"Fuck off."
The girl sitting opposite him, stood up and threw the paper cup full of cold coffee on him. Before he could say anything, she walked away. He just looked behind, to see her going out the door.
The cafeteria was mostly empty, only some people was sitting here and there, chatting casually. Some of them looked at him for once out of curiosity, then focused on themselves again.
"What happened to her!"
He muttered, looking at his shirt. The splashed coffee was still dripping.
"Didn't you understand! Your eighth girlfriend has just dumped you."
A familiar voice came from behind. He looked back at the table to see who was talking to him. It was Mark, his classmate.
"Eighth, seriously! You're counting!"
"Offcourse! Someone has to keep a record, right!"
He replied with a chuckle.
"Eight girlfriends in two years. Reece, you're something, man!"
Reece leaned back on the chair.
"You forgot to add a word, 'ex'."
"Huh, that's true. But Reece, by now you have to agree, you are just not cut out for relationships."
"What fo you mean?" He asked.
"Listen. Eight girls has already broken up with you, don't you think that the problem is with you!"
He stopped.
"See, you have to be attentive and polite to your girl, bro! You don't give them enough time, buy gifts or even go for a date! Do you think relationships will workout like that! I think, it's the time to face the music."
"You're saying, I should give up on love like that!"
"Well, it's not like that. Either you change yourself a little bit, or be ready to be single forever."
"Understood. By the way, what are you doing here at this hour? Shouldn't you be at the gym?"
Mark looked around with unease.
"Well, I just heard your girlfriend—"
"Ex girlfriend."
"Oops, sorry! Well, I just heard your ex girlfriend talking to her friends that she was going to teach you a lesson. So.."
..."So you just came for prying."
Reece narrowed his eyes.
Mark gave him an awkward smile.
"Not like that, but..
Umm, yeah! You can say so."
Reece finally laughed.
"Brat, you're so—"
"I know, I'm so... Nice to you. By the way, I'm getting late, gotta go. You go and change the shirt."
Mark stood up and left the table. Reece looked at himself, the white shirt was already stained with coffee.
"This damn girl! If you wanna break up, just say it! What's the need to stain a brand new white shirt!"
He muttered, going forward to the cafeteria's door.
><><><
Reece, a senior year university student, led an unremarkable life - attending classes, juggling assignments, freelancing, gaming, and navigating a string of failed relationships.
His love life, in particular, was a disaster. At just twenty years old, he had already accumulated eight broken relationships in two years. While others blamed him for the failures, Reece believed the issue lay in finding someone compatible. None of the girls he dated shared his wavelength.
Born and raised by a single parent, Reece had developed a self-centered streak. His upbringing had taught him to rely solely on himself, making it challenging for him to connect with others on a deeper level.
Despite this, Reece held onto the hope of finding someone who truly understood him. But at this point of time, most of the people in his friend circle started to believe that his "that someone" was never gonna appear in the near future.
Stepping out of the cafeteria, Reece started to walk towards the library. It was a routine of himself, every Friday he used to spend the entire evening in the library. Apparently, je was a book worm. But the weekends of him were occupied with freelance works and he really fid not get much time to read. In week days, there were classes and assignments. So the best time to utilise for eeading was the Friday evenings. When every other person of his known circle used to relax and enjoy clubbing, partying, he used to immerse himself in the world of books.
"Good evening, Reece."
The librarian, Mrs. Maria greeted him.
"Good morning, what's your pick for today?"
"Well, a good one. But first, tell me why are you looking so dull? Wait, let me guess. You had another broken relationship!"
"And how do you know that!"
The middle aged woman chuckled.
"Ha ha! It was a wild guess, but I was right. Because, you never look so frustrated other than those days. Everytime you have a break up, its like clearly written on you face."
"Okay, fine. Now hand me over the book."
He spread his right hand towards her. She placed a journal, "Here, you go."
He went towards the sitting room with that book, nodding.
"Huh! My relationships have become a joke to everyone! First mark, then Maria, uhh! This is shit."
"Complete!"
After finishing the last page, he closed the journal, and looked at his wrist. The smartwatch showed a time the time around 10.30pm.
"It's late!"
He stood up and headed towards the counter. Mrs. Maria was packing her things, seeing him, she smiled.
"You, you're here! I was just going yo call you."
"Here it is."
He handed over the book to her, then signing on the register, went out. The road was already empty. The library was at the very end of the city, so there were not many people around.
There was still some time left for the last bus to come, but he preferred walking. Strolling through the empty road at night, when there is almost no crowd, it was a different feeling!
He enjoyed the view at night, the lights and the cool breeze, when suddenly he heard the roar of a car engine, and the dark road was illuminated by the headlight.
He looked back and startled!
A car was speeding towards him, seemed to have brake failure.
He didn't have the time to react, even before he could step aside, the car came just in front of him and —
Bang!
The car went towards the bridge, almost crashing him, and within seconds fell in water under, breaking the railings.
And at the same time, Reece's heavily body hit the ground. In just some time, his body was covered in red, blood flowed on the street and he screamed in pain.
He was losing his consciousness slowly, the sound of the passerby was coming,
"Someone call an ambulance"
"Hey, can you hear me! Hold on, hey!"
They pain was unbearable. He couldn't react. Inwardly, he knew that it was the end. He was going to die.
But before losing his consciousness completely, a buzzing sound rang inside his ears.
[Compatible host found. System loading....]
And...
... Everything went blank!