My childhood best friend, who happens to be a massive A-list actor, claimed his pipes burst and came over to my place to shower. But while he was in there, I accidentally answered a FaceTime call from the current "it girl" co-star he was rumored to be dating. "What are you doing, babe?" "He's in the shower. Do you want to call back later?" Right at that moment, my best friend's voice echoed from the bathroom: "Hey, can you grab me a towel?" With that one sentence, the entire internet exploded. His carefully crafted "single and unavailable" persona? Fake. His secret, hidden-away girlfriend? Very real. 01 Liam Wright is my childhood best friend; we grew up together. When we were little, I was determined to be his "boss," but somehow, he beat me to it by becoming Hollywood’s newest obsession. So, I lost my chance to make him call me "boss." To keep his ego in check, every time I watched his shows, I made sure my curtains were pulled tight. Like right now. Watching him play the devoted, silently suffering golden retriever trailing after the female lead, I clenched my fists. He was always a complete goofball in front of me, but on TV, he was playing this innocent, lovesick puppy. Swish. The curtains were suddenly ripped open. The same Liam who was just standing in the pouring rain for love on my screen was now standing in front of me, soaking wet. The outline of his abs was faintly visible through his clinging shirt. He waved a hand in front of my face. "Forgot what I look like?" I smoothly hid my iPad behind my back. "No. What are you doing playing wet t-shirt contest in the middle of the day?" "Just tell me you're tempted." "I will literally punch you into next week, believe it or not." I raised my fist, pretending to hit him. My heart, however, was secretly racing like a wild horse. "Hit me then." He smirked, reaching out to ruthlessly ruffle my hair. He swaggered past me with his long legs. "A pipe burst at my place. I came over to use your shower. You don't mind, right?" 02 "How does a pipe just burst out of nowhere?" "It couldn't handle how hot I am." He moved fast, shutting the bathroom door before I could run over and smack him. "If my pipes burst because of you, I'm ending you." He has the exact same phone as me, a white iPhone 14 Pro Max. He's also incredibly lazy, so when he liked my phone case, he forced me to order him the exact same one. So, when a ringtone went off, I instinctively grabbed the phone and hit accept. The audio came through before the video buffered: "What are you doing, babe?" "I missed you so much." Those two sentences left me absolutely stunned. I finally realized I had accidentally answered Liam's phone. "Uh, he's in the shower right now. Do you want to call back in a bit?" "He's in the shower? Wait, who are you? Don't you know you shouldn't answer other people's phones?" She frowned, firing off three questions in a row. I was just about to explain when Liam's voice rang out from the bathroom: "Hazel, grab me a towel, would you?" "Hold on—" 03 The call had already been disconnected. I had to put the phone down and go find a towel. "Open up, towel delivery." I knocked on the bathroom door. "Yeah. I'm opening the door now, don't go peeping again." "..." What did he mean by again? I instantly felt a vein pop in my forehead. During our junior year of high school, I went over to his house for late-night snacks. His bedroom door was cracked open, so I just walked in like I usually did, right exactly as he walked out of his bathroom, completely naked. That was the first time I ever saw the usually arrogant golden boy blush bright red and flee back into the bathroom like his life depended on it. Who knew that later, he would insanely twist that memory into me peeping on him while he showered. Thinking about it, a faint heat rose to my cheeks. "Who wants to look at you? It's not like I didn't see you running around bare-bottomed when we were kids..." A man's hand reached out—defined knuckles, faint blue veins tracing the back—and snatched the pink towel inside. He let out a soft scoff. "Why is it still pink?" "It's the only color I have. You got a problem with it?" "I wouldn't dare." His tone was so incredibly punchable. When he finally came out, I tossed his phone at him. "Some girl FaceTimed you earlier. I think it's the one you were rumored to be dating last year. I thought it was my phone, so I answered it. Are you guys actually..." He glanced at me. "Don't let your imagination run wild. I'm single." He took the phone, checked it, and his brow furrowed slightly. Then, he casually tossed the phone aside. He lowered his head, drying his hair with the pink towel. The line from his neck to his waist formed a sharp, incredibly attractive arc. "You're not going to call her back?" "Too busy. I'll deal with it later." For some inexplicable reason, I let out a quiet sigh of relief. 