I caught the transfer student slipping an ultra-thin condom into my childhood fiancé’s pocket. She clapped a hand over her mouth in mock surprise. “Oh, please don’t misunderstand, little sister. I’m not planning on using these with your sweet boyfriend.” Gavin, my so-called fiancé, quickly explained, “We ran out of the rubber membrane we needed for a science experiment. We’re just substituting. Don’t get the wrong idea, Ainsley.” He braced himself, anticipating my usual spoiled tantrum. I saw the familiar, weary impatience settle between his brows. But I simply lowered my head and continued with my studies, my face expressionless. Gavin didn’t know it, but the day he shared an ice cream cone with that girl—Kylie—was the day I finalized my plans to leave the country. As far as I was concerned, he was already out of the game. 1 “We’re just using it for a lab experiment. Ainsley, don’t be so unreasonable.” I hadn’t uttered a single word, yet Gavin was already launching a preemptive strike. He rubbed the bridge of his nose in irritation, preparing himself for the relentless questioning and demands he expected from me. I hadn’t actually been paying attention to what he was saying. I only looked up because their noisy little exchange was disrupting my English listening comprehension practice. Annoyed that I’d missed a sentence, I rewound the audio track, dropped my gaze, and started listening again. Gavin froze. Kylie nudged him in the arm, a sly, teasing look in her eyes. “Oh, is your little childhood fiancée trying a new tactic? Realized that being aggressive doesn’t work, so now she’s playing hard to get?” “Better go, childhood darling. She’s sulking and waiting for you to beg her to be okay.” Gavin’s voice was laced with frustration. “Beg her for what? She really acts like she’s my wife. If anyone needs begging, you do it.” “Ooh, tough guy. Be careful, or your little fiancée might stop talking to you forever.” Gavin’s cold gaze landed on the top of my head. “Then I pray she actually follows through with it.” Kylie snickered. “You are seriously the most ungallant man, Gavin.” The classroom was slowly filling up. The buzzing, fly-like noise around my ears gradually faded. I finished checking the final question on my listening quiz just as my housekeeper called. “Miss Ainsley, all the paperwork has been processed. You will depart in seven days. I have also forwarded all the information regarding Mr. Gavin’s recent behavior to the Chairman.” I hummed in response, glancing diagonally ahead at Gavin, who was whispering something into Kylie’s ear. I didn’t catch what he said, but Kylie giggled and playfully reached her hand into the back of his shirt collar. I looked away, speaking calmly into the phone. “Once my mother reviews the file, inform her that I am canceling the verbal agreement of the engagement with Gavin and that all projects with the Henry family are to be immediately halted.” 2 I walked out of the Principal’s office. The Principal had been smiling deferentially after I confirmed that the campus supply donations, promised long before my departure, would not be withdrawn. As I turned the corner from the office corridor, I ran straight into Kylie and Gavin. “Hey, Gavin, why is your little fiancée coming out of the Principal’s office? She wouldn’t be reporting us for the thing this morning, would she?” Kylie put on a pitiful, frightened expression and reached out to take my hand. “Oh, please, little sister, don’t get the wrong idea. We really were just using that thing for a science experiment. We didn’t break any school rules, honestly.” I pulled my hand back, a surge of distaste rising in my chest. “We aren’t friends. Please call me by my name, Ainsley.” Kylie looked momentarily stunned, her eyes welling up with contrived hurt. “I... I just thought it sounded friendlier to call you that.” “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have tried to climb the social ladder with a rich person like you. Ainsley, please, I beg you, don’t report me. I promise I’ll stop talking to Gavin completely!” Gavin stepped in, shielding Kylie behind him. “Ainsley, this is a school. Cut the Upper East Side Queen Bee routine.” His eyes held an obvious mix of rebuke and impatience. “Go back inside right now and tell the Principal you were lying and playing a joke. Kylie and I have a completely innocent friendship.” “Stop it, Gavin,” Kylie said, peeking her head out, her tone one of long-suffering helplessness. “Everyone in the grade knows you two are childhood sweethearts, inseparable. I shouldn’t have been delusional enough to think I could be your friend.” With that, Kylie adopted a look that suggested she was about to burst into tears and turned to walk away. Gavin grabbed her arm, stopping her, then glared at me. “Ainsley, do you know how disgusting you are? I’m a person, a living, breathing human being. Why do you insist on shackling me to you every day, denying me the freedom to even have a friend? Am I for sale?” They kept up their dramatic back-and-forth, giving me no space to speak until now. I looked at the undisguised loathing in Gavin’s eyes and asked softly, “Aren’t you?” 3 I was born emotionally detached; connecting with anyone outside my parents was always difficult. When I was five, I was kidnapped by