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Chapter 22: My Best Friend Has Investment Potential?!

Chapter 22: My Best Friend Has Investment Potential?!

They made their way to the refreshment section after the workout, and Jenna picked first.

Something green, obviously.

Half the menu sounded like it existed specifically to make healthy living miserable. Adrian went with the one drink that sounded like it had been allowed to taste good.

They paid, collected their cups, and sat. That was when Jenna actually looked at him.

He leaned back, one arm draped over the side of the chair, and the workout shirt that had seemed perfectly normal an hour ago was doing a noticeably worse job of hiding what his shoulders and arms had turned into.

Her eyes lingered.

"You’ve been working out."

"Um." He took a sip. "Yeah. Kinda."

"Since when?"

"Recently."

She studied him the way she used to study a problem set that didn’t add up. "You didn’t look like this before."

He glanced down at himself like he was checking too. "Have you been keeping photographic evidence of what I used to look like?"

"I don’t need photographic evidence. I have eyes."

"Fair enough."

He gave her a look. She smiled into her cup. Easy. Familiar. The kind of back-and-forth they’d run a hundred times without either of them having to think about it.

Then she brought up Monday. The new semester. How he felt about it. Not excited, he told her. She said she was. Already bracing for how competitive it would get. She wasn’t performing for him, just talking the way she always used to, and he found himself actually listening.

The drink hit cold first, sweet, then a thin edge of acid underneath that woke his whole mouth up. After the workout it felt like something clicking back into place. He took another sip. Then his phone buzzed.

Nutritional value: 1.2g

Boosting complete.

Nutritional boost: 2.4g

He stared at the screen a beat too long.

Apparently I get value even for eating like garbage. Good to know.

He could survive on junk and the system still called it a win.

Jenna caught the silence. "You okay?"

"I’m fine." He said it too fast, and she looked at him a beat too long before deciding not to push, going back to blabbering about university instead.

He answered the semester question the same way he answered everything; plainly, no flourish. She called him boring for it. He protested, although he partly knew it was true.

Then. While she was still talking, his attention slipping sideways for half a second as his phone buzzed again. He checked her first, made sure she was still mid-thought, then let his eyes drop to the screen.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

ⓘ Target Assessment Available

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Name: Jennifer Brooks

Age: 18

Relationship: Friend

Investment Potential: ???

Assessment Status: Incomplete

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Assessment cannot be completed.

Target consent required.

Would Host like to initiate Target Registration?

Hmm. His eyes stopped on Incomplete.

This wasn’t just another notification he could just swipe past. This was Jenna. His friend. Who probably had him filed somewhere in the brother zone at this point.

He looked over. She was still talking. He hadn’t heard a word of it.

Then she stopped. "What."

He blinked the interface away. "What?."

"You’ve done that twice."

"Done what?"

"Stared at me. Today."

He took another drink, buying himself half a second. "Maybe you’re interesting."

She paused. Then she laughed. "I’m sorry. Was that a compliment?"

"Maybe."

She smiled.

Eventually Maya’s name came up, the way it always eventually did. Jenna asked if he’d heard from her.

"We’re done," he said.

She didn’t look surprised. Maybe she’d already put it together on her own. "How are you handling it?"

"I’m fine."

She gave him the look again, the one that checked the words against his face and didn’t find a match.

"I’m genuinely fine," he added, and she studied him a moment longer before saying something he wasn’t ready for.

"You actually seem better."

He didn’t answer that one.

Not because it was a check-in to see if he was secretly falling apart somewhere quiet, but because she was comparing him, right now, to the person she used to know. And apparently there was a difference she could see from the outside.

The assessment stayed lodged in the back of his skull through her answer, along with how exactly he was going to explain the system to that. He’d had some thoughts.

But they all sounded dumb out loud, so he came at it from the stupidest possible angle available to him.

"Jenna."

"Hm?"

"If something strange happened to me, you’d tell me if I started acting weird, right?"

She lowered her cup slowly. "That is a terrible way to start a sentence."

He sighed. "Forget it."

"No. I’m kidding, Adrian." She leaned in. "Now I want to know."

He looked at her. She looked back, unmoving.

"You’ve known me for years," she said. "You can tell me anything."

He was quiet for a second. Then. "Okay. Yesterday, something happened to me."

Her expression sharpened. "What happened?"

"Why are you two hiding over here?"

He paused. Closed his eyes for half a second.

Drew.

Drew arrived with his own drink already half gone, looking between them like he’d walked in on something. "You guys seriously abandoned me."

"We didn’t abandon you," Jenna said.

"You left me alone for almost ten minutes."

"You’re eighteen, Drew." A pause. "You’re not a kid anymore."

"That’s not the point."

Before Adrian could get another word out, Drew leaned over, took his cup, tipped it back, and immediately made a face like he’d been personally wronged. "Jesus. What is this?"

Adrian pulled it back. "My drink, jackass."

"Yeah, I can see that."

"Get your own."

"I wanted yours."

"Why?"

Drew looked at the cup like it might explain itself. "I don’t know."

Jenna laughed. Adrian just stared at him. Drew took in his posture, the slow way he moved his arm to reach for the cup again. "You look dead."

"I’m fine."

"How long have you even been training?"

"I’ve not trained in the past ten minutes."

"Then you’re definitely dead." Drew’s eyes drifted toward the recovery area past the juice bar. "You should get a massage."

"No."

"Sauna?"

"No."

"Steam room?"

"No."

Jenna took a sip, unbothered. "I think you should."

He looked at her. "You’re supposed to be my friend."

"I am. That’s why I’m telling you to go."

Two against one. He knew exactly how this ended. He held out for about ten more seconds before giving in.

The recovery area was quieter, the gym noise thinning out behind them as they crossed toward reception.

Drew asked about the package, and the receptionist ran through it. Sauna steam room, a short massage after. Seventy-five each, times three. Two hundred and twenty-five dollars for a sauna and a massage he hadn’t asked for.

Drew was already reaching for his wallet. "I’ll pay mine."

"So will I," Jenna said.

"You guys don’t worry." Adrian had already pulled his card out. "I’ve got it."

"Bro."

"I said stop." Adrian said. "C’mon... I’ve been a douche bag to you guys. Let me redeem myself at the very least."

The receptionist ran the card. He barely registered the number on the screen.

Yesterday morning, that number would have sat with him the rest of the day. Now it barely made a dent, and that, more than the amount itself, was what made him pause. How much has actually changed in less than twenty-four hours.

He didn’t let himself sit with it. The receipt printed. She handed it over.

"You’re all set."

"Thanks."

His phone buzzed in his pocket.

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DAILY TASKS

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☑️ Eat one proper meal. Preferably in the company of another person. ⓘ

☐ Maintain personal hygiene. ⓘ

☑️ Accumulate 90 minutes of physical activity. ⓘ

☐ Get at least 7 hours of sleep. ⓘ

☑️ Have at least one meaningful social interaction. ⓘ

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That was it?

His eyes moved to Jenna, then Drew, then the receipt still folded in his hand. Was it the conversation? Just being here with them? Paying for all three of them?

The system didn’t say. It never said.

Before he could chase the thought any further, the phone buzzed again as a text fell in. His eyes caught the sender’s name almost instantly.

Rose.

An address sat underneath her name. Probably the one they’d agreed on.

So she sent it after all

His thumb hovered over the message, ready to view it.

He locked the screen instead. He had a mission already. Acquire a target first. After that, he’d meet his fake girlfriend.

With that, he slid the phone back into his pocket.