Betting Against Me Once Too Often

The night before our trip, my girlfriend, Bailey Carter, tags me in the group chat. "Check your flight ticket." I tap into the flight app and realize that my flight ticket is cancelled. The date shows that it was cancelled three days ago. Before I can even type a single word into the group chat, our friend, Derek Wilson, pops up. "I made a bet with Bails that you wouldn't check your ticket before you left tomorrow, but she made you check it yourself. That's cheating!" Bailey replies, "That's enough. You lost anyway because he only just found out now. Go book his ticket again. We'll just sit separately now." They continue chatting very happily in the group chat. The same thing happened last time when they bet that I wouldn't notice that they changed our standard two-bed hotel room to a triple room. I was then made to sleep on the extra mattress provided. Another time, they made another bet that I wouldn't realize that they changed our travel itinerary, switching out the only time I wanted to visit the art museum for an escape room. Every time I tell them that I don't like what they did, they will gaslight me and tell me the same thing. "But you never told us that you cared about it. How would we have known that you'd mind?" Yet, they have never once asked me about my opinion. I don't bother booking my flight ticket again. Instead, I open another flight app and search for a flight to Northland, planning to watch the aurora borealis at night. Maybe it's alright to be alone after all. Chapter 1 The front door opened just as I was stuffing the last pair of wool socks into my suitcase. My girlfriend, Bailey Carter, and our friend, Derek Wilson, walked in through the door with their snorkelling gear, bathing suits, and a whole bag of deflated pool floats. Derek was the first to notice my thick winter coat on the couch. He was briefly stunned before he burst into loud laughter. "Pay up, Bails," he said to Bailey. He pointed at my suitcase and laughed so hard that tears streamed down his face. "I told you that Josh would be angry. He's even packing winter clothes on purpose to spite us." Bailey leaned against the entryway, looking down at her phone as she transferred money to Derek, a helpless grin on her face. "Fine. You win this time." She then put her phone away and walked up to me, wanting to straighten my collar. "I've already booked the flight for you again, Josh. We went overboard with the prank this time, so don't be mad. Remove these winter clothes from your suitcase. We won't be needing them in Beachland." I stepped aside to dodge her hand. Her hand froze mid-air as she frowned. "Are you seriously going to make a fuss like this?" I zipped up my suitcase and pulled up the handle. "I'm not going to Beachland anymore. Have fun, you two." The smile on Derek's face froze for a second. Then, he hurriedly came up to me and tried putting his arm around my shoulder. "Don't do that. We've already re-booked your ticket. If you don't want to sit by yourself, I'll switch seats with you instead. Are you happy now that I'm sitting in the back?" I looked at his hand hovering inches from me and said, "Don't touch me." Derek froze. Bailey's expression also darkened. "Joshua Abbott! Why are you acting up over a cancelled flight? Do you seriously have to go this far?" I turned to look at her. "You cancelled my flight and made a bet with him about my travel plans. And now, you're saying that I'm going too far?" Her eyes darkened with impatience. "Aren't we already making it up to you now? I already booked the replacement ticket last night. I never said I was really not letting you come along." Derek nodded and sounded aggrieved as he said, "Yeah. We never really thought of abandoning you. We were just pranking you. You didn't use to be like this." He paused for a second as though he'd just thought of something. Then, his eyes lit up. "Oh, right! I've got good news for you! I thought of telling you about it on the way there to cheer you up." My heart sank. I had a bad feeling about this. He then brought out his phone from his bag and showed me a screenshot. "I submitted your final submission for the Stargaze Artist Awards competition two days ago! You'd been staying up all night for it lately, and I felt sorry for you, so I submitted it on your behalf." My grip tightened on my suitcase handle. "You tampered with my entry?" "Don't get your panties in a bunch," Derek said, as though I was being a spoilsport. "I just added a little easter egg to your submission. I put a tiny frog rolling its eyes at the bottom left corner of that painting you liked the most as a watermark. It's hilarious!" Then, he winked at Bailey. "I even made a bet with Bailey to see when you'd finally find out about it. I was thinking of only revealing it to you after you won the competition to make it an even bigger surprise for you!" I felt my mind go completely blank. The entries for the Stargaze Artist Awards competition were to be strictly anonymous. Entry files were not allowed to contain any irrelevant signatures or watermarks, and certainly no humorous symbols of the sort. That was my entire portfolio that I'd put together after barely sleeping a wink in the past two weeks. It was also the only portfolio that my art academy had recommended for that award. Chapter 2 I grabbed my phone and tapped into my email inbox. The latest email was from the panel of judges from the art competition. "Due to the inclusion of forbidden elements in your competition portfolio, which compromised the integrity of the artwork and violated the anonymous judging rules, your entry has been disqualified from this year's Stargaze Artist Awards competition." I brandished this email right before Derek's