Just Friends

Episode 2

Jayne Cameron's POV

Believe it or not, I got accepted at the bubble tea shop just 3 days after my application. Arriving at the front of the shop, I look up at the shop's sign written brightly in Purple: Tealive.

I push the door and enter the shop which is still empty considering that it's only 11:14am and the shop opens at 11am. 

"Welcome!" The girl at the cashier smiles, "What's your order?"

"Um, I'm the new part-timer here?" I reply, coming out as a question instead. Not surprising though, I still can't believe that I got accepted just like that. Also, because this is my first ever part-time job.

"Oh! Jayne?"

"That's me."

"Come in through there." She says, pointing at the door which has the sign "STAFF ONLY" hanged on it. I've been a customer of this shop since college which was last year, so to be finally having a look on the behind the scenes, it's quite fascinating. 

She smiles, walking towards me and handing me an apron. "Here's your apron. I'm Michelle and I will be guiding you with everything."

"Thank you!" I beam, following her steps towards the tea brewer.

-

A friendly voice greets when I'm tapping away on the cash register, accepting a new order. "Hey, newbie."

"Hi." I reply with a smile, not really looking at the person's face as I have to give the customer the receipt.

"Wait, aren't you Tasha's roommate?"

This catches my attention. I finally take a look at his face and of course, in a split second, I recognise him. 

Ah, the fuckboy from one of the societies Tasha's joined.

"Yes. You are?" I ask back with a smile, getting ready to prepare the order I just received.

"Don't bother. It's my shift now." He says, grabbing the cup from my hand. "And I'm Mark."

"Jayne?" Michelle calls out. "We can go back now. Our shift for today is ending."

"Okay, see you later." I tell Mark before following Jayne into the staff's room to grab our bags. 

I tap her on the shoulder, "So, when do I come next days?"

"That, I will remind Ling to send your schedule. Ling is the owner of the shop and she does most of the things. She even sells here sometimes."

"I see."

"Well, goodbye! I'm in a rush." She waves and sprints out of the shop. I untie my hair from the ponytail, take off my apron, grab my bag and walk out of the staff room. Glancing at Mark, my eyes widen a bit when our eyes meet and he mouths 'Bye!'.

I plug my earphones in and play my spotify playlist like always. Why would you choose to walk alone in silence when you can walk and enjoy the music as well, right?

But when the first song that plays is a song that reminds me of my last relationship, I immediately press the skip button before proceeding to remove that song from my playlist.

I'm quite unlucky with love and relationships. I also regret all the past relationships I had except for the first one, which was with my guy best friend. We dated twice and if you combine both times, you could say we dated for a year. How did we end up breaking up twice? It was all me. After six months, I lost feelings and ended things. The same thing happened the second time as well.

Things got really bad and we didn't talk anymore for three months. That did some damage to the small friend group we had but after a few months, I apologised to him again and things went back to normal.

Moving on, my last relationship was a long distance relationship which ended three months ago during my final exams. Tough, isn't it? He couldn't even wait to end it after my exams.

I still aced them though even while spending my nights crying over him. Those were just a waste of my tears, honestly. He didn't deserve it. No, I'm not saying these just because he's now my ex.

There were so many red flags that I chose to ignore. My mom pointed out all those and reminded me things won't go well but she didn't stop me or told me to break up with him though. I was 18 so she probably didn't want to control my decisions like that anymore. 

The long distance relationship lasted 10 months with the last 4 months just filled with my tears and misery. It's a long distance relationship. Communication is the main key in this. Guess what? He refused to call me for four months. I sensed him losing interest in me and him losing respect for me for no reason at all. I still loved him and let him stepped over me like that until one day, he just ended things with the words "You deserve better."

Such a joke. Funny how he talked about how I deserved better but didn't try to be better for me. Even after that, we still continued to talk because apparently, he was having family problems and me being blinded by love, I believed all that. I let him rant to me while hiding my feelings away. My friends told me those are all lies and I still chose to protect him.

That was until I travelled back to my home country for summer break and my mom put some sense into me. That's when I realise I really do deserve better and talking to him who keeps giving me false hopes, who comes to me whenever he wants is not going to do any good for me. So I started replying him with short replies and then to not replying at all.

Till this day, he still sends me messages but I choose to not open them. Because I really realised I was the good person in the relationship and I do deserve better.

Some of my friends say, "You moved on so fast."

Well, when I realised my worth and how I should move on from that douchebag, I made that happen. Instead of thinking I love easily and I move on fast, they should be happy for me.

After that relationship, I chopped my hair off. Cringe, is it? I dyed my hair to a dark purple and decided to have a hot-girl-summer-break except that I'm not hot but who knows? Maybe in some people's eyes, I might be hot. 

My confidence was blasting during summer. Also, here's a little episode. Since it was summer break, all of us from the friend group were back in our home country. So yes, we hanged out a lot and during those moments, my ex; the guy best friend somehow ended up having feelings for me again.

You know the funny thing with him and me is that, when we are single and we see each other, we always feel these teenie tiny things for each other and that's every year! It's not even surprising any more. The year before, it was me who had a crush on him again but he had a girlfriend. This year, he has feelings for me again but we both are single.

Knowing that it won't work out this time, just like the two previous times, I decided to ignore it and act as if I didn't know about his returned feelings despite our best friend shipping us and wanting us to get back together. 

Anyways, I'm single now! Am I ready to mingle? Good question.

I don't know. I don't think I am. 

Honestly, I'm still scared from the last relationship. I would say traumatised but that's such a big word so let's not use that. I gave a lot during my last relationship, I did my best for everything and everyone around me saw how good I was to him but all I received was nothing. I don't need something like that to happen again. I don't need another person to hurt me again.

And that's why I've decided to continue my hot-girl-summer-break to my first university year. Who says I need to get into a relationship when I can just play around?