Chapter 1

For three years in college, I was basically the dorms’ unpaid tech support.

I was always on call, never charging for dust cleaning, thermal paste replacement, and operating system installations.

Then senior year started, and Mickey, a freshman, called me out in the dorm group chat.

“You know thermal paste only costs a few bucks a tube, right? Yet, he’s seriously charging you guys two cans of energy drinks for the job.”

Mickey added smugly. “My family runs a computer store. Come to me instead. I’ll charge you a can for the service, and I can guarantee authentic parts.”

The group chat blew up.

“The kid’s legit!”

“Well, Axis isn't getting any more energy drinks from me.”

I read the messages and quietly packed away my tools in the cabinet.

They had no idea the thermal paste I used cost nearly forty bucks a tube. The dust cleaning was done with professional-grade equipment. Little did they know, the so-called genuine parts sold on the market were mostly refurbished parts with a fresh coat of paint.

I got into bed and pulled a sleep mask over my eyes.

Honestly, this couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. I’d been wondering when these days of doing free repairs at my expense would finally end.

Well, there's my ticket out.

Chapter 1

“What’s the meaning of this, Axis? You’ve been ripping us off for years, and now you’re quitting the group chat without a word? Guilty conscience much?”

“Axis, I thought we were best buds. I always had your back, but you’re not even as decent to me as the new kid.”

“Axis…”

…

My phone was bombarded with messages.

Without exception, all my former regulars, riled up by Mickey Todbury, got on my case.

I had just lain down to catch some z’s. So much for my afternoon nap.

Unlocking my phone, I scrolled through the screen.

I barely had the chance to go through the messages when my roommate called me out.

“That’s just messed up, Axis.”

It was Shane Bost, my roommate, taking the bunk across from mine.

Invading my personal space, Shane shoved his phone screen right in my face.

“Take a look. Mickey pointed out that a tube of thermal paste doesn’t cost more than a few bucks, but you had the nerve to grab at least two cans of energy drinks from us each time. How could you live with yourself?”

I sat up and stared at him long and hard.

A silent smirk played across my lips.

“Did I ask for the drinks? You practically forced them on me.”

It was their idea in the first place. They claimed they felt guilty asking me for favors all the time, so they started buying me cans of energy drinks whenever I fixed their computers.

With a new go-to guy in the picture, they had no problem acting like I’d been overcharging them the whole time.

“It’s not like you said no, did you?”

Without the least bit of shame, Shane sneered.

“Do you even realize how many energy drinks you've squeezed out of us over the last three years?”

I didn’t engage with him.

It was beneath me.

It was like all the frustration Shane had been bottling up for years finally had an outlet.

He immediately went off, tearing into me mercilessly.

“Mickey said he only charges a can of energy drink for a cleaning, and he uses genuine parts. His family runs a tech store, so he gets everything at wholesale prices.

“What about you? You’re just a college kid. Who knows what kind of junk you’ve been putting into our computers?”

I looked at him, suddenly amused by the absurdity of it all.

That was my cue to bring up the past.

“Has Mickey mentioned how long he plans to keep those rates?

“Shane, remember when your laptop got water-damaged last semester? I spent four solid hours taking it apart and drying it out, and all you got me in return was a couple of energy drinks.”

“That’s just because you never said anything about a fee!”

“Well, I never planned on taking your money in the first place.”

Truth be told, if I took the skills my dad taught me and charged market rates, I could easily pull in more than ten grand a month.

Chapter 2

Meanwhile, these guys holed up in the dorm, glued to their games all day. Most of the stuff they played was too demanding for their lightweight laptops to run, but they didn’t want to shell out for proper gaming rigs. As a result, their systems were always crashing.

“So why are you acting all hurt and defensive now?”

Shane rolled his eyes.

“It’s not like we forced you to repair our computers. You wanted to.”

I took a deep breath.

The only reason this whole thing started was that I was nice. The guys happened to be there when I was fixing my own computer in the dorm.

Later, they came to me whenever they had an issue. I wasn’t the type to say no, so the favors kept coming and snowballed from there.

Somehow, I was to blame.

It was the most absurd thing ever.

I didn’t have the chance to say my piece.

My other two roommates, Conrad Williams and Rafe Fenwick, crowded around.

Conrad jumped at my throat.

