Oh, sweet readers, gather round, for I have stumbled upon a tale~ from the depths of Reddit that’s juicier than a peach in the summer sun. This isn’t just any story; it’s a real-life drama with more twists than a pretzel factory. I’m here, your beloved and sassy Roger, to dish out all the deets with my Hot Take tucked at the end. So, buckle up, buttercups, we’re diving headfirst into the sea of love, sickness, and oh yes, betrayal. Alright, maybe not betrayal, but certainly a misunderstanding large enough to sink the Titanic all over again.
Our tragic hero, let’s call him Romeo, for the sake of romance, finds himself in a modern-day love story with his Juliet, Celine. They’ve been on cloud nine, painting the town red with their love… until exams hit Romeo like a truck. He’s barely surviving a devastating storm of studies, forsaking all mortal contact, including with our dear Juliet.
Now here’s where it gets spicy, my friends. Amidst this academic tornado, Romeo falls gravely ill, struck down not by Cupid’s arrow, but by a virus most foul. With his roommates gone, and Juliet a fair maiden afar, who should come to his rescue but Kaya, a friend and the unintentional Yoko Ono in this love story. Due to an unfortunate series of events that even Lemony Snicket would find absurd, Romeo ends up in Kaya’s bed, not with frolic and folly, but with fever and forgetfulness.
Imagine the horror as Juliet walks in, not to find her beau pining for her in his sickbed, but rather shirtless in the bed of what she might see as the competition. Oh, the humanity! Despite the innocence of it all, with Romeo being more delirious than deceitful, Juliet’s heart shatters faster than glass under a sledgehammer. She storms out, leaving our hapless Romeo not just sick and feeble, but single.
Now, as I sit here, tapping away on my keyboard, I can’t help but think of the lessons to be learnt. Romeo reflects on his grave mistake of letting exams come between him and his fair maiden, realizing too late that ignoring one’s partner in times of stress is akin to inviting disaster into your heart’s home. He’s left with nothing but the bitter taste of regret and a resolve to juggle life’s lemons better in the future.
**Roger’s Hot Take:** Sweet pickles, this story has more layers than my famous lasagna. While Romeo’s intentions might have been pure as driven snow, the road to single-town is paved with good intentions (and poor communication, apparently). Let this be a sparkling, glittering lesson to all you lovebirds out there: balance and communication are the secret spices in the recipe of love. Don’t let studying, or feverish delirium, lead you to make decisions that land you in hot water (or someone else’s bed, for that matter).
To our forlorn Romeo, it’s clear as a sunny day in July that sometimes, love demands more than good intentions – it requires action, presence, and above all, communication. So talk, my dear readers, talk until your voice is hoarse and your heart is content. For in this wild world of love and loss, the only way to keep the boat afloat is to paddle together, through sickness and in health, exams and all.
And with that, I drop the mic. Stay saucy, my friends, and remember, in the kingdom of love, communication is king. Until next time, this is your unusually wise and always wonderful Roger, signing off with the hope that our protagonist finds peace, love, and maybe a hint of extra credit on his exams.
Original story
My girlfriend Celine (20F) and I (21M) have been dating for about 7 months now, but I had feelings for her for like 3 years beforehand. I have also been sharing a flat with 2 other girls and one other guy. One of the girl’s is Kaya, and we’re pretty good friends.
As it just so happens, Celine’s ex cheated on her with Kaya… Kaya hadn’t known they were together at the time. So when I first brought Celine over to my place earlier into our relationship, she told me about what’d happened.
I realized then that things would be messy and I asked Celine if this was a dealbreaker for her, but she said she wasn’t sure as she was aware that Kaya didn’t realise she was facilitating cheating.
The next day, Celine said she thought it over and that she held no resentment towards Kaya but was insecure about herself and felt uneasy that we lived in the same house. We both agreed to continue with the relationship and set our boundaries.
One of them was that Kaya and I won’t sleep over in each other’s rooms anymore. We used to have movie nights on Fridays – Kaya’s room was the only room with a TV in my flat – and I’d sometimes fall asleep in her room during movie nights. Everything was platonic and I told Celine about this.
Let’s move to the present time where our relationship is like a fairytale. Being with Celine is pretty awesome. But my exams are coming up soon, and because I’m horribly underprepared, I needed to lock in. So I told Celine I would have to be a bit selfish and wouldn’t be able to spend time with her or have much communication till they’re done.
For the past 3 weeks, my life has been: wake up, spend the entire day/night at the library, then come home to sleep for like 5-6 hours, then go study again. It’s a horrible routine and I feel like a Zombie, but I have too much content to catch up on and not enough time. I must also admit that I’ve not been in contact with Celine all that often. We only talked twice on FaceTime and texted very little (she tried initiating but I had my phone shut off while studying and only replied when I left the library.)
On our second call she said she felt neglected and it was really starting to get to her and she wanted to spend some time together. I apologized, told her I missed her too and that she could come over to spend the night. But she came about an hour later than she was supposed to and I fell asleep by then. She still stayed the night, but the next morning I felt that she was upset I fell asleep.
Then I got really sick 3 days ago. I threw up at the library and asked Kaya to come pick me up. My other roommates are out of town, and Celine would’ve taken too long to get there.
When I got into bed, I threw up all over my sheets. At this point, my memory of what happens is foggy. I was very drowsy and not thinking straight. Rather than cleaning up and setting new sheets, I texted Celine I was very sick and had vomitted over my bed and asked if I could sleep over at hers.
I got no reply, so I went downstairs and slept on the couch. When I woke up the next morning, I was asleep on Kaya’s bed shirtless. I had NO CLUE how I got here. But Celine came to check up on me, and walked in on me like this. This was when I woke up, and Celine was very upset. She yelled “how could you” and before I had chance to say anything, she left.
Kaya told me that when she saw me asleep on the couch, she offered to let me sleep on her bed instead (I have no recollection of this). I probably took my shirt off because I felt hot at some point during the night. She also said she slept on the couch and we didn’t share the bed.
I’ve been trying to reach out to Celine but she blocked my number, WhatsApp, insta. We have two mutual friends but they both haven’t replied to any of my texts. My fever died down yesterday night, so I went to Celine’s to clarify the situation but her roommates said she wasn’t going to talk and made me leave.
This whole situation just feels so horrible. I love the relationship that I have/had with Celine and the fact that it’s probably over makes me feel so distraught. I also reflected over how I’ve been recently and I realized that a lot of blame goes on me. My exams aren’t a reason to just completely shut myself out of my relationship and I need to work on being able to juggle life and studies at the same time. Other than her finding me asleep on Kaya’s bed, she probably had a lot of animosity and upset amalgamating over the last 3 weeks of me not being in contact. It’s painful knowing I made a very unnecessary decision and had I put in more effort, it wouldn’t have cost me a great person out of my life.