Nice guys finish last.
I always thought that was a load of crap. Being kind to someone even when you get nothing in return is just the right thing to do.
My name is Alex Dunbar, and I'm a freshman in college. If you ask me to tell you one interesting thing about myself, I'd tell you that ever since I was six years old, I've been involved with this one girl.
A girl that was now dating my best friend. I could also tell you that I'm obsessed with medieval culture and that I studied it obsessively, but let's stick to me being a cuck. That's right, I'm a failure. I've tried everything to make this girl like me. I bought her birthday presents and Christmas gifts.
I'd talk to her when she had no one else to talk to. Whenever a boy she liked dumped her, I would be her shoulder to cry on. Like I said, I'm a hopeless romantic loser who has been obsessed with one girl for all of his life.
And to add insult to injury, these two lovebirds asked me to join them on their date.
God, I want to jump off a bridge watching them laugh and flirt with each other, but instead I was forced to conceal my true emotions underneath a fake smile.
Hence my first statement: nice guys finish last.
"Hmm… What's got you down there, Alex? Are you thinking about bedding a local lord's daughter?" my friend asked as he swung his muscular arms over my shoulder, giggling like an idiot.
My best friend Liam was also a good guy. We've been friends ever since we were in kindergarten.
'But if she was going to choose a nice guy anyway, why couldn't she have chosen me?!'
Is it because he's better looking than me? Or maybe it was because his body looked like it was carved by the goddess of lust herself, and he could make any girl laugh just by spouting whatever nonsense that came to his mind.
Why was he friends with me again?
Of course she chose him. Why would she choose the guy who cried while watching The Titanic or a guy who's playlist consisted of more romance song than the average moody teenage girl. Why would she choose me?
"Leave him alone, Liam," Sarah giggled at her new boyfriend's silly jest.
She always had the cutest smile whenever she laughed. The kind of smile a guy wants to see when he comes home from a long day of work. The type of girl that makes you say fuck the bus and jog home so you won't have to sit in rush hour traffic thinking about her.
I had already thought about what our life would be like together when we got married. How many kids we'd have and what we'd name them. Now her kids would be named anything this idiot who was foolish enough to be my friend decides.
"Alex knows I'm only teasing. We've been friends since kindergarten. You know how much I love you, right, bro?" Liam chuckled.
"Hmm… Shouldn't you be telling that to your girlfriend instead of me?" I asked.
"Nah, she understands, don't you, babe?"
Sarah said nothing, only giggling at the two of us playfully.
BEEP!
Suddenly there was this huge commotion as this loud truck horn started to blare. The crowd of people on the street erupted in a frenzy, making it impossible to know what was going on. It all happened so fast. My mind was a blur and the next thing I knew, a truck suddenly erupted through the crowd of people.
Everyone was clearing a path, hastily getting out of the way. The truck was heading right for us, and in the chaos of stampeding people, it was difficult to escape its path. At that moment, I spotted Sarah on the ground. She must've been injured in the chaos. Liam was desperately trying to save her, but they wouldn't make it in time. The truck was just coming too fast.
Seeing the two of them about to get ragdolled by a truck-kun, I did the only thing a nice guy would do in this situation. I summoned every strength I could muster and shoved both of them out of its path, but in the end, I couldn't save myself.
The last thing I heard was both of their screams before everything went black.
'Did I save them?
Well, it looked like I did.
I can't feel anything.
Except for the cold.
No, it's fucking freezing.'
"Alex! You're going to be alright, buddy, just don't close your eyes!"
'Why does my body feels so fucking cold.'
'Why doesn't it hurt?'
The only thing I could hear was Liam's panic shouts and Sarah's loud sobs. Wait, what did he mean, don't close my eyes? If my eyes are open, then why is everything so dark?
And why have I gotten so hot?
I'm burning up!
It was freezing just moments ago.
Sarah's and Liam's voices slowly faded away, and soon it was only me and the darkness.
...
I floated endlessly in the darkness until I saw a small dot of light. The small dot of light continued to get bigger and bigger until it replaced the darkness, and somehow I was now staring at the wrinkled face of an old woman.
"It's a boy!" She shouted. "Cut the umbilical cord."
'What language is that? What is she saying? And how is she holding me up? Is this woman some kind of muscle freak?'
"Midwife, the mother is unstable! I don't think we can save her!" another woman in the room shouted.
I immediately turned my eyes to her, and what I saw made my stomach churn. There was a woman lying on a pile of fur that couldn't even be considered a bed.
It was a beautiful young woman. No older than me. She had auburn hair and emerald eyes. She was the single most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. She was simply breathtaking. Her white dress was covered in blood and grime and her face was pale, almost lifeless.
But, with the small flicker of life that remained in her eyes, she stared at me, and in that moment, I felt it in my soul that I knew who she was.
'Mother?'
Whether it was some primal instincts or just intuition, I felt it in my bones that she was my mother.
'No, she can't be! This woman isn't my mother. She doesn't look anything like my mother, so why do I feel this way?'
The woman continued to stare at me with tears in her eyes, until her beautiful emerald eyes went lifeless.
The women in the room covered her face with a piece of cloth, and that was all they offered her. For some reason, it made me feel angry.
"She has had a rough life. To be used and discarded by a lord, then to die giving birth to his bastard son. Such a cruel fate. This child will certainly have a hard life ahead for him."
The women continued to speak in their weird language, but I didn't pay any mind to whatever they were saying. Instead, my mind was focused on something else.
'What is this screen hovering in front of me?'