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Bestfriends, Broken Things
LENA SANTOS has loved her best friend KAI VASQUEZ for five years in silence-through his string of shallow flings and his devastating relationship with RACHEL LEWIS, whose psychological abuse left Kai a shell of himself. When Rachel finally discards him with the parting shot, "You're impossible to love." Lena becomes Kai's lifeline, nursing his shattered ego through panic attacks and gaslighting-induced paranoia, all while burying her own feelings. Six months later, Kai kisses her at their favorite coffee shop and whispers, "I'm done pretending." What begins as Lena's dream come true quickly curdles into something darker. Kai refuses to define their relationship ("Labels are for soup cans"), isolates her from concerned friends ("Maya's always in your ear"), and monitors her interactions with male classmates ("You smiled at him like you used to smile at me"). The ghost of Rachel lingers in every corner: The playlist titled "hers" he still listens to The way he flinches when Lena wears vanilla perfume The silver serpent ring he won't take off As Kai's behavior escalates from possessiveness to outright control, Lena makes a horrifying realization: She's not the exception to his trauma-she's the next victim in a cycle she helped perpetuate. Now she must decide: Is love enough to fix someone who's learned to weaponize their own damage? Or is walking away the only way to save herself?