Hollow Weekend

Chapter 5

POV: Brad Miles (Jaden’s Best friend)

The first time I met Jaden, I knew he was going to be the kind of guy people admired. You could see it in the way he moved, confident, smooth, like the world would never dare say no to him. And of course, the world didn’t.

People like Jaden were born lucky, they breathed success, they walked into rooms and the energy changed. Girls looked twice. Guys either admired him or secretly hated his guts – I was both.

But I played the friend. Played it well, too.

I’m staring at the television in my apartment, muted, watching the news rerun the same headline: “Tech Entrepreneur Jaden Cole Arrested in Connection to s****l Assault.”

The screen splits, his mug shot on the left, the grainy photo of the Latina woman on the right. Blurred, but despite that, she’s believable and convincing.

I pour myself a drink, just water, while sitting on the edge of my couch, staring into the havoc I had caused the guy who thought of me as his best friend.

It isn’t betrayal when it comes from your enemies anyway – it has to be from the ones you trust, the ones you never see coming. The ones who smile at your wins even when every cell in their body screams envy.

But it wasn’t always this way, me, playing puppeteer behind his life, the second name in every story, the silent partner, and the footnote.

Jaden was the golden boy, always had been right from high school. He walked through life like it owed him something, and the world paid in full, and with interest.

But me? I was the one behind the curtain. The fixer, the loyal one who always helped with cover ups, with tests and to curate ideas, but somehow he ended up getting the spotlight. Not because he was consciously doing it – the universe simply favours him.

Then Melanie happened.

She was mine at first, at least I thought she was. We had something, something that felt real. Until Jaden looked her way and suddenly, I didn’t exist in her world anymore. Like everything else – he took her.

I should’ve walked away, a long time ago, I should’ve accepted that some people are born to shine, while others, to orbit. But that was a notion I never agreed to. I stayed, hoping things would change.

But when you stand in someone’s shadow long enough, you either learn to live in the dark or light your own fire. I chose fire.

And all it took was one girl at a club. One sweet little liar with a face too pretty and a story too perfect to ignore. Camila Reyes, a Latina, an immigrant who lived from pay-check to pay-check. A few hundred thousand dollars was the bargain price. Bigger than everything she would have ever earned.

It started weeks ago, when I wrote a letter on everything about Jaden, I dropped hints about Jaden’s drinking, his tendencies, and his habits. Not lies just seeds. And I used his own delivery guy as a pawn. He’s someone easily bought. All he had to do was deliver the letter with my contact information to make sure our Latina friend knew exactly who Jaden was and what I needed her to do.

I always visited the bar with Jaden, I had to make sure no one saw me there in his absence or with the lady in question. I simply left no traces behind.

And last weekend, everything fell in place, Melanie was away, he had a rough day at work and he wanted to go drinking as usual. He reached out to me to play tag along as always but I refused, he went alone and my boy Jaden took the bait, falling right into the trap I set for him.

I pulled out my phone and dialled a number from my memory. It rang once. Twice. Then her voice came through soft but sharp.

“Hello, Brad” she muttered softly with her mixed Mexican accent.

“You’ve done a very good job” I commended her, leaning against the balcony railings, watching the city pulse with naïve innocence beneath me.

“Brad, when do I get my first pay? My mother needs urgent medical attention, that’s the whole reason I agreed to do this” she spoke, sharper this time.

“Relax, I’m a man of my words but I would prefer to pay you in cash, can we meet?” I suggested.

“No Brad, we talked about this, I cannot send cash to Mexico without having to visit a bank physically… you know I’m… ” she paused

But I understood her perfectly, I was only looking for a way to keep traces minimal.

“Alright, let me have the account details, you’ll get your money immediately.”

I set the phone down gently, almost ceremonially. Silenced wrapped around me like a velvet cloak – thick and comforting. I stared at my reflection in the darkened glass of my window.

I wore a smirk on my face. Not the Brad everyone knew, not the loyal friend, the quiet sidekick, the one who laughed at all of Jaden’s jokes and clapped at all his speeches. No, this was the real Brad. The architect, the shadow. The forgotten one finally stepping into the light.

They always chose Jaden – the golden boy. The clean-cut prodigy who could do no wrong. While I was a loyal workhorse behind the scenes. I wasn’t trying to destroy Jaden, I was trying to free myself, from years of being overlooked. Jaden only happens to be collateral damage.

I’m letting the world see Jaden for who he truly is – flawed, foolish and gullible, and this was only the beginning.