04 "Oh right, have you been watching my latest show?" As he leaned closer, the scent of my gardenia body wash wafted over from him. I blurted out, "Of course not." Who knew that the second after he slowly nodded and said, "Haven't seen it, huh?", he'd lunge forward and snatch the iPad right out from behind my back. I shot up from the couch. "What are you doing?!" He laughed. "Nothing. Just checking your watch history. Why are you overreacting?" No, no, absolutely not. If he found out I secretly watched his shows, he'd probably brag about it for the next five years. "Give it back!" But Liam calmly sat down on the sofa, leaned back, and held the iPad high in the air, completely out of my reach. "Tsk, can those short little T-Rex arms reach this?" I launched myself at him, using all my strength to grab the iPad, and yanked it tight against my chest. I was just about to flash a victorious smile when I suddenly realized I was literally straddling his lap. My upper body was pressed against his, the position incredibly, undeniably compromising. "Don't fucking pose like that..." He tilted his head back, his Adam's apple bobbing. A burning heat instantly spread from my ears to my cheeks. But before I even had a second to scramble off him. BANG. My front door swung open. The heavy tension in the air was instantly shattered by two synchronized "Holy shits." My best friend Chloe and our other childhood friend, Noah, stood there, jaws on the floor. "Holy shit, you two have been hooking up behind our backs?! How could you betray the trust of our childhood friendship?! Fake sobbing..." "Ahhhhh, my eyes! I shouldn't be seeing this! Oh my god!" "We are not hooking up!" I sprang off Liam like I was launched from a catapult. "This jerk stole my iPad, I was just about to teach him a lesson." Liam leaned back against the sofa, looking perfectly content, like he had just been thoroughly ravished. "Yeah. She was teaching me a lesson." 05 Noah looked at Liam. "Bro, you know you're trending at number one right now, and you're just chilling here playing around?" Me: "Isn't trending his default state of being?" Noah tossed his phone to me. "You're involved in this one too. Take a look." The words "Liam Wright Hiding Secret Girlfriend" had a massive red "BREAKING" tag next to them. My heart instantly sank, and I shot Liam a shocked look: "You have a secret girlfriend? Since when..." The next second, Liam's fingers pinched my upper and lower lips together. "I just told you. I'm single." Noah patted my shoulder. "Whoa, whoa, hold the banter. We have a massive situation right now!" Chloe chimed in. "Yeah, you two really need to look at this." I didn't think much of it until I looked—then I almost had a heart attack. —It turned out that the FaceTime call earlier was from the current "it girl," Aria Stone, while she was live-streaming a reality show. I clicked on a trending clip from the show. It was a small prank segment where the female cast members had to call a "guy friend," tell him "I miss you," and see how he reacted. One of the cast members suggested: "Has anyone called Liam Wright? I really want to see his reaction, hahaha." The moment she said that, the live chat immediately started tagging Aria. She acted shy. "Oh my gosh, you guys guessed it. I was just about to call him." She immediately dialed Liam's number. At that moment, the livestream viewership spiked to its absolute peak. And then came the part I had just personally experienced. When it started ringing, Aria nervously touched her chest, looking incredibly expectant as she delivered the highly anticipated, "I miss you." But the voice that answered was mine. Then, the top half of my face appeared on screen, saying he was in the shower. The live chat instantly derailed. The screen was flooded with nothing but question marks. "Whoa, WTF is happening???" "Wait wait wait? Did I hear that right? A girl just said he's in the shower?" And then, when Liam's voice echoed from the bathroom asking me to bring him a towel, the chat exploded completely. "I'm just watching a reality show, and my man suddenly has a girlfriend?!" "'Hazel'? We need a full FBI investigation on that name ASAP!" "Nooooo, they told us he was a single, unavailable ice king! It was all a persona! I'm sobbing." "Hey, can the girl take the phone into the bathroom? Not that I want to see anything, but it's just rude to shower off-camera." The comments were scrolling so fast I couldn't even read them. Aria still had a smile pinned to her face, but she quickly ended the call, the amusement completely vanishing from her eyes. "Oops, sorry guys, I think I accidentally dialed the wrong number..." But a male cast member next to her leaned in, sounding absolutely certain. "Let me see. No, that's definitely Liam's contact." Aria's expression instantly froze. "Then maybe it's his sister..." "No way. Liam has mentioned in interviews that he's an only child." The live chat instantly seized the opportunity to spam: "She's just his 'sister'... sure, Jan..." 06 And then Twitter basically broke. #LiamWrightSecretGirlfriend #LiamWrightMysteryGirl #LiamWrightShowersWithoutATowel Fortunately, only the top half of my face was visible. Aria had played the role of the female lead's best friend who secretly pined for the male lead (played by Liam) in his massive hit crime thriller. Her character's silent, unrequited love resonated with a lot of viewers. As a result, a massive wave of "shippers" were constantly looking for proof that they were dating in real life. On the night of the finale, their names trended together for hours. A lot of fans had been hoping for a happy ending for them off-screen. Now, looking at the chaotic discussions online, some were wailing that Liam wasn't "staying pure." But mostly, it was people crying that their ship had officially sunk. Me: "Liam, I think I might have accidentally caused a massive disaster for you..." He tossed his phone aside. "I don't think it's a bad thing. I actually think it's pretty great." "How is this great?" Liam: "Since she decided to call me on a livestream, I was going to end up trending with her name attached to mine no matter what I did today. Now, that's not going to happen." Chloe chimed in: "He's right! If you hadn't answered, today's headlines would definitely be about Liam and Aria. But because you picked up, the entire narrative shifted. That show ended a year and a half ago, and she still occasionally posts vague, 'secret crush' quotes to piggyback off his fame. It's so annoying." I understood now. "Oh, so you're saying I actually did you a favor?" "Exactly," Chloe winked at me. "Why don't you guys just admit you're dating and capitalize on the hype, hehe." Me: "What are you even talking about? We aren't dating, what is there to admit..." Noah nudged Liam with his shoulder: "It's fine. You two can just confess to each other right now and boom, it's real. Keep the good stuff in the family, right?" Hearing the word "confess," my heart inexplicably skipped a beat. Liam's expression shifted slightly. He shot Noah a look: "Back off. You think this is something to joke about?" I guiltily joined in: "Yeah, exactly." Soon after, his manager called to discuss a crisis management strategy. After taking the call outside, Liam came back into the living room. "Hazel, the producers are going to call back in a minute. Do you want to go on camera with me to clear this up?" 07 On the show, the other guests had finished their calls. Only one guy was left, a baby-faced actor named Connor. He got his cue from the producers. "I'm good friends with Liam. Since he was busy showering earlier and I don't think everyone got enough of the drama, I'll call him again, hehe." Soon enough, Liam's phone rang beside me. As soon as he answered, Connor said in a sickeningly sweet voice, "Missed you, bro." Liam clicked his tongue. "Knock it off. I know you're filming." "Liam, Liam," Aria suddenly leaned into the frame. "It's us!" But the moment I stepped into the shot, the smile on her face stiffened slightly. Connor's eyes widened in surprise. "Whoa, Liam, is this your girlfriend?" "She's my best friend. We grew up together. My pipes burst, so I came over to borrow her shower." Then he explained why he was at my house. Of course, he was mostly explaining it to the audience watching the livestream. Connor played along, "No wonder! You guys are childhood friends." I held up my phone to the camera. "Sorry about earlier. Our phones look exactly the same. I thought it was mine ringing and just answered it without looking." Connor flashed a gossipy smile: "But why do you guys have the exact same phone case? The internet is convinced they're matching couple cases, haha." Liam: "I thought her case was cute, so I just had her order me the exact same one to save time." I nodded. "Exactly. Our relationship is completely platonic." After saying that, I looked at him. Neither of us was used to being this serious in front of each other. The moment we made eye contact, we couldn't hold it together and both cracked a smile. Liam pinched my cheek. "Keep a straight face. Give me a little respect here." I tried to stifle my laughter. "Okay, okay." It reminded me of high school when our homeroom teacher made us do a poetry reading together. We had practiced it perfectly. But when the teacher made us do a dry run at the front of the class, we made eye contact halfway through and both burst out laughing. Just like now, the more people watching, the harder it was to keep a straight face. While we weren't paying attention, the vibe in the live chat completely shifted. It was entirely flooded with variations of "YOU GUYS ARE SUS." "Sus. The way they look at each other is so sus." "Sus. There is definitely something going on there." "Sorry to break the chain, but is Liam secretly in love with her? That soft look in his eyes, the cheek pinch... I literally cannot stop myself from overthinking this AHHHH!" "Omg, the childhood friends-to-lovers trope is everything! Why is Liam acting like this in front of her? I'm crying." "Just stop denying it and announce it already." "I've