When I snatched Riley’s spot as the school valedictorian, her golden-boy childhood best friend asked me out the very next day. With that devastatingly handsome face of his, he asked me: "In my world, will you slack off and be a failure with me?" Of course. I agreed in a heartbeat and kissed those lips I had coveted for so long. After that, my grades steadily plummeted to the bottom of the class, and I devoured Lucas Thorne body and soul. It wasn't until graduation day that he kissed me on his own initiative for the first time, telling me to go to community college with him. I knew that was his ultimate goal for approaching me all along. But this time, I just waved my MIT acceptance letter in his face: "It was fun playing with you this year." "But the stakes are too high now. I'm out." 01 The day I overheard Lucas and Riley talking was the day the final national standardized test scores were released. A perfect 1600. That was the highest score in the state. I had just breathed a sigh of relief when I heard Riley’s familiar voice from behind the door: "Lucas, don't forget, you haven't won our bet yet." "You only win when you get Chloe to follow you to community college." Lucas clearly scoffed at her words. "Have you seen her grades lately? She's barely scraping by with a 1.5 GPA. What good university could she possibly get into?" Riley argued, "But she had such a solid foundation. What if—" "Even if she miraculously aced her finals, getting her blacklisted from any decent college is just one phone call away for my family, isn't it?" Hearing that, the rest of their friends, who had been standing quietly on the side, erupted into laughter. The same people who usually called me "sister-in-law" to my face were now using the most vicious words to mock me: "With how desperately Chloe clings to Lucas, forget community college, she’d happily pick up trash on the streets if it meant being with him!" "Right?! Everyone knows she purposely dropped from rank number one to the absolute bottom just to be with him! What wouldn't an extreme, love-struck idiot like her do?!" Another round of synchronized laughter followed. I heard every single word clearly, but I couldn't care less. For a beautiful guy like Lucas, what did it matter if I put on an act and scored dead last a few times to make him happy? In places they couldn't see, Lucas was "putting his back into" rewarding me quite generously. Thinking of how entirely different Lucas looked in bed compared to his usual arrogant, cool-guy persona—those slightly damp eyes, those swollen, red lips... I was just getting lost in my thoughts when another guy’s joke snapped me back. He winked at Riley: "Riley, if Chloe knew this was all your revenge plan, she’d probably hate you to death!" Riley rolled her eyes in disgust. "Idiot. That's obvious. Do you even have to ask?" But they were wrong this time. I didn't hate Riley at all. In fact, I was incredibly grateful to her. After all, for someone like me—with a face so plain you could lose it in a crowd of three—getting a chance with a Greek god like Lucas Thorne was a gift handed directly to me by Riley Mercer herself. 02 Since I was a kid, I knew all my skill points were allocated solely to academics. While others spent hours memorizing a textbook chapter, I could recite it backward after one read. Complex concepts clicked instantly; difficult AP physics equations were a breeze. But I also knew that in this mediocre, dead-end town, standing out too much wasn't a good thing. So, even though I had to rank first every year to secure the merit scholarships, I always made sure my score was only exactly five points higher than the runner-up, Riley. There was only one exception. It was the day before midterms. I saw Lucas and Riley kissing outside the testing center. The stunningly handsome boy and the beautiful, preppy girl looked like a scene straight out of a teen movie, but I was consumed by jealousy. During the AP Calculus exam, I couldn't resist answering the extra credit essay question. During the AP Physics exam, out of pure spite, I answered every single multiple-choice question correctly. That midterm, I beat Riley by a full 35 points. Afterward, I regretted losing my composure for days. Until the third day, when Lucas Thorne appeared in front of me. Wearing his bright yellow varsity basketball jersey, he jogged up to me, his beautiful face full of apology: "Sorry about that. My pass went wide and hit you." "Are you okay? Should I walk you to the nurse's office?" I could have guessed with my toes that the basketball flying straight at my head was no accident. Just as I knew perfectly well that Lucas was deliberately approaching me, definitely because of Riley. Maybe it was to vent her anger, or maybe it was a bet with her. But no matter the reason. That was my one and only chance to get close to Lucas. 03 That's right. I wanted to possess Lucas Thorne. From the very first moment I laid eyes on him. 04 I have to admit, Lucas’s timing was impeccable. In the seventeen years before he appeared, I only had one dream. When my dad got blackout drunk and his fists rained down on me like a storm. When my mom, trying to save money to pay off my brother's gambling debts, dragged my 13-year-old self to try and marry me off to a 50-year-old widower. "Get into the best university. Escape this place." I never forgot that for a single second. I never dared to slack off. Later, when I could effortlessly score a perfect 1600 on any practice SAT I picked up, I knew the best universities in the country were already firmly within my sights. I was just waiting for the college admissions cycle next year for the final, fatal strike. Looking back at my gray, dust-covered seventeen years of life, there was only a depressing childhood and the numbness of burying my head in books. One day, I was watching a rerun of a classic 90s movie on cable TV. Looking at Leonardo DiCaprio's beautiful, reckless face on the screen, I spaced out for a long time: "If only I could have a romance with a beautiful boy like that at seventeen. How nice would that be." And then Lucas Thorne appeared. He was even younger and prettier than the movie star on my screen. As he jumped on the court, his jersey faintly outlining his lean muscles, he stirred my deepest, most hidden desires. I wanted him, but I couldn't have him. As I said, all my skill points were in academics. Other than that, I was painfully average. Utterly forgettable. I was the type of girl Lucas, who was always the center of attention, would never look at twice. But now, he was being served to me on a silver platter by Riley. 