Chapter 1- People Change

4-3. My favorite soccer team was barely winning. 11:18 minutes left until the game would be over. It wasn't that long, I could handle the anxiety. I relaxed further into the couch; now I was really comfortable. I checked the time on my phone, it was 8:18 pm. Zelda should be coming home soon, I thought. Zelda is my roommate of 2 years and best friend of 5 years. We had met at college and had decided to move in together because it sounded like fun to live with your best friend. 4-4, fuck. They had been doing so well and they just had to go and mess it up. Ugh, why did they leave the star player of the other team open? Angered, I stood up to get a glass of water in an attempt to cool me down. I left the tv on to keep hearing the game as I walked to grab a glass. I put in a couple of ice cubes to make the water cooler and take a sip. That felt nice.

I set the glass down on the counter as I heard the door to the apartment open. I sighed, finally Zelda's here. My look of happiness suddenly turns into a look of worry as I notice that her normally blue eyes are red from crying. I swiftly walk over to her, hugging her.

"What happened?" I softly ask after a while.

"He-he's in love with someone else" she said quietly in between sobs.

I look down at her "What's his address?" I stop hugging her and walk over to the couch where I had my phone and keys.

"No Link you'll only make it worse"

"What's there left to make worse?"

"N-nothing" she looks down at the floor.

"His address" I look at her sternly.

After giving me the address I leave the apartment, locking the door behind me. I get into my car and drive to the son of a bitch's house. All around me is a blur of lights as i make my way through many streets. When I arrived at his house, I get out of the car and lock it. I leaned against the door of my car. What should I do to him? Talk or fight? I'll just act on impulse. I walked up to his house and rang the doorbell. Let's see if he answers. The door opens and I'm met by Zelda's now ex.

"Link?" He looks shocked to see me.

"Julian"

"What are you doing here? Are you looking for Zelda?"

"Let's have a chat. Inside"

"O-okay?"

He opens the door and steps aside, allowing me to enter.

"Um, I'm not sure why you're here Link so I think you owe me an explanation" he said running his hand through his brown hair.

"Care to explain to me why Zelda's at the apartment crying?"

"She's crying? Why?" He looks uneasy, his brown eyes displaying fear. I wonder why he must feel uncomfortable, because he must have done something wrong.

"I don't know. Maybe it has to do with the fact that she saw you cheating on her"

"I didn't do anything"

"She no longer considers you as her boyfriend-"

"What?"

"-So you must have done some thing bad"

"But I didn't do anything!"

"Julian, I think it's best for everyone if you'd stop lying"

"Link, I think you should leave now. You're causing unnecessary drama"

"Why? Is it because I'm saying the truth?" I step right in front of him, leaving barely any space between us. "Are you going to lie just to keep Zelda?"

"One, you're telling me lies. And two, I love Zelda so why would I-"

"You clearly don't love Zelda if you're willing to cheat on her on the day you two had planned to go out"

"We were supposed to-oh shit" He looks up at the ceiling as the realization hits him.

"Yeah, so that's why when she goes to ring your doorbell she sees you kissing another woman" I look at him smugly. "I'm glad you stopped with the lies"

"Listen, that" he took a shaky breath "was a mistake and won't happen again"

"You're right, it won't happen again because she's done with you"

"Not if I can help it. And why did you come here instead of Zelda? I mean it's our relationship, not yours"

"I'm her best friend and you're her ex. Anyways I think we're done here" I stepped away from him and started making my way to the door. "Goodbye Julian" I called.

"You wanted us to break up since the beginning! Are you happy now?" He yelled back.

I turned to look at him "No, you did that all by yourself the second you kissed another woman" I shook my head at him "You disgust me"

"Link you don't get to disrespect me in my own house! Zelda will come back to me!"

I stepped toward Julian "How sure are you?"

"Very"

"Well then clearly you don't know Zelda"

"I dated her"

"I live with her" He scowled at this. I smiled back at him. "Bye Julian, I'm going to go home now, where I'm going to comfort Zelda because of you" He looked at me with anger and I turned away from him and walked to the door again.

"Link wait!"

