My childhood best friend carried the transfer student to the campus infirmary, leaving bleeding me behind. I won the game, but I lost him. Afterward, he apologized to me, and I just smiled and said it didn’t matter. Because I didn't love him anymore. If everything went according to plan, he would never see me again in this lifetime. Years later, he hiked seven treacherous mountain trails on foot, but he truly couldn’t find the girl he had carelessly thrown away. 1 The atmosphere at the track and field meet was electric. When Liam ran toward me, my mind went blank for a second, and then my entire heart started to tremble. We had been giving each other the silent treatment for almost two weeks. We were childhood sweethearts who grew up together. We shared the same crib as babies and basically shared the same wardrobe as toddlers. From the moment we could babble, whether we were playing house or getting into fights with other kids on the playground, we were always on the same team. We were inseparable. Our relationship was so intertwined that our parents naturally treated us like an engaged couple. They would get together for drinks and joke that once we got married, they’d hand the family businesses over to us and happily travel the globe. To prepare for this grand retirement, our mothers had already mapped out their cross-country RV routes and European cruises. Everyone thought we would end up together. Even I thought so. So, when we had our huge fight two weeks ago, I expected him to eventually cave and apologize like he always did. I never imagined he would actually ignore me for fourteen straight days. On the sun-baked turf of the football field, I watched the boy running toward me. Sweat dripped down his forehead, and his usually calm face was etched with frantic anxiety. It was the first time I had ever seen him look so panicked. The rough rubber of the track dug painfully into my scraped calf. Thinking of our two-week cold war, I felt a surge of grievance. I reached my hands out toward him. "Carry me..." To the nurse. Before I could finish my sentence, Liam bent down, scooped up the transfer student, Maya, who had fallen next to me, and sprinted toward the campus clinic. He didn't even spare me a single glance. I froze in place, my outstretched hands stiff in the air. The bleachers were roaring with cheering students, but all I could hear was a ringing in my ears. The boy I had loved for over a decade had just carried away another injured girl. 2 Maya was a new transfer student this semester. She was a straight-A student, polite, and universally liked. She aced every AP class she took, and her reputation as a sweet, helpful girl was known by everyone. More importantly, she was beautiful. Her only "flaws" were that she came from a low-income neighborhood and was a bit painfully introverted. When Maya first transferred, Liam and I still shared a desk in homeroom. She was seated directly behind us. I always liked pretty, hardworking girls. I was the one who showed her around campus, introduced her to people, encouraged her to run for student council, and even chased away the creepy guys who tried to harass her at the bus stop. Back then, Liam used to get jealous of how much attention I gave Maya. "People can't just have zero friends forever, can they?" I would say, poking him in the spine while riding on the back of his bicycle. "When I get my period at school and forget a tampon, I can't exactly ask you to bring me one, can I? You can't help me pick out bra sizes either. Relax, you'll always be my absolute favorite person in the world." In my heart, Liam was my boyfriend. Maya was just a good friend. And Liam had genuinely cared for me once. When I got my first period, I thought I was dying. He was the one who sprinted to the pharmacy, his face burning red, to buy me pads. I was an extrovert, impulsive and hot-headed, which meant I accidentally offended people a lot. Every single time, he was the one who smoothed things over for me. He used to affectionately ruffle my hair and tease me, saying my temper was so explosive that no guy would ever want to marry me when I grew up. "Chloe, maybe if you beg me, I'll agree to be your boyfriend." 