsed onto the mattress and plummeted back into a deep, dreamless sleep, the phone slipping from his hand.
Across town, the atmosphere in Christy's apartment was thick with the remnants of Lee's explanation. He had spent the last hour narrating the heartbreaking details of Kara's betrayal. Christy listened intently,her curiosity firing off question after question.
Suddenly, Lee's face went pale. The mixture of cheap liquor and morning-after stress finally revolted.
"I... I'll be right back," he choked out, clutching his stomach.
He bolted toward the bathroom, a path he knew by heart. In his haste, however, he made a fatal mistake: he left his phone lying face-up on the chair, the screen still glowing and unlocked.
Christy stared at the device. The silence of the apartment was filled only with the sound of Lee retching in the other room. She took a deep, shaky breath. The doubt she had felt earlier hadn't fully vanished; it had just been suppressed.
If he's telling the truth, there's nothing to hide, she told herself.
She reached out, her fingers trembling as she picked up the phone.