They Made Me Confess To A Bricklayer, Then I Saw The Comments Chapter 01
I lost a round of truth or dare, and someone, gasping for air from laughing so hard, dared me to tell the broke construction worker I liked him.
My childhood crush didn’t say a word. He just sat back and watched with the rest of them.
“You lost. Deal with it.”
But the guy had just come off a job site. His jeans were still caked in cement dust, and there was no way I was confessing to him.
I was about to snap when the reader feed started rolling in.
[So our poor lovesick second male lead got a do-over. In his last life, the drama-queen second female lead demanded a divorce, he got distracted while driving, and died in a wreck.]
[This time, he got smarter and just sat back while the male lead tore apart the second female lead’s family business. Her whole family went down.]
[Then the second male lead levels up into a business mogul, teams up with the male lead, and our female lead shows up with both of them wrapped around her finger… The second female lead? Roadkill. Deserved.]
Wait. The drama-queen second female lead… that was me? And the broke construction worker was my husband?
My brain short-circuited. The word slipped out before I could stop it.
“…Husband?”
***
The room went dead silent.
[??? Did she just call him husband??]
[No way, she actually said it?? Is she for real right now?]
Chloe Bennett recovered first. She’d been the loudest one laughing.
She pressed a hand over her mouth, barely hiding her smirk. “God, Serena, you really committed to the bit, huh?”
Then she turned to the rest of the room, trying to smooth things over, one lazy finger tilted toward Rowan Hayes in the doorway.
“Look at his face. She completely broke his brain.”
I looked up and caught the gleam in Chloe’s eyes. She wasn’t trying to rescue me. She was savoring this.
The reader feed started up again.
[Chloe is such a sweetheart. She’s even trying to save face for the drama queen.]
[This is why she’s the female lead. She and Serena aren’t even in the same league.]
I couldn’t care less about Chloe right then. Not when I’d just caught Rowan’s reaction.
The second that word left my mouth, his whole body had gone stiff. He looked up at me, and something I couldn’t name flickered across his face.
[Oh my god, his ears are RED.]
[No way, the second male lead is still down bad even after getting reborn??]
[She literally got him killed in his last life and he’s STILL like this?? This man is cooked. Absolutely cooked.]
Before I could read him, he turned away. Whatever I’d seen, if I’d seen anything at all, was gone.
His voice came out rough.
“That’s not funny, Serena.”
He walked out. The cement on his jeans left a faint gray streak across the tile behind him.
“Was that really necessary, Serena?”
Preston Crawford’s voice cut in from behind me.
“It was a dare. You were supposed to confess, not call a random guy your husband. What’s wrong with you?”
I looked at Preston. I’d spent ten years pining after him, and for the first time, I felt nothing at all.
Chloe leaned into his side, her voice going soft. “Preston, let it go.”
Then she added, like it had just slipped out:
“I mean… everyone knows she’s been into you for years. She was probably just trying to get your attention.”
The whole room turned to stare. Their eyes were full of mockery, judgment, and amusement. Nothing kind.
[Chloe really is an angel. She actually defended the drama queen.]
[Hold on. If Serena’s into Preston, why’d she call someone else her husband?]
[Playing hard to get, obviously. Drama Queen 101.]
I stared at the picture-perfect couple in front of me, and something finally clicked. I’d been so blind it was almost funny.
Not once tonight had Preston said a single word in my defense.
And Chloe’s peacemaker act? She hadn’t been defending me. She’d handed my humiliation to the whole room with a ribbon on it.
[This drama queen used to follow Preston around every single day. Now she’s playing hard to get?]
[She bought Preston a whole Maserati, and he didn’t even look at it, lmao.]
[Wait. Are those the car keys in Chloe’s hand??]
That last comment knocked the air out of me.
Last month, I’d drained six months of my allowance and added every penny I got for my eighteenth birthday. All to buy Preston the Maserati he never shut up about.
And he gave it to Chloe?
Something cold settled in my chest. A laugh scraped out of me, and when I spoke, my voice was steady.
“Who said I like you?”
“Preston, do you really think you’re worth it?”
The room went still.
Preston’s expression darkened. “What did you just say?”
“I said what I said. You’re not worth it.”
The silence stretched, thick and suffocating.
Preston’s jaw clenched. He stepped toward me, his hand snatching my arm.
I didn’t stick around to hear his excuses. I spun on my heel and went after Rowan.
“Serena! Get back here!”