been reading a childhood-friends romance novel lately, and now I finally have faces to imagine it with, hehe." "Damn! I always thought this guy was totally clueless about romance, turns out he was secretly blooming this whole time." Amidst the chaos in the chat, Aria's voice suddenly cut in. "By the way, Liam, the viewers were asking: if you hadn't known it was me calling earlier, would you have blushed?" The live chat was instantly confused. "Who asked that? The viewers?" "You clearly wanted to ask that yourself, don't use us as a shield." "No," Liam answered flatly. "I generally don't answer FaceTime calls from people I'm not close with. Plus, this is my work phone. Today was just a complete accident." It was a brief statement, but the implications were massive. "Hahahaha, Aria, are you sure you're not just here to act as their wingman?" "So, Liam and Aria aren't even close? I thought they hung out all the time off-screen." "I'm so done. In past interviews, Liam clearly stated he wouldn't date anyone in the industry. The fans just refused to listen and insisted Aria was his exception. They got slapped in the face today, huh." "Honestly, Aria pulling stunts like this every time has completely ruined any goodwill I had for her." "Liam has my heart. He never clarifies rumors this directly. He's actually anxious this time. He isn't worried about the audience misunderstanding; he's terrified his childhood bestie will misunderstand! I'm sobbing." "Seriously, this authentic childhood friends ship is so much better than those forced, fake Hollywood showmances." I watched the rapidly refreshing comments. I didn't think much of it until I looked—then I almost had a heart attack. "Guys, stop making stuff up. You know how Liam looks at people. He looks at a dog with deep affection." The chat instantly flooded with "WE DON'T BELIEVE YOU." Me: "If you don't believe me, ask him. His phone is full of terrible, ugly pictures of me." Liam: "Yeah. I have gigabytes of them." But the chat was impenetrable. "Keeping gigabytes of her pictures and refusing to delete them? True love confirmed!" "I don't care, even if the President says otherwise, there is definitely something going on between you two." I patted Liam's arm. "Control your fans. Shipping anything and everything is only going to hurt them." Liam's lips curved into a smile as he looked at me. "Is that so? I heard shipping a little bit of everything is a balanced diet." "???" How could he be making jokes at a time like this? I secretly punched his leg under the table, but he caught my fist in his hand and refused to let go. A tingling sensation spread from my fingertips, rushing up to heat my ears. 08 Before I could even process what was happening, the narrative online shifted yet again. Some gossip account had somehow dug up my TikTok profile. "Liam's PR team won the lottery today. A small-time influencer 'accidentally' answered his phone while he was showering, trying to get famous. They played along, created this 'childhood best friends' persona, and the internet ate it up. Isn't this PR stunt way more effective than a cease and desist?" "Wait, does anyone actually believe childhood friends buy matching phone cases, shower at each other's houses, AND accidentally answer FaceTime calls? You don't even need half a brain to know that's impossible, right?" Yes, I have a TikTok account with about 300k followers. When I was studying in London, I'd often post pictures and videos of my daily life. I didn't care about the follower count; it just kind of happened. I never expected that one day I'd be labeled an "influencer" by a gossip blog. And suddenly, a bunch of "sober" voices emerged. "I knew it was a PR stunt from the start. It's hilarious how many people are falling for it." "Honestly, I wanted to say this earlier. How could there be so many coincidences? A burst pipe? An asteroid hitting your bathroom would be more believable." "That girl did it on purpose, obviously. But everyone is shipping them. So funny." "I knew yesterday it couldn't be a childhood friend thing. What guy friend has so little boundaries that he showers at a girl's house? Turns out she's an influencer..." "Pack it up, everyone. Rich guys and actors all end up with influencers eventually. We all know how it goes." "The modern male celebrity's go-to excuse to avoid being cancelled: 'She's just my childhood friend.' If she's really his childhood friend, why was there zero trace of her when he was in college?" "Exactly. Liam debuted in college. If he had a childhood best friend, his hardcore fans would have dug her up years ago." "Aria is the real victim here. The look in her eyes earlier actually broke my heart." A flood of unprecedented hate comments poured into my vlog account. "Don't think we don't know what you were trying to do by answering that call. Your desperation for fame is practically spilling out of the screen." "Stop playing innocent. Everyone knows exactly what you're trying to pull." 09 At the