Life in the Friend Zone

"OW FUCK!" I shouted across the shop. I had put a bracelet on my wrist that apparently had the Chinese word for FRIEND engraved in the metal surface. It immediately burned my wrist like a hot iron and I tried to pull the bracelet off. No use.

I looked at the chain and it had woven itself into my skin, small burn marks coming out from the outline of the metal.

"Everything okay?" Asked my lovely girlfriend Emily. She looked at the bracelet and the burn. "Holy shit. What did you do?" She looked at me with annoyance.

"Me? I just put this bracelet on and it burned me. I didn't do anything." I protested.

"Ahh but you did everything." The shopkeeper appeared right behind us. "The curse of friendship. A lonely but fruitful life awaits you. I would've charged you $20 for it but now that you used it it'll be $50." I looked shocked until he nodded over to the big wall of a man standing by the entrance. He had a mean looking face on him and I didn't wanna mess with that.

"Babe do you have $10?" I asked Emily. She sighed and handed the guy a $50 bill. Then she grabbed my wrist and lead me angrily out of the shop. We walked out of the small Chinatown street and back into the park.

"Look, I don't think this is working out." Emily said flatly. I had to sit down, that came out of nowhere.

"Wait, what?"

"Look, this isn't working for me. I'm really sorry I thought we were good together but I think I just need some time to myself for a bit. We can still be friends if you want but as for a couple... I can't do it anymore." The tone of her voice held only some guilt maybe but nothing else.

Just to clarify, Emily was my life. She was smart and beautiful and driven and we had the most fun together. I was going to marry her once we graduated college and her family was all on board. I had gone to Michigan for Winter Break for the last 3 years to visit her family instead of going to see mine. Then we would fly out to California in the summer to see my family. They all loved Emily MORE than me! I couldn't believe she was so neutral about this realization.

"Okay. How long have you felt like this?" I asked. I was sad but the way she wasn't being a bitch actually made things better? At least it wasn't ending like some high school thing.

"I don't know. A while I guess. I'm really sorry, John." She put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a smile. "Like I said, we can still be friends. If you can forgive me, of course." She looked worried.

"Well of course we can be... friends..." The curse of friendship. The shopkeepers words echoed in my head. _A lonely but fruitful life awaits you. _Did this have to do with the bracelet? I looked down to see the bracelet had vanished. My wrist now had the symbols for friendship etched into my skin. I did not believe in the supernatural at all. I was as big a skeptic as anyone I knew, it kinda annoyed Emily a bit. But Occam's razor would suggest that this bracelet just ended my relationship. As crushed as I was, I was determined to figure this out. I looked up and smiled at Emily.

"Of course we can be friends." I said again, more firmly this time. "You are far too important to me to let go of you now. Thank you for being straight with me and not making this a thing also." I said truthfully.

"Sure, it's not anything you did. You're a great guy. I just don't feel it anymore." She shrugged.

"Well I feel hungry." I said. My mind was processing what was happening from an experimental viewpoint but I could feel emotions creeping in. I wanted to keep my emotions at bay for as long as I could. I could breakdown later at home.

Emily smiled and we walked to the hot dog stall in the middle of the park. "I'll pay since you got my crazy vanishing bracelet." I said smiling.

"Vanishing? Woah! What the... did you lose it?" She asked, taking my hand in hers. The warmth of her touch was getting to me a bit. "It did brand you! What a fucking weird shop." She said laughing a little, then she looked up apologetically. "Sorry, I was laughing because of how weird it was. Does it still hurt?" She asked.

"Not really. It tingles a bit but that's going away." I said, getting the hot dogs. She leaned down and kissed the mark.

"There. All better." She grinned and took her food. I looked at her sideways.

"Did you forget you just broke up with me?"

"What? No. Why?" She asked.

"Well you just kissed me. Isn't that a little intimate?" I asked.

She looked puzzled. "Not for us. We're still friends right?" She looked worried. I had a theory about what 'fruitful' meant in the curse. I decided that Emily would be the best person to test my theory on since she was JUST my girlfriend.

"Right. Friends who would do anything for each other right?" I asked.

"Of course! We're best buds." She punched my arm playfully. She took a small bite of her food and then I leaned over.

"Best buds who still kiss each other?" I got closer to her face. She gently took my lips in hers and gave me a tender and loving kiss. Then she pulled away and breathed heavily.

"Yep." She smiled. "Even that." She blushed.

I smiled at her cuteness. I also smiled because of this 'curse' and the implications of it. I could be friends with a lot of people. I could be friends with anyone. Friends do things for friends. My emotions about the breakup completely subsided and I started thinking about all the girls I could be friends with.

"Uh. John?" Emily asked still blushing.

"Yeah, Em."

"You uh. Need help with that?" She pointed to my crotch and then got to her knees with a big smile on her face. Holy shit was she gonna blow me in public? We had talked about it but she never wanted to go through with it.

She took my cock out and started to lick it with her warm tongue, I looked around to see if people would notice. An older lady smiled at me as my cock was engulfed.

"What a sweet man. Feeding your lady friend like that." She smiled and kept walking. Holy shit nobody cared. She even approved! I wasn't sure how this was a curse at all. The excitement of getting blown in a public park pushed me over the edge and I came down Em's throat without telling her.

"Mmmm. Someone was horny. Thank you for feeding me that delicious seed. Ready to go home?" She looked up at me smiling.

What was I ready for?