Chapter 1
At two in the morning, out of nowhere, some girl added me on social media.
I’m your boyfriend’s girlfriend.
My stomach dropped.
I accepted the request. She immediately sent a photo of Liam Carter sound asleep.
I tried to play it cool.
“So, you’re number three? Or am I number three?”
She replied with a mind-blown meme.
“Neither. You’re four. I’m five.”
Then she sent another message.
“Meet me tomorrow. Let’s go find two and three.”
Later, the four of us started a group chat. Not only did we bleed that dumbass trust fund boy dry, but we also started getting together regularly for poker night.
Then Liam’s family started pressuring him to get married.
We decided to go big.
But that all started at two in the morning.
I had just finished writing and was about to shut down my computer when someone added me on social media with a note:
I’m your boyfriend’s girlfriend.
My first reaction was that it had to be a prank.
Besides me, where would Liam Carter get another girlfriend?
Sure, he was handsome and loaded, never short on female attention, but in the two years we’d been together, I had basically trained him into shape. He was planning to introduce me to his parents. We were even discussing marriage.
Where would he find the nerve to cheat?
Absolutely not.
I was about to delete the friend request when another message came through.
Or rather, one of his girlfriends.
“All right, all right. Playing games, are we?”
Now I had to see who was messing with me.
I accepted the request without hesitation.
Before I could say anything, she sent a photo of Liam asleep.
Wait. What?
How was that even possible?
Didn’t he say his uncle had died and he had gone back home for the funeral?
The photo had to be fake, right?
Before I could process it, she sent over a dozen more pictures.
Every single one was intimate. Some were clearly taken in bed.
The girl in the photos was adorable, with big round eyes and a soft round face, usually dressed in cute little outfits. Very anime-girl aesthetic.
Completely different from my glasses-wearing, stay-at-home type of style.
From the photos, they had gone to Disneyland together, to the aquarium, even to beaches in Hawaii.
What exactly was she trying to tell me with all this?
Before I could ask, she spoke first.
“Hey, girl, isn’t it wild? Turns out we’re dating the same guy. What are the odds?”
What kind of tone was that?
Was she trying to provoke me?
I cut straight to the point.
“So, you’re number three? Or am I number three?”
She sent back a mind-blown emoji.
“Neither. Based on what I know so far, you’re number four, and I’m number five.”
Was this bizarre situation actually real?
While I was still in shock, she asked, “Free tomorrow? Want to meet up and find numbers two and three together?”
Hold on.
Let me process this.
Was all of this real?
My boyfriend of two years actually had a whole roster of girlfriends?
I wasn’t his main girl, but part of some rotation schedule?
Seeing that I hadn’t replied, she asked again.
Even if what she said was true, going to find numbers two and three sounded kind of unhinged, didn’t it?
She seemed pretty chill about it, though. She sent several more messages trying to convince me.
“No, I think this is exciting. Not everyone gets this kind of experience. Most people do the one-on-one thing, but we’re different. We’ve got strength in numbers, girl. We need to unite. Can’t let more people get played. Fighting scumbags is everyone’s responsibility.”
How do I put this?
The moment I learned Liam was cheating, I was shocked and devastated.
But after reading that, I suddenly felt weirdly fired up.
A righteous light practically exploded over my head.
I now had a mission to protect humanity’s happiness.
I couldn’t let down all the number fours of the world.
I had to pull myself together.
“Yeah. That settles it. Okay, I’m in. See you tomorrow.”
Over the next few hours, she roughly explained her relationship with Liam and told me to make sure I saved all evidence of our relationship.
“Need it later.”
According to her, her name was Lily Monroe, a female gaming streamer, and Liam was her top donor.
Them getting together wasn’t surprising.
She had just accidentally discovered that Liam had more than one phone and more than one girlfriend.
He would order the same flowers multiple times, buy the same bags in repeated purchases, book the same vacation hotels over and over, and even bulk-order black stockings from the same online shop.
She couldn’t believe it either.
After all, in the year-plus they’d been together, Liam had treated her well and had mentioned meeting parents and marriage.
Until one date when they went to see a movie.
During the sad scene, she reached into her bag for tissues, and Liam casually said, “How come you all start crying at this exact part?”
She immediately thought of an online joke.
A guy had commented under a blockbuster movie post: “Did my part. Took every girl I’m talking to to see it.”
In that moment, she understood.
She said it hit her like lightning.
That night, she got him drunk on purpose, used his fingerprint to unlock his phone, and discovered that her contact name was:
Little Five — Big-Chested Airhead Streamer Lily Monroe.
She froze for a few seconds, then decided to take a cold shower.
After that, she spent over two hours collecting information on all of us.
Then she added me on social media.
We chatted all night.
Everything checked out.
By dawn, neither of us could stay awake anymore, and we finally went to sleep.