3 I don't know exactly when Liam and Maya became so close. I didn't even notice when the back of his bicycle stopped being my reserved seat, or when we stopped walking to the parking lot together after the final bell. Maya struggled with her French pronunciation, so he stayed after school to tutor her. Maya's mom got sick, so he offered to drive them to the hospital. Without me realizing it, the roles reversed. I was no longer the one making him jealous; I became the one quietly staring at his back. No, I was staring at their backs. One day, Maya tapped me on the shoulder and asked timidly, "Chloe, is it okay if we switch seats? You're a bit too tall, and I can't see the whiteboard from back here." I didn't say a word. I just looked at Liam. His eyes gave away nothing. I noticed his hair was cut a little shorter than usual, and Maya had recently changed her hairstyle too. On the day we swapped seats, Liam was the one who helped Maya move her heavy desk. As I carried my things away from him, he looked at me like he wanted to say something, but he swallowed his words. Liam wasn't much of a talker, and Maya was quiet too. Yet, whenever Maya asked him a question, he would patiently explain the answer, even handing over his perfectly organized study notes to her. Sometimes, when Maya's test scores improved, I would catch him secretly smiling. It felt like I was watching a coming-of-age romance movie play out right in front of me, and I wasn't the female lead. I drifted further and further away from Liam, to the point where my jealousy mutated into a deep dislike for Maya. During a volleyball match in Gym class, Maya's team happened to play against mine. Maya had transferred from an underfunded public school where they rarely played structured sports. For the first time in my life, a vicious competitiveness flared up inside me. I spiked the ball mercilessly. She couldn't receive a single one. Her team was getting crushed, and during one dive, she tripped and scraped her knee on the hardwood floor. "Chloe, did I do something to offend you?" With everyone watching, Maya looked at me with tearful, pitiful eyes. "I thought of you as my best friend. I know your family is rich and powerful, but I've never asked you for anything. Why are you targeting me?" The other students started whispering, wondering what Maya could have possibly done to earn my wrath. I was the star of the volleyball team, but I had never humiliated an opponent like this before. That was exactly when Liam walked into the gym. He gently guided Maya to the bleachers, then picked up the volleyball. The smirk on his lips was one I knew intimately—it was his calculating, game-on smile. "Maya isn't great at this. Let me play against you." And for the rest of the period, he absolutely destroyed me on the court. 4 The track meet was still roaring outside. I limped back to our empty classroom. The only other person there was Asher Hayes, the notorious bad boy of our grade, who was sleeping at his desk because he had injured himself and skipped the events. Hearing me walk in, Asher cracked an eye open. "Ooh, trouble in childhood-sweetheart paradise?" I ignored him, staring at the two desks in the front row. They were perfectly aligned, their textbooks stacked neatly. They looked like a matched set. I had taken off my sneaker. The scrape on my calf ran all the way down to the top of my foot, and blood was smeared everywhere. Because I didn't want to see Liam and Maya at the clinic, I had refused to go get it treated. I lowered my head and blew on the wound. Without warning, a tear dropped directly onto the raw skin. The boy I had loved for over a decade had abandoned me today. When Liam finally walked into the classroom, I had just finished swabbing my leg with iodine. He stared at my bloody leg, his brow furrowing slightly, as if he was only just now realizing I had been hurt. I saw his lips part several times, but not a single word came out. It wasn't until I slung my backpack over my shoulder to leave that he reached out and grabbed the strap. "Why didn't you go to the nurse?" He looked at me, exasperated. "Stop throwing a tantrum. Maya feels incredibly guilty. Because you didn't go to the clinic, she feels like she did something wrong to you." "Wow, she's such a saint." My smile must have been dripping with sarcasm, because Liam's face darkened with displeasure. I yanked my backpack strap out of his grip. Suddenly remembering something, I turned back around, reached into my desk, and pulled out a small, gold-stamped box. I thought back to the volleyball match. Because I couldn't beat him, I had ultimately dove too hard and skinned my own knees. Back then, we hadn't started our silent treatment yet. He was the one who took me to the nurse. While bandaging me, he had asked why I hated Maya. "I know you. You've never been overly competitive," he had said. "Even if you want your team to win, you never spike the ball so viciously that the other person can't even touch it." "Chloe, Maya's home life is a mess. We should be more forgiving of her." My heart felt numb. I couldn't even recall