an enemy of my father. After escaping and nearly being caught again, it was Gavin who blocked the abductor, allowing me to be saved. He took the beating, breaking two of his ribs. Later, in his hospital room, I, the usually distant child, voluntarily told my parents that I wanted Gavin to be my friend. My words shocked them both. It was the first time I had ever expressed a desire for a friend. After a thorough investigation of the Henry family background, they readily agreed. Gavin’s parents were ecstatic, their eyes alight with greedy ambition. My mother came from a prominent old-money family in New York; my father was the patriarch of a top-tier London financial powerhouse. Their son aligning himself with me meant that the Henry family, who barely registered in the city, would suddenly have unlimited prospects. After that, whenever Gavin’s parents visited for the holidays, they would intentionally or unintentionally try to push us together as a couple. My mother privately asked me if, since I was only willing to accept Gavin, I should perhaps secure an engagement with him first. I didn't feel strongly one way or the other, but meeting my mother’s anxious gaze, I nodded my agreement. I didn't want her and my father to worry or feel sad over my small affairs. And so, during yet another instance of Gavin’s mother praising us as a perfect couple, my mother promised a verbal engagement. That simple, non-binding agreement was enough to rocket the Henry family into the core circle of New York’s elite. Gavin’s parents were overjoyed. They made Gavin spend every day with me, constantly trying to keep me happy, terrified that I might change my mind. But as he grew older, Gavin’s intentions began to shift. The patience and happy smiles he once offered me gradually curdled into irritation and contempt. He grew to hate hearing people at school call us childhood sweethearts. Until Kylie appeared. The first time I saw her, she was sitting at my desk, rifling through my things. “Gavin, your deskmate is really a girl? Why is all her stuff so ugly? Her taste is so weird.” Gavin leaned against the desk, looking relaxed, but there was a flicker of amusement in his eyes when he looked at Kylie. “She’s not like you. You like things that are all pink and immature.” “I am not immature!” Kylie pouted, gesturing wildly as she spoke, and promptly knocked over my ceramic mug, sending it crashing to the floor. Gavin’s smile vanished when he saw me suddenly standing there. “Kylie just transferred; she didn’t know any better. Don’t hold it against her.” I kept my gaze fixed on Kylie, my voice flat. “That mug was eight hundred dollars. Pay me within three days.” Kylie gasped, disbelieving. “Eight hundred dollars for some stupid cup! Who do you think you are, a billionaire heiress?” Someone nearby whispered, “She is a billionaire heiress. Her family donated the new middle school dorm and the high school computer lab.” Kylie’s body trembled, her face suddenly flushed red. “But, hey, I didn’t mean to! Why should I pay?” She tugged on Gavin’s sleeve, whimpering softly, “Gavin, your deskmate is such a snob.” Gavin tightened his lips. “Ainsley, it was an accident. Besides, eight hundred dollars is nothing to you. Don’t be so petty. We’re all students here. Stop being such a bully.” “Fine. Then you pay for her. Eight hundred dollars, transfer it to me today.” Gavin’s face turned instantly ashen. “It’s eight hundred dollars! Are you serious?” “I am.” I nodded. “My family’s money doesn’t grow on trees.” With other students watching, Gavin couldn’t back down. He pulled out his phone and transferred the money. Then, he started gathering his books. “Kylie, didn’t you say you needed my help with tutoring? From now on, I’m moving to your desk.” He said it to Kylie, but his eyes were glued to me. It was as if he was waiting for me to plead with him to stay. I merely stepped aside, gesturing for him to hurry up and move his things. He paused, then slammed his books onto the seat next to Kylie in a renewed fit of rage. I remember thinking then: How should I convince my parents? Even if my personality was odd, their love was enough. Whether I had a friend or not truly made no difference. 4 The Principal was leaving to run an errand and chuckled when he saw us standing by the office door. “Gavin, are you also here to withdraw?” Gavin looked confused, turning to me. “Also? Where are you going?” “A competition,” I replied tonelessly. The Principal’s eyes flashed with understanding, and he wished me well before departing. Back in the classroom, the teacher announced the list for the mid-term Most Improved Student Scholarship. It was an award specifically for students who showed significant progress, one per class, given every semester. As the teacher discussed the exam results, I overheard Kylie quietly thanking Gavin. “Gavin, thank you for tutoring me. I’ll buy you dinner when I get the scholarship money.” Gavin smirked. “It’s nothing.” But a moment later, the teacher announced the winner’s name, and it was a different girl. Kylie let out an involuntary, horrified squeak. “How could it be Grace!” The teacher frowned. “If you have an issue, see me after class. Don’t disrupt the room.” After class, Kylie immediately rushed out to corner the teacher. When she