face. His smile froze on his lips. Then, he scratched his head and looked rather embarrassed, though he tried to hide it. "Jeez, doesn't the judging panel know how to take a joke? How was I supposed to know that they would be so rigid about it?" He then cleared his throat, speaking in a voice as though he was the wronged party. "I was just trying to ease some of the weight you were carrying. You were so stressed about this competition that you had that frown on your face for days. How were we supposed to put up with that? "Don't look at me like that, Josh. It's not a big deal. I'll just reimburse your registration fee if you want." Bailey then pulled him behind her. It was a very familiar action, like I was supposed to immediately give in the moment Derek showed a hint of weakness to me. "Josh," she said, her voice turning serious. "Derek didn't mean to do it. He did mess things up for you, but his intentions were good." I stared at her. "I've been disqualified from the competition." "Then just wait until next year again," she said, frowning. "You have the talent. What's the big deal about waiting for another year? Must you make things ugly and awkward for everyone now?" Derek continued hiding behind her and softly added, "I already said I'd reimburse your money." I suddenly felt as though the apartment was way too small and narrow to contain their overwhelming sense of entitlement and what little dignity I had left. I lowered my head and took screenshots of the cancelled flight ticket, the group chat, and the disqualification email. Bailey frowned even harder when she noticed what I was doing. "What are you making screenshots of these for? Are you collecting evidence to sue us?" I put my phone away, walking to the entryway. She instinctively called out. "Joshua Abbott." I snapped, "You guys disgust me." Derek's face turned pale, then purple with anger, looking like someone had just slapped him in the face. Bailey also finally lost her temper with me. "If you walk out this door today, you can forget about me trying to coax you back ever again!" I opened the door and walked out. Just before the door closed behind me, I heard Derek mumbling to her, asking, "Don't you think he's going too far this time?" However, she didn't answer him right away. Just as the elevator doors slid to a close, I received a text message from her. "Come back on your own after you've calmed down enough." The cab was already waiting for me downstairs when I got out. I brought my suitcase out with me, and the driver asked me if I needed a hand. I shook my head and held my phone close to my ear to listen to my art professor, Professor Ivan Dawson's voice message. "Joshua, there's still one opening available for the Northland residency. If you've decided that you're coming over, I'll get the studio to send you a formal invitation." I tapped on the voice message button and replied, "I'm coming, Professor Dawson." After sending him the voice message, I forwarded the rejection email to him. He replied quickly and said, "Just come over first. It's not the end even if your painting was ruined. You're the artist. You're still around." I stared at his last line and felt my throat tighten. When I was in college, my parents divorced and abandoned me, saddling me with their debts. Derek was the one who shared his pocket money with me and helped me through the darkest months of my life. Later on, I had a panic attack and nearly suffocated on the rooftop balcony. Bailey was the one who found me and rushed me to the hospital, staying by my side throughout the entire ordeal. I wasn't an ungrateful person. So, I kept telling myself that they didn't mean to hurt me on purpose. They probably just thought that I would be able to take the jokes because we were such close friends. But that day, it finally dawned on me. They couldn't just trample all over me just because they'd been kind to me once in the past. Their past kindness wasn't some sort of get-out-of-jail-free card. This wasn't Monopoly. While waiting in line to check in, I unlinked my bank account from Bailey's shopping apps and removed the function that allowed us to share our locations. Bailey called almost immediately. I picked it up. "You unlinked your account?" she asked, her voice as cold as ice. "Are you seriously going this far to draw the line?" "Yes." There was a brief silence on the other end of the line. Then, Derek's voice could be heard. "Josh? Don't tell me that you're really at the airport. Who do you think you're trying to scare? Bailey's not even holding it against you anymore." Bailey seemed to have held the phone away from her. Then, she brought it back and asked, "Which terminal are you at right now? I'll come and get you. I'll try to talk to the people from the Stargaze Artist Awards and see if we can appeal." "Forget it." "What do you mean by that?" Bailey asked, her voice tinged with frustration and impatience. "We can't get a refund for the hotel rooms in Beachland. There's no point for us to go if you're not coming along." Derek added quietly, "It's not really that. We just won't have a photographer with us." I handed my passport to the airport check-in staff. After confirming my details, she handed it back to me and said, "Have a safe flight." I took the boarding pass from the staff and spoke into the phone again. "I'm busy now. I'm hanging up." Bailey finally lost her temper with me. "Joshua Abbott! Did you think that we would always have to revolve around you and your emotions like this? Derek's already feeling guilty enough. What more do you want?" I looked at the destination printed on my boarding pass and said, "I want to stay away from both of you as much as possible." I hung up after that and went on social media. Ten minutes