Later, I told Samantha about it. Alarmed, she started digging into Olivia’s behavior during college and was left speechless with rage—Olivia had pulled similar stunts on her!
“No WONDER a high-caliber beauty like me didn’t get asked out much in college! It was all Olivia’s doing! Is she insane? She targets everyone who’s nice to her!” Samantha roared over the phone. “And I was the one telling her to dump Evan! Turns out, she’s way ‘smarter’ than I thought!”
“If Olivia used half the brainpower she uses against women on judging men, she wouldn’t have picked Evan,” I replied.
Samantha was speechless for a moment. “What does she even get out of it?”
What for? I couldn’t figure it out either. Hadn’t Samantha and I been good to her? Yet she still saw us as rivals, using every trick to make us her sidekicks and foils.
I used to think she was just boy crazy. Now I realized the blind, self-sacrificing one, the ‘simp,’ might have been me all along.
“Probably uses what little cleverness she has against people who are good to her,” I told Samantha. “A man’s sweet lies can fool her, but a sister’s honest advice is just ‘toxic’ nonsense.”
“Oh, she never saw us as sisters,” Samantha said coldly. “We were just props in her love story, tools, stepping stones to make her relationship more intense, pulled out whenever needed.”
I felt a weight lift. Some bonds just aren’t meant to be, and that goes for friendships too. I once saw a saying online: A friend’s toxic relationship is their own karma to bear. Trying to help them escape it means taking on their negative karma.
So, don’t try to talk sense into the boy-crazy.
Trying to intervene will only get you hurt.
I thought Olivia was out of my life for good. Given a second chance, I didn’t want to waste energy on trash. I was sure that with her and Evan’s character, they’d self-destruct eventually.
Then, one weekend while I was on a date with Ryan, I got a call from my condo’s property manager. I bought the apartment last year but hadn’t moved in yet. The manager said the neighbors were complaining about loud noises coming from my unit.
A dreadful suspicion dawned on me.
Don’t tell me Olivia moved into my place?
Logically, it seemed too absurd. But emotionally, nothing Olivia did would surprise me anymore.
I used the code to open the lock. The place reeked of takeout and garbage. There were suspicious stains on the sofa, and shoes—some I recognized as Olivia’s, others were men’s—were scattered haphazardly by the door. The decorative pillows I’d carefully chosen were thrown on the floor.
Voices came from the bedroom.
“Olivia, I want pizza. Let’s go get some later.”
It was Evan’s voice.
I was so angry I was speechless.
“Olivia!” I yelled.
Panicked sounds came from the bedroom. Moments later, Olivia and Evan stumbled out, looking flustered.
“What are you doing in my apartment?!” I demanded.
Olivia froze. Evan rolled his eyes. “You got Olivia fired and kicked out! What’s the big deal staying at your empty place for a few days? It’s not like you live here!”
And Olivia just looked at me with tear-filled eyes, as if Evan’s reasoning made perfect sense.
I didn’t waste breath arguing. I pulled out my phone and called the police.
Evan tried to rush me to grab my phone, but Ryan blocked him. Facing Ryan’s taller frame, Evan blustered and cursed but didn’t dare get closer.
At the police station, Olivia kept crying, saying we’d been best friends for over a decade, we’d just had a little fight, and now I was throwing her out.
I directly showed the officers my purchase agreement and the police report I’d filed: “Officers, they were trespassing in my private residence and caused property damage. I want them removed and held liable for the damages.”
When it came to paying up, Evan suddenly went quiet. Olivia, however, didn’t seem to find anything wrong with Evan’s silence. She was immersed in her “the whole world has betrayed me” drama, tears flowing like a broken faucet.
Finally, under police orders, the two slunk away. I took pictures of all the damage in front of them for evidence.
“Olivia, expect a letter from my lawyer.”
Olivia cried out, “Jojo, why are you doing this to me? Weren’t we best friends?”
“Even ignoring the… past… I can’t handle a ‘friend’ who only stabs me in the back,” I said coldly. “You’d better start figuring out how you’re going to pay me back.”
“Don’t think crying will get you out of this! You know I don’t have any money!”
When it came to compensation, Evan was completely silent. And Olivia still didn’t see anything wrong with that, lost in her world of perceived betrayal, her eyes like twin waterfalls.
By the time everything was sorted, it was late. Ryan had stayed with me the whole time.
“I feel like we’ve had a pretty rough go of it,” he said softly, buckling my seatbelt for me. “Missing all those years in between, but still finding each other again.”
I smiled at him.
Yeah, it was rough. I had to die once.
See? Once I got away from the ‘source of infection,’ I could have a perfectly good life.
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