All Chapters of The Last Lesson Was Losing Me: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I stumbled out of the exam center in a daze and spotted Dustin Emerson's car by the campus entrance.He glanced over at me, clearly amused. "That was fast. Looks like you lucked out thanks to Emily. Get in. You're coming to the theme park with us. You used to go on and on about wanting to go, remember?"My voice came out strained. "Dustin, do you have any idea how hard I worked for this exam? I spent an entire year preparing for it. I got up at 6:00 am every day to study and didn't leave the study room until 1:00 am."All those hours sitting at a desk left my lower back aching, and I still have to use pain patches. You knew all of that, didn't you?"Dustin turned the AC down four degrees, to the temperature Emily preferred."I did. But we're trying to help you. If you can't even tell when someone close to you is pulling something like this, grad school won't make you any less easy to fool."Once you're out in the real world, people will take you for everything you've got. Besides

That night, I came down with a high fever.Still groggy, I opened my eyes and felt a cool washcloth on my forehead. Peaches, my Samoyed, licked the back of my hand.I'd raised Peaches since she was a puppy. Dustin brought her to me sophomore year and said she was part of our family. I ended up taking care of her most of the time.Dustin sat by the bed, his eyes bloodshot. He exhaled in relief when he saw me awake."Finally."He picked up the glass of water from the nightstand and brought it to my lips. "Take your medicine."Once I'd swallowed the pills, he set it back down."Do you have any idea how worried I was? I called you all night and sent you over 70 messages, but you never answered. I thought you'd gotten caught up in another scam like you did freshman year."Freshman year, an older student from my hometown had lured me to a rental house in the middle of nowhere.When Dustin couldn't reach me, he called the police that night and helped them search room by room. He even

The airline agent handed me my boarding pass. "Here you go."I took it and said calmly, "Thank you."A notification popped up on my screen. Emily had just posted a photo of the fireworks at the theme park.Her caption read, "He promised to make it up to me and give me a day straight out of a fairy tale."I locked my phone, pulled out the SIM card I'd used for the past four years, and dropped it into the trash.Nearly 1,900 miles away at the theme park, Emily was wearing an oversized bunny-ear headband and holding a half-eaten ice cream cone."Dustin, this sea-salt one is way too sweet. I don't want it anymore."She shoved the cone into his hand and hooked her arm through his. "Can we go on that high-speed ride? We didn't get to go on it last time."Dustin tossed the cone into a nearby trash can. "I thought you said you were on your period and had cramps."Emily gave him a playful wink. "That was already over. I only said it yesterday because we were trying to teach Sharon not

I had just finished a full day of orientation and stepped out of the office building when someone grabbed my hand.It was Dustin. His eyes were bloodshot, and dark stubble covered his jaw.He grabbed my shoulders. "Are you hurt? Do you have enough money?"He looked me over quickly, his voice edged with panic. "Did anyone scam you out of your money? Is the place you rented safe? You don't even understand the local accent. How would you know if someone was ripping you off?"Freshman year, when he'd kicked open that metal door and pulled me into his arms, he'd sounded just as frantic. Back then, he'd told me I didn't need to trust anyone but him.But now the biggest liar was standing right in front of me."I'm fine. Nobody scammed me."I stepped back, putting some distance between us. "Dustin, we already broke up. What I do is none of your business anymore."His hands froze in midair. He stared at me for two seconds, then his panic gave way to the exasperation I knew so well.He

After that, Dustin kept his distance.He stopped waiting for me at the bottom of the steps with an umbrella. He also stopped bringing me those nicely packaged grad school prep materials.He just followed from across the street, always a little ways behind.Friday evening, I was sitting in the corner of a diner eating a turkey club when a middle-aged woman slid into the seat across from me. She pulled out a bottle of supplements with a label in a foreign language."Honey, you look pale and completely worn out. These are imported from Dalmeria, and they work wonders. I'm just trying to hit my numbers today, so I can give them to you half off."I'd been working late almost every night, and my back pain and migraines had been getting worse. I pulled out my phone to pay her.Just as I was about to scan the QR code she'd set on the table, Dustin covered it with his hand. He stood beside the table, looking at the woman with a blank expression."The first three digits of that barcode tr