earlier, Derek had posted a selfie on his feed, wearing a frustrated expression as he held a snorkelling mask in his hands. The caption read, "There I was, thinking of surprising someone who turned out to be an ungrateful brat. People who can't take a joke are so hard to get along with." There were comments under his post comforting him. Bailey's reply stood out amongst them. "Ignore him. Let's just enjoy the beach in Beachland. He'll come back apologizing on his knees after we ignore him for a while." I didn't like Derek's post. I didn't leave a comment either. I just blocked him and Bailey instead. Just before my phone screen turned dim, a text reminder from the airport appeared. "The flight to Ice City, Northland is delayed due to polar air currents. Boarding is estimated to be delayed by four hours." Chapter 3 I bought a cup of hot coffee in the airport's waiting lounge. However, just as I put the lid on, someone suddenly thumped me hard on the back of my shoulder. Coffee spilled on my fingers, burning them. I turned around and saw Bailey and Derek standing behind me. Bailey's coat was buttoned up wrongly, and her forehead was beaded with sweat. Meanwhile, Derek was still clutching his boarding pass to Beachland, panting so hard that he could barely speak. "That's enough sulking," Bailey said, taking my coffee from me. After feeling around the cup, she pushed it back into my hands. "At least you bought a hot one. You're not freezing, are you?" She sounded like she was trying to coax me, signalling that she was done being mad and that she'd put the incident behind her. "We're not going to Beachland. We missed our boarding time because we were busy looking for you. Now we're even. Come home with me." Derek finally caught his breath and looked up at me, bracing himself with his hands on his knees. "Why are you even here at the international airport terminal, Josh? You think you're some main protagonist running away from home or something?" I looked at Bailey. "How did you know that I was here?" Her eyes flickered. She explained, "There's a delay when turning off location sharing." "So, you snooped?" "It's called being concerned about you," Bailey said, frowning. "Don't make my normal concern for you sound so despicable." Derek then reached for my check-in backpack. "Let's go. I'll carry this for you. Why is it so bulky? Don't tell me you stuffed it full with winter clothing." I held my backpack close and warned, "Don't touch it." He froze for a second, the fawning smile immediately disappearing from his lips. "Why are you being so hostile toward me? It's not like we're enemies." Bailey lowered her voice. "Joshua, this is the airport. People are watching us. Don't make a scene." I looked at her. "You think I'm the one making a scene now?" Derek suddenly snatched my backpack and snapped, "I don't care! I'm taking your bag and looking through it! Bailey made a bet with me that your backpack was going to be empty. You were just bluffing!" He yanked it hard, and I instinctively clutched onto it harder. The strap dug into my hand, and the zip tore right open in the struggle. Seconds later, the bag fell heavily to the floor with a loud thud. The contents inside spilled out, and my laptop fell smack against a sharp marble corner of a pillar. A dull, gut-wrenching clunk sounded. Then, the screen shattered and the edges of the laptop folded at an angle. I bent down and touched the shattered screen. Tiny glass shards stabbed right into my fingers. There was a loud ringing in my ears, and my heart began palpitating at an irregular rhythm. That familiar wave of nausea returned. I instinctively felt in my pocket for the two backup pills for my panic attacks, but I realized that they'd somehow fallen out during the struggle earlier. Derek stepped back, his voice weak as he said, "I didn't mean to do it! It was an accident! Who told you to pull at it so hard? And why didn't you secure your laptop better since you knew it was important to you?" Bailey crouched next to me and reached over to press down on my shoulders. "Don't panic, Josh. We can get the laptop repaired. There are tons of laptop repair centers around. And if it can't be repaired, I'll just buy you a new one." I couldn't stop myself from looking up at her. "Do you even know what's in it?" She hesitated. "Your artwork drafts. I know they're important." I didn't just have my artwork drafts on my laptop. I also had all my original artwork layers that I hadn't yet synced to the cloud, the drafts for the Stargaze Artist Awards that I still wanted to reorganize after being disqualified, and the first draft of my proposal I needed to submit to Professor Dawson during my residency in Northland. Derek scratched his head in frustration. "Can you stop looking at me like that, Joshua? You're making me look like I'm your enemy!" Bailey shielded him behind her again, her expression darkening. "The laptop's already destroyed. There's no point in you trying to continue scaring him like this. He didn't mean to do it. Are you seriously going to make things awkward for everyone now?" An announcement was made just then, informing everyone that the delayed flight was boarding soon. I picked up my damaged laptop, calmed myself down, and stood up. My arms were shaking, but my voice was steady as I said, "Get out of my way." Bailey's expression changed when she saw me walking toward the rebooking counter. "You're still planning to leave? Your laptop's already smashed up like this. You need to find a repair shop to retrieve your data first." "I'm going back home to get my backup hard drive." Derek looked up at once. "Then, we'll go back with you." I looked at him and said, "You have no right to step foot into my apartment." His face turned