Meet Her for Me

My cousin used my gaming account to start an online relationship with one of my teammates. However, after video calling her, he decided she was too gorgeous to be real. "A girl that hot wouldn't need to date online. She'd have enough guys chasing her to fill a stadium. It's gotta be a face filter. Just go meet her for me, bro. If she's busted in person, I'll actually throw up." In my last life, I turned him down. He was too much of a coward to go himself, so he just sent her a breakup message and called it done. Yet when he later found out that his online girlfriend really was that stunning in person, he turned all his rage on me and shoved me off a building. "If you'd gone to meet her for me back then, I wouldn't have lost her. This is all your fault! You deserve to die!" When I was reborn and he asked me again to meet her on his behalf, I said yes with a smile. Chapter 1 "Sure, I'll go meet your online girlfriend for you." My cousin Jared Trent's face flashed with disbelief. "I set it up for Saturday afternoon at Corwin Plaza. You're really going? Don't you work overtime every Saturday? Are you seriously into this AI catfish? She's gotta be hideous under all those filters!" I did not bother looking at him and started packing up the things on my desk. Jared rolled his eyes and ribbed me. "Fine, go ahead, then. Women are all the same with the lights off anyway. But you'd better pray she's not some whale, or you'll really be getting the short end of the stick!" He laughed, then turned and headed out to grab food. Only then did I stare in the direction he had left, my eyes filled with nothing but hate. I never could have imagined that I would be given a second chance at life. Last time, all I had done was refuse to go meet his online girlfriend in his place. Then he saw her real photos surface on the gaming forum and found out she truly was gorgeous. He lost his mind and shoved me off the building. He had been too much of a coward to go himself, afraid she would turn out to be ugly, yet he pinned every bit of the blame on me. Jared had no idea what it felt like to have your neck snap and your bones puncture through organs. It had hurt so, so much. Every ounce of pain I went through, I would make him repay a thousandfold. He blamed me for costing him his future wife, so far be it from me to disappoint. … Saturday came quickly. I waited outside Corwin Plaza with a small gift I had prepared. A few minutes later, the girl from the photos strolled in, fashionably late. When she spotted me already waiting at our meeting spot, she flashed me a smile. "Well, looks like you've got some manners after all. You know not to keep a girl waiting." She was even prettier in person than in her photos, with a voice as bright and clear as a bell. I scratched the back of my head, a little embarrassed, and held out the gift with a shy grin. "I got you a little something. I wasn't sure what to pick, so I went with that lipstick everyone's been raving about. Hope you like it." When she saw the designer lipstick, she froze for a second, then waved her hands. "This is way too nice. We've only known each other for two weeks. I can't..." She would not take it, so I nudged the bag toward her again. "Don't overthink where we started. At least right now, we're friends, right? There's nothing wrong with a gift between friends." I gave her a warm, genuine smile. She smiled back sweetly, took the bag, and held out her hand. "You're really not what I expected. I'm Chloe Atherton. You can call me Chlo." Jared had told me his online girlfriend's name was Claire Moore, so she had clearly been using a fake name the whole time. I took Chloe's hand and gave it a gentle shake. "I'm Mason Kendall. Mace's fine." The rest of the date went smoothly. We caught a movie, grabbed dinner, and discovered we had a surprising number of hobbies in common. "I mean, I only agreed to date you online because you were insane at the game, but you're actually a pretty great guy in person too. Did I just luck out?" Chloe hooked her arm through mine, playful as ever. I could not help but laugh. I reached over to ruffle her hair. "With someone as fun as you? I'm the lucky one." Chapter 2 After that, we exchanged numbers. I also learned Chloe was a senior at a nearby university. I told her I needed to lend my main gaming account to a relative and had her add my alt account instead. Chloe did not suspect a thing and promptly deleted the main one. When I got home, Jared rushed over, practically buzzing. "So? How'd it go? Was she actually hot, or ugly enough to haunt your dreams?" I furrowed my brow and put on a pained expression. "She's a nice girl. Don't talk about her like that." That only made Jared laugh harder. "I knew it! She's totally hideous! I saw that she deleted me too. "Disgusting. Uses AI photos to catfish people, and the second she gets called out, she rage-deletes everyone. Pathetic." He spat a few more insults, then finally settled down and went back to his desk to keep gaming. I stared at his back and lowered my gaze. Jared was my uncle's