“Axis, I think you’re being unfair here. You claimed to be using the best thermal paste, but it’s not like we were experts in the tech stuff. We only trusted what you told us.

“Things are different now. Mickey has shown us who you really are.”

Rafe chimed in right away. “Yeah! Mickey assured us that the premium materials don’t cost more than a few bucks, but you had no qualms about taking cans of energy drinks from us. Talk about ripping us off!”

I climbed out of bed, opened the cabinet, and took out my professional repair kit. It was time to put away my tools for good.

“Fine. Since you believe I’m not giving you fair treatment, you can go to Mickey from now on.”

Either way, I was done being the free IT guy.

…

Shane glanced at my toolbox and scoffed.

“It’s not like we were ever going to go to you for help.”

I carried the case to the door and glanced back at them one last time.

“Do you have any idea how much a professional computer shop charges for a simple dust cleaning?”

“How much?” Conrad asked.

“You’re looking between eighty and a hundred bucks.

Shane burst out laughing.

“Those are the prices of shady repair shops. Mickey is one of us.

“Besides, he’s nothing like you.”

I nodded.

Shane had a point. We were different.

I was a computer science major, while my dad was a professional computer repair technician.

Mickey, on the other hand, had not been on campus long enough to tell the difference between a gaming laptop and a regular ultrabook.

“Good luck with that.”

I opened the door, running into Troy Mason from the dorm next door.

Troy was my best friend, the only one who bothered to thank me for the repairs.

“What’s the matter, Axis? Why the long face?”

I recounted the incident.

Troy furrowed his brows.

“What’s wrong with these guys?

“They basically got free computer repairs for three years. All they had to do was fork out some drinks. I can’t believe they are turning against you because some freshman said something.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

It was heartwarming to have a friend on my side. I simply shook my head.

“I’m done being everyone’s IT guy.”

All that unpaid grunt work had worn me out a long time ago.

I was relieved that someone else was taking the baggage off my hands.

To my dismay, Troy fell silent while we were on our way to a class together. Out of the blue, he said, “If I’m honest, Axis, you shouldn’t have taken the energy drinks since we are all friends.

“If you’re going to help out, then don’t take anything in return. The moment you do, people start reading too much into it.”

I was taken aback.

From the sound of it, Troy was no different from the rest of them.

He was supposed to be my friend. He knew me better than that.

I pressed. “So you think I’m at fault here?”

Troy scratched his head and murmured, “That’s not what I’m saying. I just think that if you’re really not doing it for anything, then don’t accept anything. Even something as little as a drink can make people feel like you came out ahead.”

Chapter 3

“So when the guys passed me a couple of cans, I should’ve just said no?”

“Exactly. You should’ve turned them down. It’s not exactly a favor once there’s an exchange.”

I stood there, a heavy tightness squeezing in my chest.

It never occurred to me that even Troy had that opinion of me.

I guessed my three years of hard work were nothing more than transactions paid for in energy drinks.

It served me right.

…

As I stood there in a daze, the professor tapped me on the shoulder.

“Class is about to start. Why are you still standing here?”

I was grounded back to reality.

It hit me that Troy was long gone.

The fact that he left me there to be lost in my thoughts was hurtful.

Troy, of all people, had the wrong idea about me.

I stepped into the classroom, only for the bustling chatter to halt.

Shane, who always sat with me, took a seat in the back row next to Conrad and Rafe.

The trio joked around and fell silent the moment I entered the room.

I walked around to sit next to Shane.

“This spot is taken.”

Without looking up, Shane tossed a book over to block the seat.

I stopped.

“Who’s sitting here?”

“It’s not like you know the person.”

My eyes shifted to Conrad. There was a vacant seat next to him.

Following my line of vision, Conrad quickly threw his backpack onto the chair.

“Taken.”

I stood in the aisle and looked around the room.

The people I used to hang out with shied away from my gaze.

Some buried their faces in their phones, while others turned to chat with those nearby. No one looked my way.

I eventually found a seat in a corner.

As I sat down, the girl in front of me glanced back, then scooted her chair forward as as if I had the plague.

My phone buzzed.

It was a notification from our class group chat.

Somehow, Mickey had wormed his way into our group and posted a message.

“Hey guys, the computer parts I ordered have arrived. They’re all legit and priced at half the rates you find online. Just reach out if you need anything.”

He followed with a cute GIF.

Shane fired back a response.