the sting of his words from that day. But in this moment, I suddenly felt the urge to let go. I shoved the gold-stamped box into Liam's chest. I wanted to smile, but my facial muscles wouldn't cooperate. "I'm taking next week off. Happy early birthday." I had never missed Liam's birthday in my entire life. A flash of genuine panic crossed Liam's face. He stepped in front of me, blocking my path. "Chloe, what are you doing? You promised..." "Liam, that was in the past." In the past, he had also promised that if anyone else ever tried to marry me, he would break their legs. 5 I wasn't a girl with massive, world-changing ambitions. My family was wealthy, my parents were liberal, and they didn't put a ton of pressure on me. The only real plan I ever had for my life was to study hard, get into Stanford with Liam, take over my parents' company, and fulfill their dream of traveling the world. I never imagined a future without Liam. When my dad heard I wanted to overhaul my college applications, he was so shocked he thought I had a fever and almost dragged me to the ER. "There's no deep reason, Dad. I just don't like the West Coast anymore. I want to apply to the East Coast." Liam was the one obsessed with staying in California for Bio-Engineering. Not me. As long as I wasn't breaking the law, my parents let me do whatever I wanted. Changing my college list was a minor blip to them. That night, I was already in bed when someone knocked on my door. Assuming it was my parents, I called out, "Come in." I turned around to find Liam standing by my bed, his face pale and serious. "You're still coming to my birthday party, right?" He sounded uncertain. He tried to sit in his usual spot on my favorite armchair, but he clearly felt the icy hostility radiating from me. "Does it matter if I go? It's just the usual crowd. Nothing special." I flicked on the bedside lamp, and the light revealed a nasty bruise on Liam's cheekbone. I wanted to ask what happened, but the words felt stuck in my throat. As he had pulled closer to Maya, I had naturally been pushed away. Liam didn't expect me to be so cold. "You aren't going to ask what happened?" "It's about Maya, isn't it?" I didn't need to ask. He nodded. "Her parents' marriage is toxic. Her dad is an alcoholic with a gambling problem. When I went over to drop something off, they were fighting. I lost my temper and got into a fistfight with her dad." "And why are you telling me this?" "If possible, I hope you stop targeting her at school. Maya is truly pitiful. Compared to you, she doesn't even have a safe home to go to..." I picked up the tube of ointment he had tried to hand me and tossed it straight into the trash can. I let out a dry laugh. "Listening to you, it sounds like I'm the cause of all her misery. Don't forget, when those creeps from the public school harassed her at the bus stop, I was the one who stood up for her." That incident was the actual catalyst for our cold war. After the volleyball game, I ignored Maya completely. She relentlessly tried to apologize, but I coldly ripped up her apology letter and threw it away. Liam told me I had crossed a line. But I didn't think I was wrong. I disliked her. I disliked her a lot. Upset over the torn letter, Maya wandered off campus alone and got cornered in an alley by some sketchy dropouts. Without thinking, I sprinted in to help her. Liam was right behind me. But to my shock, I watched him pull Maya into his arms, taking the hit from a baseball bat that was meant for her. And me? Liam grabbed Maya's hand and bolted, leaving me surrounded by the dropouts. In a panic, I smashed the cash register of a nearby convenience store to trigger the alarm, which ended up getting me hauled into the police station. Just like Liam explained later: I had taken private self-defense classes since I was a kid. I knew how to protect myself better than Maya did. That was how Liam and I fell out. 6 I really didn't go to Liam's birthday party. Maya did. She wore the designer dress I had gifted her on her first week of school. In the photos posted by our classmates, Liam stood in the center of the crowd. Maya was leaning softly against his shoulder, her cheeks flushed, smiling gracefully, surrounded by everyone like a princess. Our mutual friends hadn't yet realized the tectonic shift between Liam and me. Later that night, Liam's mom came over to my house. "I know you must be sick since you missed the party, sweetie. Are you feeling any better?" My parents were out of town on business, so our housekeeper and I hosted her. Liam's parents treated me like gold, especially his mom. Every year for Liam's birthday, she would prepare