Sunday Short: Can We Be Friends - Chapter 5
- Faiz Faisal
- 9 hours ago
- 3 min read
Lily sat bolt upright at the café table, her cupcake fork frozen halfway to her mouth. Zoe had just laughed off the whole fountain wish thing again, brushing crumbs from her lap like it was the most normal story in the world. But this time, something in Lily’s brain clicked.
The fountain. The wish. The horoscope. The weirdly warm Ethan.
She texted Bryan in all caps:
Lily: I FIGURED IT OUT.
Bryan: What, that my pecs are irresistible?
Lily: NO. THEY WISHED. And it’s coming true. But not how they think.
Bryan: …explain before I choke on this protein bar.
Lily: They didn’t just wish for love. They wished for their best friend. Which means... THEY NEED TO BE BEST FRIENDS AGAIN.
Bryan stared at his phone, reread the text three times, and then dropped the protein bar. “Oh, crap.”
By the end of the night, “Operation Ghost Protocol” was born.
Ghosting wasn’t easy. Lily was used to texting Zoe every waking hour about everything from nail polish shades to terrible reality shows. Bryan, on the other hand, spent half his mornings spotting Ethan at the gym and the other half arguing about which protein shake tasted less like chalk. But for the plan to work, they had to disappear cold turkey.
Lily muted Zoe’s texts. Bryan avoided Ethan at the gym. They ignored calls, dodged FaceTimes, and even concocted fake “busy schedules” just to keep their distance.
And their best friends did not take it well.
Zoe paced her apartment, phone clutched in her hand, glaring at the unread “Delivered” beneath Lily’s last message. “What does she mean, she’s busy? Busy with what? Lily’s version of busy is painting her nails while binging K-dramas!”
Meanwhile, Ethan nearly dropped a barbell on his foot after Bryan bailed on their workout for the third time. “He’s avoiding me,” Ethan muttered, slamming weights back onto the rack. “What, do I smell? Am I too emotional now? Is complimenting pecs illegal all of a sudden?”
For days, Zoe and Ethan stewed in frustration. Until, inevitably, they both cracked.
It started with Zoe scrolling through her phone, about to fire off one last desperate text to Lily, when she noticed Ethan’s name. Without thinking, she called.
“Zoe?” His voice was cautious, tired.
“Ethan. Please tell me Lily isn’t ghosting you too.”
He groaned. “Oh thank God. Bryan’s been MIA for a week. I thought I’d offended him with my existence.”
Zoe laughed, and for the first time in days, she felt her shoulders relax.
One coffee led to another, and soon, Ethan was showing up at Zoe’s office with takeout. Zoe tagged along to Ethan’s late-night grocery runs. They started talking in ways they hadn’t in years.
They remembered old jokes, inside references, the little quirks they’d both forgotten. And with every laugh, every glance that lingered too long, something shifted.
It wasn’t just friendship. Not anymore.
Late one night, they sat on Zoe’s couch, the glow of the TV flickering as some random movie played in the background. Neither of them was really watching.
Ethan looked over at Zoe, his expression softer than she’d ever seen it. “You know… it’s kind of nice. Just us.”
Zoe’s heart stuttered. She opened her mouth to reply, but stopped. Because suddenly, she wasn’t sure if what she felt was the comfort of having her best friend back… or the start of something entirely different.
Next Week in Chapter 6:
Were Zoe and Ethan finally rekindling their romance, or was this just the long-lost friendship they’d been missing all along? Even Lily and Bryan couldn’t have predicted what would happen next.
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