Chapter 145: 143 | Best Friends

Winter tasted something metallic in his mouth, signifying that Blue’s punch had injured him. He flexed his jaw and looked at Blue who was fuming on the passenger seat.

"You bastard! How dare you!?" Blue continued his assault, seeing that Winter didn’t react.

He slapped Winter’s biceps, punched his chest, and hit him to his satisfaction. Then he grabbed the collars of Winter’s shirt and asked, "How could you do this to me? You lied to me! You said you wouldn’t lie, but you lied!"

Winter’s hands covered Blue’s hands.

"I didn’t mean to lie," he said slowly.

"Not only did you lie, you kept the truth away from me. Why didn’t you tell me that day that you knew Kendall? Why did you pretend and run away? Do you know how suspicious you looked to me?" Blue questioned, tightening his grip on Winter’s collars as tears gathered in his eyes.

"I didn’t want you to have any odd thoughts," Winter said.

Blue scoffed and let go of his collars. "Well, I had odd thoughts. Many many odd thoughts."

"Do you have such little faith in me? I only kept it away from you because I didn’t think it was important. I don’t have anything to do with Kendall and if I did in the past, it has nothing to do with you, my present." Winter explained with a meaningful tone.

All of Winter’s words entered Blue’s left ear and escaped through his right ear.

His gaze was fixed on the windshield, looking at the car that was parked in front.

"Why did you touch him?" Blue whispered.

"What?"

"I saw you two... I saw you reach out and cup his face. And he held your hand. It was so intimate. Why?" Blue recalled what he’d seen and his heart seemed to hurt again.

"WHAT!?!?" Winter exclaimed. "When did I do that?!"

*Flashback*

It took two days for Kendall to respond to Winter’s message of meeting up. And his response had been immediate refusal.

Winter had to bombard him with texts constantly, begging and apologizing, hoping to soften Kendall’s heart. Kendall had still refused.

Winter had decided to contact his other exes during this time and had been able to make little progress with them. He returned back to Kendall, and unexpectedly, Kendall agreed to meet up with him.

But only if he was the one choosing the location and duration. Winter had no qualms to that. That was why they met up at a café close to Kendall’s building.

Winter came early to give off an invested and sincere vibe. While Kendall had arrived fifteen minutes late to the assigned time.

Winter, who had not seen Kendall face to face for so many years excluding the day he saw Kendall at Blue’s door, was a bit stunned at his physical appearance. Kendall had grown tall, taller than Winter had predicted.

"Hi," Winter said awkwardly. He wasn’t sure whether to smoke or not, so he kept a neutral expression on his face.

"No fake smile today?" Kendall chuckled as he settled down across from Winter by the wall.

Winter shook his head and reassured Kendall, "No fake smile."

"That’s good," Kendall smiled.

Winter wasn’t sure if Kendall’s own smile was fake or not.

"Hm," Winter cleared his throat, "It’s been so many years, hasn’t it? You’re really tall–"

"Cut to the chase, Dumont," Kendall said straightforwardly.

Winter nodded.

"I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have... shouldn’t have played you like that," Winter’s gaze was set on the table as he spoke, too ashamed of himself to look straight into Kendall’s eyes.

Among all of his victims, he’d done Kendall the most dirty. Kendall was supposed to be the one person that he didn’t play with. They were fucking friends. Best friends, in fact.

Winter couldn’t explain the reason why he played Kendall if he was asked in earnest. He was stupid, point blank. He had found Kendall’s way of trying to advise him too arrogant. He’d just wanted to humble Kendall.

He might have caught feelings for Kendall too along the way, but he never lost sight of his goal. What he felt for Kendall had been vastly different from what he felt for Blue.

He was still able to harbor nasty thoughts about Kendall when he teased him and played with him for the sole sake of pinning him down. It had annoyed him that Kendall hadn’t been able to see through his ploy even though Kendall had seen him do it to others thousands of times.

Maybe that’s why he didn’t stop. Maybe he had been angry at Kendall for not being able to differentiate what version of him was real and fell for what he was shown.

But with Blue...

Winter could never deceive Blue. Blue was able to see through every one of his pretense and lies.

But that didn’t excuse what he did to Kendall. As well as the others before and after him. It was just really shitty of him to play with people’s feelings for the thrill of it.

"I’m a fucking asshole. I know. I regret it. I regretted it so much, I swear," Winter confessed, recalling those days when he’d been mad at himself for letting Kendall slip through his fingers because of his own stubbornness and cruelty.

"You were my friend. And I did you dirty. I shouldn’t have." Winter lifted his head to look at Kendall.

Unexpectedly, Kendall was wearing a wide smile on his face. Winter froze. A laughter bubbled out of Kendall’s throat.

"What’s so funny?" Winter asked with an unamused tone.

"You’re a finished man, Dumont. It’s the funniest thing ever. Hahaha!" Kendall laughed even more.

He had to drink water to sober himself up, then leaned closer to Winter and said, "Do you know how much I hated myself because of you? I opened up to you and you trashed me. I gave myself to you, laid myself bare, and you fucking used me without looking back,"

"You let me make a fool of myself, calling Logan countless times to ask where you were so we could meet up. Going to your house and waiting for you to ’come back home’ when you were busy playing with someone else in your room. You did me dirty, Dumont. You really did." Kendall shook his head as he spoke, wearing a bitter smile on his lips.

Winter was overcome with immense guilt.

"I know, and I’m sorry," he didn’t hesitate to apologize.

"I don’t need your apology. Because I already got what I wanted."

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read