1

On the day of our party, I lost the game Truth or Dare, so my childhood sweetheart, James Whitman, and I were forced to start the challenge of being a couple for a week.

My best friend, Karen Clark, laughed and said, "If anyone finds out, you'll both be punished."

James smiled, "Alright."

He took my hand and placed it on his abs. "How about checking it out now, my girlfriend? Are you satisfied?"

Through his thin shirt, I could clearly feel the strong and firm muscles under my hands.

I purposely squeezed it forcefully, and his muscles instantly tightened. I continued to move my hand down, and his body froze. Then, I subconsciously patted his side waist. "Eight-pack, not too bad. My boyfriend, keep it up."

Everyone roared with laughter. Seeing this, Karen complained, "This challenge was too easy for you guys, and it's as easy as pie!"

Indeed, everyone at the party felt that this challenge would be simple enough for James and I to accomplish.

After all, James and I had grown up together and had always been on intimate terms.

James and I could have physical contact as much as we wanted, and we were intimate as if we were lovers. Furthermore, he didn't mind eating my leftovers, and he even visited my house directly every Christmas and spent Christmas Eve with my family. My parents had no problem with this and took it for granted.

Before that, all my friends around me also agreed that he and I were dating by default.

James was cheerful and handsome, and he was the dream man for many girls in Arnold University. He treated girls courteously and was a great choice for their boyfriends. If someone asked me why I didn't take the opportunity to date James, I would say he was a real playboy.

James was not only well-known for his handsome appearance, but also for the frequency with which he changed his girlfriends.

James would even change girlfriends twice a month at the most frequent times.

Once when I curiously asked him why he dated different girls so frequently, he leaned on my knee lazily and played with my hair.

"Because women are horribly possessive. I don't like it when a girl loses her ego because she loves me."

James said, "You know about my family, right? My mom..."

James' mother, Laura, was madly in love with his father, Kevin, to the point where she finally became psychotic.

Laura suspected that Kevin was having an affair and no longer loved her, and she was even jealous that James would steal Kevin's attention and time. Her love was so twisted that it was suffocating.

In the end, this crazy woman stepped on the gas on a rainy night and left the man she loved in the cold river permanently.

From then on, James became an orphan.

This incident had a huge impact on James. For a long time, James just locked himself in the house in silence, not interacting with anyone, not willing to build new relationships with others. It wasn't until I went to high school with him that he slowly got better.

I rubbed the back of his neck soothingly, and he buried his entire body in my arms, his voice hushed.

"I obviously told them before we dated that I needed my own personal space, and that I didn't like being controlled and interfered with in my relations. If they didn't accept that, they shouldn't have agreed to it.

"We just made a pact, but they started interfering in my personal affairs after we were together. On top of that, they wanted me to cut you off!"

I stopped my hand on his shoulder.

James didn't notice my abnormality at all, and he continued to complain, "What kind of relationship are we in? You're my childhood sweetheart and my best friend. What makes them think I would cut you off for them?"

I glanced at James meaningfully as he lay in my arms and said, "You should keep your distance from me. After all..."

"Is it because we are different in gender?" James asked as he looked at my eyes, I pursed my lips and didn't answer.

He shook his head slowly. "It's not the same thing. Ellie, you're my best friend. Our relationship has surpassed gender limitations. Besides, I don't even need this suffocating love."

I thought he was babbling because there was no pure friendship between a man and a woman.

Anyway, I couldn't do it.

It was true that I didn't have the feelings of an ordinary friend for James, and I had loved him for many years.

However, I never dared to reveal my feelings to him.

I was afraid that I would be rejected after expressing my love for him, and we wouldn't even be friends anymore. I was even more afraid that he would treat me like he did to his ex-girlfriends, and that he wouldn't hesitate to blacklist me and leave me in disgust once he realized how possessive I was of him.

I was like a snail that only dared to cower in my shell carefully testing him to see if I was an exception for him, but unfortunately, I almost failed on the first try.

On a sunny afternoon, I looked at James, who was drinking from my water glass, and asked tentatively, "Sam asked if we were dating."

James paused and frowned, "I'll warn him to stop spreading rumors."

I smiled, "Maybe because we're too close every day."

"So what? We're best friends." James' voice sounded cold. I was stunned and looked up at him.