05 I acted completely oblivious, happily accepting every calculated approach Lucas made afterward. In the noisy cafeteria, in the empty gymnasium, Lucas always managed an "unexpected" encounter with me. He lingered around me longer and longer, his gaze growing hotter, until one day, he pushed through the crowd and walked up to me. "Chloe, I like you. Will you go out with me?" When I fell into his arms, I pretended not to see the disgust he tried to hide beneath his long eyelashes. I just closed my eyes and deeply inhaled the scent of him—a mix of licorice and clean laundry detergent. It smelled so good. Books say that within their pages, you can find a house of gold and a Prince Charming. The ancients didn't lie to me. But I also knew this Prince Charming would only be mine temporarily. Maybe he would soon end this revenge game, publicly dumping me to avenge his childhood sweetheart. Or maybe, he wanted to play a little longer, making me fall deeper and deeper before calling it quits. But what I didn't expect was that the purpose of my Prince Charming being by my side was to smash my house of gold. The first time I realized this was at an internet cafe. I was sitting next to his gaming station, quietly working on an AP test prep book. The guy, who had been focused on his game, suddenly ripped off his headset in frustration. Hearing the commotion, I looked up and asked what was wrong. He stared at me for a long moment before suddenly speaking, his eyes dark: "I don't like it when you do test papers while you're next to me." I was very willing to accommodate a pretty boy, so I packed up my papers and tossed them aside: "Then I won't do them." He kept staring at me, his expression growing colder: "I feel like the gap between us is too big." "I don't like it." I realized what was happening, my heart beating fast. "Then... what do you think would be better?" He suddenly leaned in close, so close his forehead almost touched mine, his tone almost like a spoiled child's: "Why don't you just slack off and be a failure with me?" The blue light from the monitor silently glowed in those glass-bead-like eyes as he issued a siren's invitation: "Chloe, come into my world. Be with me forever." In that moment, I felt sheer ecstasy. So, this is what he wanted. So, this is what Riley wanted. 06 I hooked my arms around the back of his neck, rubbing against the red lips I had coveted for so long: "Kiss me." I knew Lucas didn't like me, and he didn't like my touch. Usually, I didn't dare to cross any lines, afraid he would get rebellious and call off the game immediately. But now, he wanted to get something out of me. Making an exchange was human nature, and absolutely necessary, wasn't it? When those soft, slightly cool lips finally hesitated before pressing against mine, I silently, profusely thanked my past twelve years of burying my head in books. Chloe, heaven really hasn't let you down. I stopped looking at books. I stopped studying. I recklessly accompanied Lucas in his downward spiral of slacking off. Consequently, my class ranking began to drop, test after test. The first time, of course, I dropped the number one spot right into Riley's lap. Hearing the teacher call her name after the words "Rank Number One" for the first time, Riley went absolutely crazy with joy. She took the report card, looked at it again and again, and finally buried her face in her arms, sobbing uncontrollably. I didn't miss the triumphant look she shot me, pretending it was accidental, but I acted as if I felt nothing. I just silently thought, it's time to collect my reward. Sure enough, Lucas was thrilled that day too. He ran toward me from afar, the hem of his varsity jacket catching the breeze and the sunlight. That was probably why, when he pulled me into a hug, I still felt a warmth. I asked him why he was so happy. He smiled and said he had won a beautiful basketball game today. I smiled too. Pretending not to know that this "beautiful game" was entirely fabricated, I smilingly placed a hotel key card in his palm. "Today is my 18th birthday." "Celebrate with me, okay?" 07 I originally thought I would be the submissive one that night, inexperienced in the battle of life. Surprisingly, someone as wildly popular as Lucas had absolutely zero experience either. The superficial tips he had picked up from online videos were, of course, no match for my ability to draw inferences from textbooks, my superior structural 3D thinking, and my spatial imagination skills. Looking at him beneath me, the corners of his eyes flushed red, stubbornly biting back his whimpers, I finally understood the true meaning of the quote: "Book smarts are no match for hands-on experience." I just didn't calculate the physical toll perfectly. The next day, at the varsity basketball game, the "Slam Dunk King" Lucas Thorne lost his footing the moment he jumped for the first time. Men always love to fantasize that women will never forget their first time. But I practically proved that for men, sex and love are truly inseparable. He was young and hot-blooded, and he acquired a taste for it in bed. And out of bed, Lucas gradually developed an attachment to me that even he hadn't noticed.
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