Free Web NovelChapter 244: Not the Same Guy
Stan exhaled slowly and forced the thought away before it could gain momentum.
’Not this morning. Not before coffee.’
Some existential crises could wait until after caffeine.
Sighing, Stan opened Snapchat.
Compared to his other platforms, this inbox was manageable.
Snapchat was like Whatsapp of this world, it was heavily gated. The account was only accessible to people whose QR codes he had personally scanned or whose contacts he had added himself. It functioned less like a public social-media profile and more like a private number.
And yet even that account attracted over a hundred messages a day now.
He scrolled through them quickly.
Most were from women who occupied one role or another in his increasingly complicated personal life.
Xenia checking in. Sarah sharing a minor detail about her morning.
Sophie sending a sequence of breakfast photos accompanied by the caption:
[Missing you.]
Maya forwarding a film review she was convinced he’d enjoy.
The messages had become strangely normal.
Two weeks ago, receiving this much attention would have been unimaginable. Now it was simply Tuesday.
One notification, however, caught his eye.
[Mia.]
The message had arrived late the previous night, presumably after he had finally left her family’s home.
Mia: [Did you get back to Inksea safely? 🥺 I just wanted to make sure. I forgot to mention when you visited, I’m a third-year student at Velaris Crown University. Since home is close, I usually attend lectures from here. So if you ever want to surprise me with a visit, you know exactly where to find me. 💕]
Stan couldn’t help smiling.
The message was unmistakably Mia, sweet, earnest, and only slightly transparent in its intentions.
He typed a brief reply confirming that he had arrived safely, then sent it before she could worry any further.
Afterward, he paused. A thought occurred to him.
When was the last time he’d spoken to Zack?
Several days, at least.
Between hospital visits, business complications, livestream chaos, family drama, and the ever-expanding list of women demanding portions of his attention, his conversations with his oldest friend had gradually been buried beneath an avalanche of notifications.
He searched Zack’s name. The chat surfaced instantly. Stan opened it.
Then blinked.
42 unread messages.
His eyebrows rose. That was unusual.
Zack was many things, but a fourth two message barrage generally meant one of two possibilities:
Either something had gone catastrophically wrong...
Or Zack had discovered something he considered the funniest thing in human history.
With Zack, both outcomes were equally likely.
Stan scrolled to the first unread message and began reading.
The first unread message had been sent five days ago.
Zack: [Bro. Inter-university football this weekend. Peak vs Velaris Crown. I’m captaining the squad. Come watch. Possibly even play. We’re going to demolish them.]
Stan smirked.
The next batch of messages arrived the following day.
Zack: [STAN]
Zack: [We lost. 2–1.]
Zack: [Eighty-eighth minute goal. We never recovered.]
Zack: [This is a tragedy. A genuine civilizational tragedy.]
Zack: [Peak University has never lost an inter-university match to Velaris Crown in recorded history, and I personally captained the team that ended the streak.]
Zack: [Their players came to OUR campus and beat us on OUR field.]
Zack: [ON. OUR. FIELD.]
Zack: [I’m being ridiculed online. Every comment section. Every group chat.]
Zack: [There are memes, Stan.]
Zack: [There are memes of me crying.]
Stan chuckled.
That sounded about right.
He scrolled further.
The next day’s messages appeared.
Zack: [Bro, why aren’t you answering?]
Zack: [Are you alive?]
Zack: [Have you been kidnapped?]
Zack: [Please confirm that you remain a functioning member of the species.]
Zack: [The roasting hasn’t stopped.]
Zack: [Velaris Crown students started a hashtag.]
Zack: [I refuse to dignify it by repeating it.]
Zack: [Basketball is next. Peak vs Velaris Crown. Again.]
Zack: [This time we’re going to THEIR campus.]
Zack: [If we lose this one too, I’m going to legally change my name and leave the country.]
Stan’s smile widened. Zack had always possessed an extraordinary talent for treating minor setbacks like national emergencies.
The final cluster of messages was sent the day after that.
Zack: [Stan, I need you.]
’Thats gay Zack, that’s gay.’ Stan shook his head with a smile as he kept reading the unread messages... freewebnσvel.cѳm
Zack: [Genuinely. Hear me out.]
Zack: [Half the football squad got injured during the match.]
Zack: [Three of our regular basketball players got hurt in practice yesterday.]
Zack: [The bench is thin.]
Stan already knew where this was going.
Zack: [And I’ve been thinking about the stunts you pulled in Ghost Signal.]
Zack: [The flyboard sequence.]
Zack: [The way you absorbed that bridge landing without breaking every bone in your body.]
Zack: [The compound fight in Unfinished Business.]
Zack: [The way you moved.]
Zack: [Stan, you’ve changed.]
Zack: [I don’t know what happened to you over the past month, but you are NOT the same guy I shared a dorm room with.]
Zack: [Your athleticism. Your reflexes. The way you carry yourself.]
Zack: [Bro, I’m a Theater Arts student, not a sports scientist, but I have eyes.]
Zack: [You would absolutely dominate a basketball court.]
Stan found himself unexpectedly impressed.
Zack had noticed. Of course he had. Most people hadn’t.
Most people only knew the current version of Stan. They had no baseline for comparison, no reference point from which to measure the transformation. To them, he was simply who he appeared to be now.
But Zack was different. Zack had been there before the system.
He remembered the version of Stan who struggled in the gym, who lacked confidence, who moved with the awkwardness of someone perpetually unsure of his place in a room.
He remembered the late-night study sessions, the cramped dormitory, the cheap meals, the endless complaints about money and coursework.
He remembered who Stan had been.
Which meant he could see, more clearly than anyone else, just how impossible the change really was.
And unlike everyone else, Zack wasn’t distracted by the money. He was looking directly at the person underneath it.
That was probably why he’d been one of the first to realize something wasn’t normal.
Not the wealth, not the fame, but Stan himself.