returned, she slumped onto her desk, sobbing. “Is it because you rich people think you’re so high and mighty?” Hearing her, everyone gathered around to ask what the teacher had said. Kylie walked toward my desk, her expression a mix of wronged innocence and defiance. “Ainsley, I know this scholarship was set up by your family, but you shouldn’t use your power for private revenge! Just because Gavin and I are friends and you’re jealous, you yanked my spot. How could you be so awful?” That statement stunned everyone. The way they looked at me changed instantly. I looked up from my textbook. “Did the teacher tell you that directly?” Kylie’s eyes darted away. “Do you think I’d lie? Everyone knows that the minute I arrived, Gavin lost interest in you. I even heard you two were engaged. Of course you’d resent me and try to ruin me.” “I know you don’t need the money, and you can’t understand the struggles of people from poor backgrounds like mine. But I desperately need those few thousand dollars. Please, I’ll give Gavin back to you, just give me the scholarship spot, okay?” Gavin, who had just walked back in, saw Kylie crying her eyes out in front of me, and his face hardened. “Ainsley, deal with me if you have an issue. Don’t bully a younger girl.” A younger girl? I felt a fresh wave of disgust. “First, the ‘younger girl’ you speak of is a college repeater who’s older than both of us.” “Second.” I shifted my gaze to Kylie’s face and held up my phone, which was clearly recording. “I have every right to report you for slander based on everything you just said.” Kylie froze, her face turning chalk-white. She stammered and hid behind Gavin. “Forget it, I can’t fight you. I’ll let Grace have the spot. I’ll just swallow my pride and accept that I had to learn the harsh truth about society early.” Pity flashed in Gavin’s eyes. “Ainsley, Kylie improved her score by over a hundred points on the diagnostic. Don’t drag other people into your personal grudge with me.” “Kylie and I are real people, not just tools for your spoiled little power trip!” Before I could say anything else, a girl from the corner of the room, usually quiet and shy, suddenly stood up. Her eyes were red, and her whole body was shaking with the tension of what she was about to do. She walked over, stared at Kylie, and spoke, her voice trembling but every word clear and impactful. “Ainsley didn’t abuse her power. This scholarship is mine by merit.” “My parents passed away, and my grandmother is paralyzed. I live on meager public assistance. Ainsley’s family only set up this scholarship after she learned about my situation. I’m not very smart, and I’ve struggled with certain subjects, so even though it was set up because of me, I haven’t won it in two years. Until this time. I improved my score by 109 points and my rank by 305 places.” “I live honestly and study diligently. I earned this scholarship. Nearly a hundred students benefit from this fund every year, and Ainsley does not deserve to be slandered like this!” By the time she finished, Grace’s face was bright red, and tears were running down her cheeks. 5 The classroom fell silent. Then, low murmurs began to surface. “Ainsley might be cold sometimes, but she’s never looked down on anyone or been a bully.” “Totally. And the payout is six thousand dollars. Four times a year, across dozens of classes. Her family genuinely spends a ton of money. That’s really kind.” “Grace is usually quiet and keeps to herself. She improved that much? Choosing her is definitely the right call.” The room’s sympathy shifted entirely to Grace and me. Kylie’s face cycled through white and crimson before she couldn’t take it anymore and ran out crying. Gavin looked at me, his expression complex. “Even if you didn’t pull strings, did you have to humiliate Kylie? We’re all classmates.” I looked up, a rare flash of genuine anger sparked by his blindness. “Gavin, I’ve tolerated enough.” I had never spoken sharply to Gavin. Firstly, there was no need, and secondly, as my only friend, I was willing to keep him around to manage my parents, provided he didn’t cross the line. This was the first time I had ever confronted him like this. Gavin was stunned. He seemed to feel utterly humiliated by my words, and his face instantly flushed. He gritted his teeth, spat out, “You’re completely impossible,” and stormed out of the classroom. Kylie didn’t return for the remaining two classes. And Gavin, surprisingly, skipped out as well. My mother was three hours behind the domestic time zone, so the news of the engagement cancellation hadn’t yet reached the Henry family. That evening, after showering, I was reading a foreign policy journal when a text from an unknown number flashed on my screen. It was a photo of several opened condom wrappers, thrusting themselves into my view. The photo was accompanied by the text: [You stole my scholarship, so I guess I’ll steal your man. Moron. Did you really believe we were using these for science?] I had expected this, but seeing the visual still made my stomach turn with a sense of nausea. I didn’t reply. I screenshotted the image and the text and forwarded it to the housekeeper. [Send this with the engagement cancellation statement to the Henry family.]
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