Chapter 2

Someone off to the side laughed. "Don't get too confident. Adam's sharp enough that there's no shortage of girls chasing him. What if he gets into somewhere even better than us?"

Lisa let out a scornful little laugh, her tone careless. "Even better. Some peace and quiet for once. Let him go bang his head against a wall and figure out reality. Who does he think he is, reaching that high?"

Then came the line I'd heard a hundred times before. "He's always so petty. Is Freddy's stuff really worth making such a big deal over?"

The camera shifted slightly and caught Freddy in the frame.

He pouted, his voice dripping with familiar, needy affection. "Exactly! The second you get a boyfriend, you forget all about me! Years of our families being close, and you don't even care about me anymore!"

That got a laugh out of everyone standing around.

Someone compared me to Freddy, calling me the "academic type" and him the "social type."

I knew exactly what that meant: that I was too uptight, too rigid to bend.

Lisa laughed. "Okay, okay. Adam's my boyfriend and Freddy's basically like a little brother to me. They both matter to me. I just want Adam to stop being so petty about everything and grow up a little."

Freddy jumped in right on cue, his voice pitched with a boyish whine. "I know, I know. I'll try not to bother you so much from now on, or your little boyfriend is going to get upset with you again. God, I'm such a burden."

The video ended there.

I sat at my desk, phone in hand, and didn't move for a long time.

My feelings were a tangled mess, but underneath it all, what settled was a clear, bone-deep chill.

So this was what I was to her: my affection, everything I'd given up, even my leaving—none of it had ever been more than a trivial little farce to her.

She stood above it all, waiting for me to come crawling back in defeat, and still found room to complain that I wasn't "mature" enough.

I sat with that for a moment, then called my dad.

He picked up, his voice full of concern. "How've you been? Last time you mentioned giving up on trying for Monarch University and applying to universities abroad instead. Were you serious about that? And Lisa..."

"Dad," I said, "Lisa and I broke up. I meant it."

There was a pause on the other end.

I kept going. "I've already applied to the Monarch. I want to see what's out there, learn from somewhere better. It's not about proving a point. It's for me."

After a long moment, my dad's voice came through again, warm with relief and support. "Alright. If you've thought it through, then I'm behind you. Just let us know when you need help getting your paperwork together."

I hung up and ordered myself a cup of milk through a delivery app.

On a cold day like that, warm milk always tasted better.

A few days later, I started sorting through my things.

Everything Lisa had ever given me went into a box, especially anything tied to our plans for the exam: the notes she'd carefully organized for me, the reference books she'd pushed into my hands, even the expensive, sentimental gifts, like the limited-edition sneakers and the game console she'd said was for "charging ahead without looking back."

I dug them all out.

They'd once carried sweetness and shared hope. Now all that was left was irony.

The packed box was heavy in my arms, as heavy as three years I could never get back.

I carried it downstairs, thinking I'd find a chance to return it to her and finally close the book on us for good.

I'd barely reached the door of my dorm building when I ran into Lisa walking Freddy back.

Freddy reached into her coat pocket without a second thought, pulled out a piece of candy, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth, the motion so practiced and familiar it looked like he'd done it a thousand times before.

Lisa didn't even react. She looked completely used to it.