pale, and he looked embarrassed. Bailey's face darkened immediately. "You're being very hurtful with your words today, Joshua Abbott." I didn't answer her. Instead, I gripped my laptop and continued walking slowly toward the rebooking counter. Professor Dawson's text message popped up on my phone again. "Do you need me to contact the curator here in Ice City and have her pick you up at the airport? Her last name is Buchanan. She's near the airport now." I stared at the message for a long time. Ultimately, I replied, "No need for that, Professor. My laptop's broken. I need to retrieve my backup data from home first." I put my phone away after sending him the message. Bailey stood behind me, speaking in a low voice. "He won't bear to leave." I didn't know if she was talking to Derek or convincing herself of that. Chapter 4 I took a cab back to my apartment by myself. I leaned back in my seat, closed my eyes, and took deep breaths. The nauseating, suffocating feeling and the ringing in my ears had finally died down a little. After reaching the apartment building, the driver helped me carry my suitcase to the lobby and asked me if he needed to bring it up for me. I told him that it was fine and went in by myself, holding the broken laptop in one hand and wheeling my suitcase with the other. I entered the apartment and began to search for the backup hard drive. It was still lying in the very back of my desk drawer. I heaved a sigh of relief and went to grab the bottle of pills from my bedside table to help with my attacks. Just as I'd managed to grab it, I heard the front door open again. Bailey was standing at the entryway, her expression dark. "You really came back," she said. I stuffed the hard drive into the inner pocket of my suitcase. "Get out." But she didn't move. Instead, her gaze landed on the bottle of pills in my hand. A split second later, she suddenly snatched it from me. "Are you done throwing a tantrum, Joshua? I already said that I would buy you a new laptop and get Derek to apologize to you. How much longer are you going to give us the cold shoulder like this?" I tried to snatch my pills back. "Give them back to me." She hid them from me, her eyes blazing. "Derek is feeling guilty as hell in the lobby downstairs, and you're not even the least bit concerned about his feelings. Since when have you become such a cold-blooded creature?" "From the moment you started making bets about my life." "You're overreacting," she gritted through her teeth. "It was just one ruined competition, one broken laptop, and one cancelled trip. You're going to overlook all the years we spent together just because of these?" I stared at her. "Let's break up, Bailey Carter." She froze for a moment before bursting into laughter. However, it wasn't the joyful kind of laughter. Instead, it sounded like she was offended and simply laughing at the absurdity of it all. "A breakup? You're threatening me with a breakup now?" "It's not a threat." Not wanting to waste any more time on her, I grabbed my suitcase before trying to snatch my pill bottle from her once more. However, she stepped aside, still gripping the bottle in her hand. "Fine. You want to calm down? I'll help you." She then walked out the door. My heart sank all of a sudden. "What are you trying to do?" The fireproof security door suddenly slammed in my face, and the lock turned from the outside. I rushed over and tried the door handle, but it wouldn't budge. Bailey's voice then came through the door. "I'm making one last bet with Derek. Four hours. You will stay inside for four hours and reflect on your behavior. You'll then see how outrageous you've been behaving toward us all day today." I pounded on the door and roared, "Open the door!" "I'll take the pills away with me for now before you use your condition to act pitiful with me again," she said, her voice cold and steely. "You can call me after you've decided to speak nicely to us." The sound of her footsteps then vanished, and I could hear the ding of the elevator as she headed downstairs. The entire apartment went silent. I stood at the entryway, my palms flat against the door, my breathing suddenly turning quick and shallow. The dark and narrow entryway, the security door locked from the outside, and my missing medication were suddenly too much for me to handle. My senses were overwhelmed, and it felt like an invisible hand was reaching into my chest and squeezing my lungs. I ran back into the apartment to find my pills, but the spare pillbox was empty. The things in my backpack were still in a haphazard state from the airport incident just now. My phone slid into the innermost compartment of the backpack that had been torn open. I shakily fished it out and tried to unlock it with my fingerprint, but I failed three times in a row. Derek's text message notification popped up just then. "You should calm down, Josh. Bails is just doing this for your own good." I stared at the string of text and suddenly couldn't find it in me to laugh at the absurdity anymore. They really thought that they were doing me a favor by locking me up like this. My heart began pounding rapidly against my chest, and the edges of my vision began to turn black. Just before losing consciousness, I pushed over the shelf in the entryway, picked up a heavy brass ornament, and used every ounce of strength left in me to hurl it at the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room. The glass shattered with a loud crash. Sharp glass shards flew everywhere, some stabbing right into my arm and drawing large amounts of blood. My phone lit up again just then. It was a text message from Bailey. The line of text that showed up on the preview screen said, "It's only four hours. Stop acting so pitiful."