same time, Aria posted a tweet late at night. It made my jaw drop. It was a few selfies of her with tears streaming down her face. "Rewatching the show I was in, I still want to cry. Having a secret crush is so painful." Her tweet was instantly picked up by the gossip blogs. "Oh, honey, stop thinking about that man. He likes influencers, he doesn't deserve you! Crying emojis" "So Aria is the only one still stuck in character. She bore the weight of it all alone." A massive wave of people expressed their sympathy for her. "Wait, don't get distracted by the narrative here. Aria has been clinging to Liam's fame for relevance this whole time. Why is she acting like the victim now?" Whenever Liam's fans tried to defend him, they were swarmed and mocked: "Hilarious. You actually thought that girl was just his childhood friend?" "Fans are selectively blind. You're defending him, but he's not going to date you." "I've been a fan for four years, and I think he and Hazel look great together. Is that a crime?" "You claim to be die-hard fans, but it took you four years to find out he has a childhood friend named Hazel?" "..." 10 It was the middle of the night. The controversy was still brewing, and I didn't want to act impulsively. I was terrified that one wrong post would be twisted by the gossip blogs. Liam was probably asleep too. No matter how anxious I was, I had to wait until tomorrow to discuss how to clear things up with him. I tossed my phone aside. Out of sight, out of mind. Sleep was more important. The next morning, I was woken up by my phone vibrating incessantly. Chloe: "Hazel! Look at Twitter! Liam posted photos of you guys!" 11 Liam's clarification post went up at 4:00 AM. It was a carousel of nine photos. They were pictures of us together, from childhood all the way to adulthood. There were photos of us at the beach, sliding down slides at the playground when we were little, standing on the high school track field, reciting poetry together at the podium, and that one time on a snowy street in London. "To those spreading rumors, enough is enough. If this isn't what childhood friends look like, would you like to discuss the definition with my lawyers?" Once those photos were released, the rumors shattered instantly. The internet exploded. "Haters, come out and apologize right now! Just because you don't have a childhood best friend doesn't mean no one else can!" "Ahhhhh! 4:00 AM! This is the fastest response I've ever seen! He refuses to let his girl suffer even a tiny bit of injustice. I'm sobbing." "Those gossip accounts are fucking shameless, always trying to control the narrative. What did the 'Blank Canvas' (Liam and Hazel) ship ever do to you? So angry!" "Haters, open your titanium eyes and look at this! If this isn't a childhood romance, what is? Stop claiming 'all men are trash' just because you thought your fave was messing around with an influencer!" He was even replying to people's questions in the comments. Comment: "What are you going to do about those gossip accounts spreading rumors?" Liam: "Nothing. Just preparing to sue them." Comment: "Did your pipes really burst? [Doge emoji] [Doge emoji] I don't even want to expose you." Liam: "They really burst. [Doge emoji]" Comment: "Bro, why did no one ever capture you guys together during the years you debuted in college? Shouldn't childhood friends hang out often?" Liam: "She was going to university in the UK. Did you think I didn't want to hang out with her?" "Hahahahaha! Am I detecting a hint of resentment in that sentence?" "The 8th photo was taken in London!!! Liam went to London to see his Hazel! Weren't there fans who spotted him in the UK a few times back then? Case closed! He was going to see Hazel! I'm crying." Eagle-eyed netizens even found the account that frequently interacted with me in my TikTok comments. "He is amazing. He commented on every single video. The most frequent question was, 'When are you coming back to the States?'" The hate comments from before were buried. "Haters, please stop. If you scare our sister-in-law into not posting videos anymore, what is Liam going to look at?" Several alumni from our high school graduation year also stepped forward. "Oh my god, haters just invent things out of thin air. Calling her an influencer instead of a childhood friend? I'm so done. We were shipping Liam and Hazel back in high school, okay?" The atmosphere in the comments section under Aria's crying tweet also drastically changed. "Girl, wake up. That ship sailed a decade ago. Stop being so dramatic, okay?" "You really know how to play the victim to rally your fans." She quickly scrambled to post another tweet. "Sorry guys, couldn't you tell I was just acting as a wingman??? I also think the 'Blank Canvas' ship is adorable. I posted that on purpose. Couldn't you tell?" Netizens gave their sharp critiques. "The last time I was this speechless was the last time she did something like this."
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