“The kid’s the real deal! My Legion is in your hands!”

Conrad chimed in.

“Mickey for the win!”

Even Troy jumped on the bandwagon.

I stared at the screen for a moment before flipping the phone face-down onto the desk.

The lecture started when the professor walked in.

Halfway through the lecture, I flipped open my notepad to take notes.

The boy next to me leaned over and bumped into my right hand.

My pen skidded sideways, etching a jagged line across the page.

I took the page out and went back to writing.

Out of nowhere, a guy in the back kicked my chair from behind.

I glanced at him.

He didn’t even lift his head. With a faint smirk, he said, “Oops, my bad.”

…

Once class ended, I packed my things to leave.

As I rose to my feet, Shane’s voice came from the back.

“Hang on for a sec, Axis.”

I spun around.

Shane sank his back against the seat, his legs crossed. He had that holier-than-thou look on his face.

“Didn’t you say that you used the thermal paste that costs three hundred bucks a tube? Why don’t you show it to us?”

Conrad jumped in with a snicker.

“Yeah. Enlighten us.”

Rafe whipped out his phone.

“Show us. I want to take a picture and look up online to see whether it’s worth the money.”

The remaining students in the classroom shifted their attention to me.

I gripped the strap of my backpack.

“It’s at home.”

“Home?”

Shane broke into laughter.

“Hahahaha! That’s a load of crap!”

Chapter 4

“So you’ve been full of it this whole time?”

Conrad was there to back Shane up.

“Sounds about right. A tube of thermal paste for three hundred bucks? It just doesn’t make sense. Mickey’s family owns a tech shop, and he said even the best stuff is less than ten bucks.”

I took a deep breath as the crowd surrounded me.

“You’re free to believe whatever you want.

“I’ve got places to be. Excuse me.”

“It’s not that we don’t believe you.”

Shane stood up and approached me.

“You’re just shady.

“We’ve been buddies for three years. Is this how you treat your friends?”

I looked at him, silently scoffing at the absurdity of it all.

“What did I ever do to you guys?”

“You made money off us.”

“I didn’t take a single penny from you.”

“Don’t energy drinks cost money?”

Shane’s voice boomed.

“How many energy drinks have you gotten from us over the last three years? It has to be more than a hundred. That’s over a thousand dollars right there!”

Gasps filled the room.

“More than a thousand? That’s a lot.”

“It was just computer repairs. Was he seriously charging so much?”

“He has some nerve to claim to pocket nothing.”

Voices rose around me.

I clenched my fists.

“What do you think is a fair price to fix a computer?”

Shane shrugged shamelessly.

“I wouldn’t know that, but Mickey said he only charges a single can for a dust clean and thermal paste change.”

“So a few dollars then?”

“That’s right.”

I nearly laughed at how clueless they were.

“Do you even know how much repair shops charge fifty dollars just to take a device apart?”

“Well, that’s a shop.”

Shane grew annoyed.

“We’re not at a shop. We’re friends. You shouldn’t have taken money from us.”

“I never took your money.”

“You accept the drinks!”

“You pushed them on me!”

“You could’ve turned them down!” Shane shouted, his finger shoved in my face.

“Why did you say no? You were just greedy!”

The accusation hit me hard.

I tried to refute. My lips parted, but no words came out.

My mind wandered back to what Troy had said.

“You should’ve turned them down. It’s not exactly a favor once there’s an exchange.”

As it turned out, I was supposed to decline right from the start.

All the work I had done was suddenly being reduced to greed just because I accepted those energy drinks.

“Fine.”

I bobbed my head.

“My mistake.”

I turned on my heel to walk away, only for the crowd to block me in.

Shane shouted in the back, “Axis, if you have any decency left in you, you should give us back the cash for the energy drinks!”

I stopped and looked back at him.

“Shane, I fixed your laptop more than fifteen times, and each repair took at least two hours. All you gave me was a few drinks.

“If you really think those drinks covered everything I did, fine. I’ll pay you back.”

I pulled out my phone and opened my payment app.

“But I want all the data I recovered for you back.”

Shane grimaced.

“What data?”

“Your first draft of your thesis disappeared because of a virus. I spent hours recovering it from your drive.

“That internship resume of yours? You came to me to rewrite and polish it.

“I was the one who restored all the photos you deleted by accident.

“You can hand them all back.”