The Breakup Dare

I had been with Ellery Whitfield for five years. Yesterday, I secretly gathered every friend and family member we had and proposed to her.

She was overwhelmed, and she said yes with tears brimming in her eyes. I posted photos of us, with our fingers intertwined, across every social media. Countless strangers flooded us with congratulations and well-wishes.

Just when I thought I had finally reached the finish line to my happily-ever-after, I received a message from her.

[Reid, we're breaking up.]

There was no warning and no reason.

At first, I thought Ellery was joking, so I played along: [Fine. If you want to break up, at least give me a reason. Are you seeing someone behind my back?]

I even attached an angry reaction meme when I sent it.

An hour passed, and the smile on my face slowly faded. Ellery, who always replied to me within seconds, did not reply this time, which meant she had been serious about the breakup message.

Panic set in, and I sent her message after message.

[Ellery, why aren't you answering me?]

[That was a joke, right?]

[Where are you?]

[Tell me where you are. I'll come find you. Let's talk.]

[You said yes to my proposal yesterday. And now you want to break up today? What did I do wrong? Just tell me. Tell me and I'll change, okay?]

The panic, the helpless tears… All of it broke me completely. I called Ellery more times than I could count, and every single call went unanswered, ringing until it cut off on its own.

I called her closest friends. I called our mutual friends. None of them knew where she was or what had happened. Every one of them told me to calm down, to wait a little longer, that it was probably just a joke.

Two more hours passed. I sat on the carpet, completely spent. My face was streaked with dried tears, and my phone screen was full of cracks. Every last bit of life had drained out of me.

My hand moved absently across the carpet and brushed against my phone. Then, out of nowhere, I heard Ellery's voice.

I was certain it was not a hallucination. In an instant, I came back to life and scrambled to find where it was coming from. Finally, I pinpointed it. Ellery's voice was coming from the phone on the carpet. I picked it up with trembling hands.

On the screen was a video of Theo Ridley with his arm linked through Ellery's. It was posted just minutes ago.

"Today, our old crew got together to debate whether friendship matters more than love, and we played truth or dare. The rest of them were either too scared their boyfriends would mind or too worried their husbands would get upset. Not a single one could take a dare.

"They almost had me thinking our friendship of over ten years couldn't hold a candle to their measly few years of romance.

"Only Ellery was actually down for it. She drew the dare to dump her fiancé cold, no explanation, no nothing, and she didn't hesitate for a second. Total queen! Hahaha. Proof that friendship wins out. Love can take a back seat."

I watched the two of them in the video, laughing arm-in-arm and singing together. The pain in my chest was impossible to contain.

The video ended with Theo looking straight into the camera, a smug, taunting grin on his face.