The Script Breaker

1 My sixmonth boyfriend, who texted me every day, confessed to my roommate on our first day of college. She wore my bunny scrunchie.

As I reached for my phone to demand answers, glowing holographic text flooded my vision. [LMAO the side character thinks she matters.

Log off.] [The FMC borrowed the villainess’s scrunchie and sparked instant love. Those looks were electric.] [Wait for the tantrums. Even if exposed, the ML returns to our girl.

Angst fuels toptier romance.] [He liked the side character only until meeting the FMC. Our girl wins every gaze.] I froze midreach.

My phone buzzed with his message. “Babe, switch to my main number. Deleting this alt.” I typed a question mark and hit send. A red exclamation point appeared. Message failed.

I had been blocked. The floating comments were still rolling frantically in front of my eyes. [Hahahaha this is too funny. The main couple just added each other on Snapchat.

He thinks she's using a burner account, so he just nuked the old one without a second thought. The side character looks so mad right now.] [Stay mad, honestly.

Her only purpose in this story is to play matchmaker for the main couple.

If it wasn't her, it would be someone else.] [Ugh, but she's totally about to go stalk him and act desperate. It sucks that our main couple is going to be forced apart.

So stressful.] [Chill out! A brief separation will only make him realize that his heart truly belongs to our sweet girl.

The more the villainess bullies her, the more chances he gets to play the hero.

The hurt just makes the comfort ten times better!] I stood there staring at the floating words for a long time until the pieces finally clicked together in my head.

Before heading downstairs, my roommate Sophie had asked to borrow my hair tie.

Tristan saw the little bunny scrunchie in her hair, mistook her for me, and instantly poured his heart out to her. And just like that, they exchanged contacts.

Tristan assumed the chat we had been using for half a year was just my secondary account, so he wiped it clean without a trace of hesitation.

While I was lost in my own thoughts, Sophie casually walked back into our dorm room and stopped right in front of me. "Hey Lily, could you actually just sell this scrunchie to me?

Please?" Before I could even process her words, she pulled out her phone and sent me ten bucks on Venmo, almost as if she was terrified I would say no. "Just sent the money over.

Thanks so much!" She hugged her phone to her chest and practically skipped back to her bed, a dreamy smile plastered on her face.

I opened my mouth, but the refusal died in my throat. Tristan had no idea that the girl he had been falling for over the past six months was actually me.

We had originally crossed paths on an anonymous college forum. It took me months to finally muster up the courage to send him that first direct message.

In the beginning, he was freezing cold. I was lucky if I got a single reply for every ten messages I sent. But I was happy just to have his attention.

I racked my brain every single day trying to come up with interesting topics, just hoping he would talk to me a little longer. Slowly, the walls came down.

He started replying faster. The real turning point happened at midnight a few months ago. He randomly texted me, asking if I could wish him a happy birthday.

I was startled, but I replied instantly. We ended up staying on the phone until the sun came up.

That was the night I learned his mother had passed away when he was young, and his dad had quickly remarried and started a new family.

It was his birthday, and not a single person in his life had remembered. From that night on, everything shifted. We talked constantly. Three months later, we made it official.

Once we started dating, Tristan became incredibly clingy. He begged to meet up in person all the time, but my own insecurities always held me back.

We finally made a promise to meet on the first day of college. This morning, before Sophie left the room, she asked if she could borrow a hair tie.

I handed her a plain black one, but she reached right past me and snatched the bunny scrunchie off my pillow.

By the time I turned around to get it back, she was already out the door.

I never in a million years imagined that Tristan would look at a piece of hair elastic and just assume the girl wearing it was me.

I wanted to march over to Sophie and ask if she knew he had the wrong person. I wanted to ask why she was so desperate to buy it off me.

More than anything, I wanted to run downstairs, stand right in front of Tristan, and scream that he had made a massive mistake. But my legs felt like they were filled with concrete.

I couldn't take a single step. [What's going on? Why hasn't the villainess gone after him yet? Shouldn't she be storming out in a jealous rage right about now?] [Right?

The plot is lagging.] [Man, poor FMC. She doesn't even know the crazy roommate has figured it out. She's just enjoying her sweet little romance.

They're about to get ripped apart and I'm already crying for her.] [Stay strong, sweetie!] I desperately wanted to go find him. But the floating text was painfully clear.

Tristan and Sophie had experienced love at first sight. Even if I laid out all the evidence, he would still choose her in the end. I stood by my desk, battling with myself.