only son. The moment Uncle Max heard I was renting a place near Jared's university for work, he wasted no time shipping him over. "He's your own cousin! The dorms are miserable. How could you let him suffer like that? I'll give you 500 a month for groceries. Just let him stay. You boys can look out for each other." I had wanted to refuse, but Mom talked me into it. She was a shrewd woman who had never mistreated me, but in her eyes, her brother's family always came before her own. Whenever they needed anything, she gave everything she had without a second thought, never imagining she was raising a pack of ingrates. In my last life, after I died, my spirit lingered. I watched with my own eyes as my uncle's family hounded my parents into dropping the charges. My parents were simple, honest people, but the grief of losing their son made them refuse. They were determined to make Jared pay for what he had done. My uncle's family responded by setting fire to our home, and my parents burned alive. With no one left to pursue the case, it went cold. I pulled my gaze away and buried the hatred behind my eyes. In the days that followed, Jared busied himself chasing new girls while I went to see Chloe every week. Whatever she wanted, I got it for her. Whatever she wanted to eat, no matter how far, I took her. When I found out she was stressed about the data analysis for her senior thesis, I stepped in and walked her through the entire process using my own experience. "Wow, you're amazing! My advisor basically makes us figure everything out ourselves. If we're stuck, we're supposed to ask the upperclassmen, but they don't even give us the time of day. "I spent almost two months just figuring out how to compile the data, and I haven't even started on the analysis!" I gave her a gentle pat on the head and told her not to worry. I had mastered all of it back when I was finishing my own degree. "Once your thesis is approved, I'll help you polish up your resume. The HR manager at my company is someone I went to school with. I can ask her to put in a good word." Chloe's eyes lit up on the spot, and she sent over her resume before I could blink. She had made Dean's list all four years, taken first place in a statewide entrepreneurship competition, and won a regional innovation contest. "Your resume's seriously impressive. I figured with how much you game, your academics would be..." She caught the teasing in my voice and punched my arm twice in mock outrage. "Excuse me? Gaming is gaming, and studies are studies. I know how to keep my priorities straight, thank you very much!" I gave her nose a light poke and grinned. "Good to know. Turns out our Chloe's got some serious brains, after all." Chloe threw herself into my arms, beaming. "That's only because I've got such a great mentor! I am so lucky!" Chloe's beauty was only the surface. What I saw was her intelligence, her courage, her kindness, and her resilience. I had approached her with nothing but revenge in mind. However, after truly getting to know her, I had fallen hopelessly and irreversibly in love with her. "Chloe, will you be my girlfriend? For real this time." Chapter 3 I took Chloe to the Ferris wheel and told her how I felt when the car reached the very top. Her cheeks flushed red, and she nodded. That was when we shared our first kiss. Just like that, after a month of dating, we made it official. I looked at Chloe and, like a magician, pulled a lipstick from my sleeve. The second she saw it, she excitedly planted a kiss on my cheek. I walked her back to campus, then headed home. The moment I stepped through the door, I found Jared still glued to his game. He did not even look up when I came in, just pointed at the leftover takeout on the table. "You weren't home today, so I ordered delivery. Pay me back for it later. My parents already gave you the food money." I frowned. The days with Chloe had been so happy that I had nearly forgotten about this parasite. I peeled the price sticker off the takeout box and transferred him 40 bucks without a word. It was laughable, really. The 500 dollars a month Uncle Max sent was supposed to cover groceries, and I had always cooked at home to save money. Jared used to at least pretend to be low-maintenance, but now he could not go a single day without ordering takeout, then demanded I reimburse him every time because the food money "covered it." I had once tried handing the full allowance directly to Jared and letting him manage it himself. The very next day, Uncle Max showed up at my door, accusing me of shirking my responsibilities. "Mason, did you go somewhere today?" Jared's question snapped me out of my thoughts. I turned to look at him and asked why he wanted to know. He leaped out of his gaming chair, closed the distance between us, and took a long, deliberate sniff. "You smell like women's perfume." My entire body went rigid. Did he know? Seeing the tension on my face, Jared slapped me on the back with that sleazy grin of his and laughed. "Relax, I'm not gonna tell your mom. But come on, man, a massage parlor girl? You're