I turned around yet again. "What n-" I was interrupted as Julian's right fist connected with my face. I stumbled back as pain shot through the right side of my face. Julian kept hitting me with a barrage of punches and I managed to block some of them, but he had surprised me. I felt blood start to trickle down my face from my nose. Julian started to corner me into a wall, thinking that he had beat me. As soon as he swung to hit my jaw, I ducked and came up behind him, pulling him to the ground hard so that he fell on his face. He quickly turned around so that he could attempt to get out of this situation, but he was screwed. I started punching his face until both of us were a bloody mess. After what seemed like ages I got up, there was nothing left to do.

"Next time Julian, don't try that shit again"

"Fuck you Link" he spat.

"Thanks" I said as I turned and left his house.

I got into my car and just sat there, reflecting on what happened. My nose was still bleeding and I'm pretty sure that's not the only source of blood. Oh well, I'll fix myself up when I get home. I turn on the car and drive home.

When I arrive at the apartments I get out of my car and lock it. I was about to head into the building when I realized that I was still bleeding. Fuck, Zelda's going to feel really bad. I sighed deeply, unfortunately there was nothing I could do. I walked into the apartment complex and quickly went to my floor so that no one would see me. I got out my keys and unlocked the door to the apartment, here comes facing Zelda.

I hear a gasp as soon as I enter inside. I lock the door and see Zelda standing in front of me, worry on her face.

"What happened? I thought you were only going to talk to Julian"

"Julian is a bitch"

"But you got in a fight with him"

"Like I said, he's a bitch. He waited until my back was turned and surprised me"

"We're going to the bathroom. Now" she said before I could protest.

"Okay" I was in no mood to argue with her so I let her be in charge.

She dragged me to our bathroom down the hallway and made me sit on the toilet. After sitting me down she started to search through our cabinets to find some gauze and some weird liquids.

"Zelda you know you don't have to do this, I can clean myself up"

She turned around to look at me "Link I'm fully aware that you're capable of cleaning yourself up, but consider this as my way of saying thank you" she looked at the floor, and I got the feeling she might start crying again. "I'm glad that you're my best friend Link" she took a deep sigh "Anyways, back to cleaning your face" and she turned back around to look for something.

"Sounds good to me, I don't want my masculine features to be damaged" I said in an attempt to make her laugh.

"Too late Link, I think your nose is closer to your left eye" she laughed. Good.

"Good thing there's plastic surgery available"

"There's no way I'm letting you spend that much money to get a nose job Link"

"Guess I'm going to have to live with a busted nose"

Zelda turned back to face me with a rag in her hand. Without saying anything she started to clean my face from all the blood. I studied her while she wiped my face. Why would such a selfless person have to feel pain? What did she do to deserve this? Nothing. She just seems to have bad luck.

"What are you thinking about?"

"What do you mean Zelda?"

"You seem so focused"

"Oh, I was thinking about what I wanted to eat for breakfast tomorrow" I lied.

"How can you be thinking of food at a time like this? You're not completely covered with blood anymore but shouldn't you be exhausted from tonight?" Her voice got quiet at the end of her sentence.

And this is what I wanted to avoid. "Nah I'm not exhausted, he didn't stand a chance against me" I laughed.

"Link, stop trying to cheer me up please. It's not going to change the fact that I'm hurt, especially by someone I loved" she said with all seriousness possible.

"Uh, okay"

Zelda went back to quietly wiping my face. The rag was almost a completely different color than it was before we began. Then, grabbing my left hand, she used gauze to wrap it up. After I was sort of fixed up, Zelda stood up.

"I'm going to go to bed Link"

"Okay, Night"

"Night" she replied curtly.

I walked out of the bathroom after a while and sat on the couch, staring at the city through the window. More reflection time. How did we manage to misjudge Julian? He was pretty nice prior to tonight. He had his own house, car , and a decent job. Why would he do this? That's something I don't think I'll ever understand.

I looked at the clock in the kitchen, it read 10:12. There goes my calm evening. I started to feel drowsy as the exhaustion from the fight kicked in but I was too lazy to walk to my room. The last thing I remembered before falling asleep was how I never knew how the game ended.

A/N: Merry Christmas for those who celebrate it! So this is the new first chapter and I like it better than the original. For those who liked the original first chapter: don't worry, it's still going to be in this story, but some things may be different. Anyways, have a great day and Merry Christmas!

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