Finally, the suffocating knot in my chest won out. I needed to face him.

Even if he really did choose Sophie, I owed it to myself to fight for the relationship I had poured my heart into.

Before leaving the room, I opened Venmo and sent the ten dollars right back to Sophie. "Sorry. It's not for sale.

Give it back." That scrunchie was the only physical gift Tristan had ever given me.

He was always trying to spoil me, randomly dropping hundreddollar CashApp payments just to make me smile, constantly promising that we would be together forever.

If I had known he would recognize a piece of fabric instead of my actual soul, I would have chased Sophie all the way to the lobby to rip it out of her hair.

Seeing my outstretched hand, Sophie instinctively hid her hands behind her back, her fingers clutching the little fabric bunny for dear life. "LLily, didn't I already send you the money?" I shook my head. "I'm not selling it." I paused, deciding to give her the benefit of the doubt. "That scrunchie means something really special to me." The moment those words left my mouth, Sophie's eyes welled up with dramatic tears.

The other girls in the dorm immediately sensed the tension and rushed over to play peacekeeper. "Come on Lily, it's just a cheap hair tie.

If Sophie likes it, just let her have it." "Yeah, plus she already paid you. You can get a pack of those at Target for like five bucks.

Ten dollars is more than fair." I stood there in heavy silence. "This isn't about money," I finally said, my voice dangerously calm. "I told you, I don't want to sell it.

It has sentimental value." Seeing I wasn't going to back down, my roommates awkwardly dropped the subject.

Sophie bit her lip, her eyes red and puffy, and slowly reached out to hand it back to me. But just as my fingers brushed the fabric, she let go. The hair tie plummeted to the floor.

The little bunny charm was made of solid ceramic. It hit the unforgiving dorm tiles with a sharp crack, splitting cleanly into two jagged pieces.

My hand hung suspended in the empty air. "Oh my god! I am so, so sorry Lily!

It was a total accident, I thought you had a grip on it!" "I am so sorry, I'll just pay you for it again, I feel terrible." Sophie let out a pathetic little sob, frantically tapping on her phone to send me another ten dollars.

My roommates immediately swooped in to defend her. "Let it go, Lily. She clearly didn't mean to drop it.

Don't be so hard on her." "Seriously, we have to live together for the next four years. Let's not make things weird over an accident." I couldn't stomach another second of it.

I bent down, picked up the shattered pieces, and walked straight out of the dorm without looking back. I wasn't an idiot. I knew exactly what Sophie did. She let go on purpose.

But it was true that the hair tie wasn't worth much money. If I stayed in that room and screamed at her, all I would get were a few empty apologies. She had already sent the money.

If I kept pushing, I would just look like the crazy, obsessed roommate making a scene over a piece of trash. And yet.

My vision blurred as a hot, stinging sensation gathered in my eyes. I really loved that little bunny.

Tristan had walked past a boutique one afternoon, FaceTimed me, and asked if I liked anything in the window. I had pointed at the little ceramic charm.

He bought it right then and there and mailed it to me in a carefully wrapped box. And now it was broken. I paced back and forth outside the freshman boys' dorms.

Guys walking by shot me curious, lingering glances. The text in my vision flared up again, scrolling faster than before. [Tsk tsk tsk, here comes the villainess.

She really doesn't know when to quit.] [She knows our FMC already met the guy, but she still has to come ruin the vibe. So toxic.] [Standard jealous female side character behavior.

Vicious and petty. But honestly, without her causing drama, how else is the main couple supposed to bond?] [Does she seriously think begging is going to work?

This is just embarrassing. Secondhand embarrassment is so real right now.] [I feel like the male lead is going to be tainted...

I mean, when he first finds out the truth, he actually gets manipulated into dating the villainess for a few days...] I stared at the glowing words, my chest tight.

A part of me just wanted to turn around and walk away. But the anger burning in my veins refused to die down.

We had spent countless hours pouring our hearts out through glowing screens. I had spent the entire summer dreaming about the moment we would finally meet.

Would he like the real me? Would he think I wasn't pretty enough? Would I be a disappointment?

My fingers tightened around the sharp edge of the broken ceramic bunny, the pain grounding me. If I told him the truth, would it really end exactly like the floating text predicted?

If he was just going to leave me anyway, what was the point of humiliating myself? The longer I stood there, the faster my courage bled out into the cool afternoon air.

Just as I turned around, fully prepared to swallow my pride and walk away. I saw Tristan striding aggressively toward me.