not grossed out by that? I get it, you've been grinding nonstop since graduation and you're pent up, but you don't gotta go to those places. "Take a page out of my book. Find some average-looking chick online, meet up, hit the lights, and you're golden." The words made my stomach turn, but I swallowed it down. When I did not react, Jared lost interest and slunk back to his game. I stared at him. Graduation season was approaching for Jared too, and if I wanted to destroy him completely, now was the perfect time. With this family, it was either an endless war of attrition or one clean kill. Once I had made up my mind, I swapped a shift at work and took the train home the next day. "Mom, tell Uncle Max that Jared needs to move back to the dorms. I'm exhausted from work, and he keeps me up every night with his noise. Tell him to get back to campus. It's graduation season, and he's gaming all day. What is he even doing with his life?" I laid it out the second I walked through the door. Mom was always quick to help her brother's family, but when she saw the look on my face, she picked up the phone. "Max, maybe you should have Jared move back to the dorms. Mason's at a critical point for his promotion right now, and we want him to get proper rest. I heard Jared's in his final semester too, so being back on campus would make it easier to work on his thesis. Don't you think?" Uncle Max exploded on the other end of the line, his voice sharp enough to hear from where I stood. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? Do you know how much the dorms cost? So he gets a promotion and suddenly can't be bothered with his own cousin? We're paying him, you know! Don't think I don't know he's been skimming 200, 300 a month off the top. My boy came home last time looking like he'd lost weight! "Didn't your son just graduate last year? Just have him write Jared's thesis! Problem solved!" Before Uncle Max could finish, I snatched the phone from Mom's hand and cut him off, my voice ice-cold, "Getting caught ghostwriting a thesis means disciplinary action. In serious cases, it means jail time. What exactly are you asking me to do?" The sound of my voice only made Uncle Max bolder. "I knew it. Your mom didn't just bring this up out of nowhere. You went running home to tattle, didn't you!" Chapter 4 "Oh, come on. Jail, schmail. Just be careful and don't get caught by the university. It's not that big a deal!" Before I could say another word, Uncle Max hung up. The dial tone buzzed in my ear. I let the phone drop and set my jaw. If they wanted to spit in my face after I tried to be civil, then I had no reason to hold back. Mom came up behind me and patted my back. "Mason, your uncle's not wrong, you know. Just be careful about it. Your cousin worked hard to get into college. We're all family. If we can help, we should. Someday they'll return the favor." Return the favor? Right. The only favor they had ever returned was shoving me off a building. Yet I knew that no matter what I said, Mom would tell me to grit my teeth and bear it. She always had. I said nothing. I just stared at her, my face full of disappointment, and slammed the door on my way out. When I got back to the apartment, Jared was waiting for me, just as I had expected. His expression was dark with fury. "So that's what you're up to! Stealing my dad's money is one thing, but now, you're trying to kick me out? Do you have any conscience at all? I'm warning you. If you keep trying to get rid of me, I'll make sure everyone you know turns their back on your family. "You know what happens if my dad makes a few calls back home, right? Your family's problems will be a whole lot bigger than this." Uncle Max knew plenty of thugs in their hometown, and he had been riding their coattails for years. I clenched my teeth so hard that they ached. My parents lived in the city, but no one could predict what those people might do. That was the real reason Mom always caved. Whenever Uncle Max so much as hinted at rallying the hometown crowd, the threat spoke for itself. When I did not respond, Jared took my silence as surrender and broke into a smug grin. "Nothing to say now, huh? Oh, and that thesis? The university's already on my case about it. Get it done. If I miss next month's deadline, it's gonna be a real problem for me." He turned around and went right back to his game. I stood there, jaw tight. … In the days that followed, I quietly sat with a notebook and put together the thesis materials, squeezing in time between sessions to see Chloe. When Jared saw me working on it, he assumed I had fallen in line for good and could not resist rubbing it in. "See? Being obedient's a good look on you. If you'd just behaved from the start, we wouldn't have had all this drama." With the thesis seemingly taken care of, Jared threw himself even harder into partying. He went out drinking every night and barely came home at all. Then one day, he asked how much was left. I told him just the formatting. "Cool. I've gotta turn it in the day after tomorrow, so pull an all-nighter tonight