"How can we be dating? Once we become lovers, everything will change. No matter who it is, when they become lovers, they get possessive.

"They will gradually lose their egos."

The noise interrupted my reminiscence. I shook the water stains from my hands and pushed open the door of the private room. James was sitting in the corner waving at me enthusiastically. I walked towards him and felt glad that I hadn't expressed my feelings to him at that moment. How could people who were in love be generous and not possessive in any way?

Unless they didn't love each other at all.

However, I felt anxious at the same time. Love was like aged wine, and the longer it lasted, the stronger the fermentation became. I had vaguely sensed that my feelings for James were getting out of control and could explode at any moment.

The light inside the bar was dim. I cautiously made my way around the crowd towards the inside, but I didn't expect to trip over the cluttered chairs, and I lost my whole body balance and fell forward.

I felt desperate and thought I was unlucky today. If I fell down, my knees would surely get hurt.

However, the pain I expected didn't come, and James caught me with a strong arm. He grunted and was obviously affected by the force. I subconsciously held onto something, but immediately felt something wrong in my hand.

James grunted lightly.

My face suddenly turned flushed, and I couldn't even think twice about where I had just touched.

Stop it!

I looked up slowly in embarrassment to see James' helpless expression, and glanced down at my hand, thinking, "Damn..."

Some men were not only tall, but also had big private parts.

He came up to my ear and said, "Aren't you going to let go yet? I don't even know who's taking advantage."

I licked my dry lips and slowly let go. Then, I pretended I didn't care and gently slapped his ass. "Of course you took advantage of me. It's my turn now."

I said stubbornly, "It feels good, but you get excited so easily."

In the dim light, James' ears slowly blushed. Finally, he ran out in panic. "I'm going to the restroom."

I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Who would have thought that James, who everyone said changed girlfriends frequently, was actually an innocent virgin?

The next day, to aggravate the punishment of James and I, Karen invited us to go to the amusement park with other friends.

James took out the couple shirt he had bought with me earlier for this occasion. When we appeared in front of everyone holding hands, their uproar reached its peak.

As I was poking fun at Karen, I suddenly felt someone looking at me rudely. I turned around to see James' ex-girlfriend, Rachel Sullivan, staring indifferently at our clasped hands.

2

Rachel was wearing a cute sweatshirt with cat ears and a short red skirt that made her legs look long and straight. She came over and greeted James nicely, who nodded to her nonchalantly before continuing to talk to me.

"Do you want ice cream? I remember you can have it these days. Let's get two scoops in a cup and eat them together, okay?"

James' gaze fell on the ice cream truck in the distance, wanting to buy one. I was just about to nod when I heard a sweet voice of a girl.

Rachel asked, "James, are you dating Ellie?"

Without hesitation, James lifted our clasped hands up and waved them in front of Rachel. "Yes."

Then, he said emphatically, "Rachel, we were broken up, so don't be so close to me."

Rachel pursed her lips. "I didn't expect you guys got together finally. James, you said clearly before that you would never be in a relationship with Ellie."

James frowned slightly, "We're not in a relationship."

Rachel was frozen with surprise on her face. James said, "We've been in love for years, so it was natural for us to be together. Being in love doesn't even describe our relationship."

He said with such a straight face that Rachel's expression of joy remained on her face at that moment, looking quite ridiculous.

After a moment, Rachel's smile disappeared as she glanced at James up and down. "You seem to have changed."

James frowned, "How long had we known each other? Maybe it was because you didn't actually know me at all before."

Rachel fixed her hair with her fingers. "You didn't realize you were never this clingy before? Sure enough, people will change when they fall in love."

She said word for word, "You're becoming a stranger to me. Wait until you get possessive later, maybe you'll be jealous when Ellie talks to another man.

"Seeing that you have found true love, I am glad for you. James, it would be better for you to be happy than anything else.

"Hey, I truly envy you, Ellie. James loves you so much, and you can't blame him if he's jealous of another man in the future. He just loves you so much."

The atmosphere became awkward, and I couldn't help but look down. Rachel said outwardly that she was glad for James and was speaking up for him, but she kept being sarcastic. It was the last thing James could stand for a woman to change herself for a man, to become jealous and possessive to the point of losing her mind.

James slowly released his grip on my hand as Rachel glanced at me smugly. She did know what was going on inside James' mind, and she was good at stirring up others.