and wrap it up. Once it's done, I'll have my dad put in a good word for your family back home." He strolled out the door to go drinking, and I knew my window had arrived. That night, I hired a moving crew at no small expense. Within two hours, every last thing in the apartment was gone. I called the landlord to let him know I had moved out. I did not even ask for the deposit back. By the time Jared stumbled home the next morning, still reeking of last night's drinks, the place was stripped bare. "Hey, Mason. That kid who says he's your cousin won't leave the apartment." When the landlord called me, I could already picture the look on Jared's face. "That guy's been harassing me for days. That's why I moved. He's out of his mind. Put him on the phone. I'll talk to him myself." A second later, Jared's screaming flooded through the speaker. "Where the hell are you? You know my thesis is due! You think you can just disappear on me?" I held the phone away from my ear and waited for him to run out of steam. Then, at my own pace, I finally said, "Can't graduate? Aw, that's a real shame." Then I called out the landlord's name, loud enough for Jared to hear, and told him everything left in the apartment was free to toss. The landlord said he understood and would have the place cleared out, then hung up. He was a local man. Getting rid of one punk who refused to leave was hardly a challenge. Chapter 5 It was time Jared learned what it felt like to take a beating of his own. Sure enough, Mom called not long after. "Mace, where are you? Jared says you disappeared. He can't get ahold of you." I did not answer her question. I simply said, "Mom, I got a girlfriend." She went silent for a beat, then her voice lit up. "Really? What's her family like? How old is she? What does she do? When are you bringing her home? I'll have a gift ready for her!" Mom's excitement was palpable through the phone, but my drawn-out silence drained it away. "Mom, when I get married someday, I'm going to need money for a lot of things. Uncle Max's family has been bleeding us dry long enough. Even if it's just for my sake, stop getting involved with them." The other end went quiet. I sent her a photo of Chloe and me. "Mom, do you remember what happened with Mr. Holbrook's family?" Mr. Holbrook used to have a wonderful daughter. She sent money home every month, visited every year, and eventually brought home an impressive boyfriend. Yet after they got married, his wife insisted on funneling the wedding gift money to her own brother. She destroyed her daughter's marriage, and the entire family fell apart. "Sweetheart, we're not that bad off. Your uncle's a good person at heart. Besides, he knows people back home. If something were to happen..." She was still clinging to hope. I did not push any further and only left her with one reminder. "In three days, Uncle Max is going to show up at your doorstep and cause a scene. When that happens, you will see exactly what kind of people they are." I hung up and sent Chloe a message: [I moved to a new place. Want to come see it?] Once she confirmed, I sent Uncle Max a series of texts. [I already moved out. Ghostwriting a thesis isn't something I'm willing to do. Tell him to put in the work himself.] [My mom might roll over for your family, but I won't.] [Once my career takes off, I'm bringing both my parents to live with me. After that, our families are done.] I hit send and blocked his number. When he could not reach me, he would go after my parents. That was exactly when my plan would fall into place. Chloe had already passed her thesis defense and, with her polished resume, landed offers from three different companies. By the time she arrived at my new apartment, I had a full spread of home-cooked dishes waiting on the table to celebrate. "Oh, my God! You can cook too? This looks amazing!" I laughed, handed her a fork, and teased her. "I made all of this just for your celebration. Don't get used to it. Normally I wouldn't lift a finger for you." Chloe pouted, sat down, and dug in, her face glowing with happiness. The agony of my last life was still seared into my memory, but through some strange twist of fate, I had found someone to call my own. In a way, Jared had done me one unintentional favor. After dinner, I walked Chloe through each of the three companies, breaking down their strengths and weaknesses based on my own experience and current market trends. I gave her the analysis, but the final decision was hers to make. She had her own mind, and I was glad for it. Chloe ultimately chose a fast-growing mid-size firm and sent her acceptance to their HR department. To steer clear of Jared, I took my annual leave and whisked Chloe off to the next state over for a three-day trip. It was the very day we returned that Mom called. Her voice came through choked with tears, thick with grief and desperation. "Mace! Come home, please! Your uncle, he... He's trying to ruin us! He brought people to our door. They won't leave until you come back, and they already hit your father! I was wrong... I was so, so wrong!"