two gifts: one for him, and one for me. "This year, I bought you two pairs of heels. Our Chloe is a grown woman now; it's time to start building your stiletto collection." Liam had been right about one thing. I grew up surrounded by love. Whether it was my parents or his, I was cherished. I wasn't lacking money, and I wasn't lacking love. But I also knew clearly that I owed Maya absolutely nothing. Her unfortunate life had nothing to do with me. "Thank you," I hugged his mom affectionately, just like always. "When I take over the company, I'll send you and my mom on that round-the-world cruise you've always wanted." No matter what happened between Liam and me, I would always be grateful for his parents. I had always been at the top of my class. When midterms rolled around, my rank jumped up even higher. Liam and Maya still sat in front of me. The only difference was that Liam occasionally turned around to talk to me. "Chloe, want to walk home together after school?" It had been a very, very long time since we walked home together. Before I could answer, Maya chimed in with a sweet smile. "You should, Chloe. The street near the school is under construction, and there have been some muggings lately. It's too dangerous for you to walk alone. I specifically told Liam to make sure you got home safe." I never thought the day would come when my childhood best friend offering to walk me home would be a favor granted by another girl. I briskly shoved my books into my bag. "No thanks. My driver is picking me up." I rejected their "charity," but when the final bell rang, Liam and Maya were standing by the school gates, looking determined to escort me. I tried to walk past them, but Maya grabbed my arm. "Chloe, I know you're mad at me. I thought about it a lot, and I realize Liam and I have been too close lately. We neglected you, and that's why you're upset. Don't worry, I'm giving Liam back to you right now." I honestly didn't understand why she was crying. I hadn't done anything, but she was sobbing like her heart was shattered. My mom used to say that because I grew up shielded by money, there was a lot of manipulative malice in the world I didn't understand. "Liam is a living, breathing human being, not a toy we trade back and forth. He can hang out with whoever he wants. Stop acting like I'm bullying you." I yanked my arm out of her grip. In her dramatic flailing, she lost her balance and fell to the pavement. 7 Liam and I got into another explosive fight. "Just apologize to her. Please, I'm begging you." It was the first time I had ever heard Liam speak so low and desperately to anyone. I was a wealthy heiress, but wasn't he a privileged rich kid too? "Maya has it so hard. After school, she has to work shifts to support her mom. She's the exact same age as us, but she has to fight just to survive. I'm begging you. You have everything. Just say sorry. She constantly feels guilty around you." I just stared at him coldly. In that moment, it hit me clearer than ever. Liam and I had never actually spoken the words "I love you." Everyone just assumed we'd get married, but technically, we weren't even boyfriend and girlfriend. I kicked Liam out of my house. I stewed in my room for a long time, until I got an email notification. I had been officially accepted into Columbia University's undergraduate business program for the fall. Getting that definitive answer extinguished a lot of my anger. I realized that because I spent all my time with Liam, I didn't actually have any other close friends. I drove alone to a local barbecue joint and ordered a massive platter of ribs and brisket to celebrate. "Tsk. Where's the golden boy?" It was the kid who slept through every class: Asher Hayes. "If you're trying to pick a fight while I'm alone, I suggest you rethink it." I took a bite of my ribs, barely glancing at him. "Or I won't hesitate to complain to your dad." My family's backing meant I feared absolutely no one. Including Asher. Asher was the exact opposite of Liam. Liam and I were the obedient golden children. We competed for first place, never caused trouble, and were the pride of our social circles. Asher was a famous delinquent. He skipped class, had terrible grades, and rumor had it he put a guy in the hospital a few years ago. His billionaire father had to pull massive strings just to keep him out of juvie. "You make me sound like a monster." Asher casually reached over and grabbed one of my ribs. "Princess, can't you just accept that I saw a classmate sitting alone in a sketchy neighborhood and came over to protect you?" 8 I thought Asher had lost his mind. Out of nowhere, he demanded to be my desk-mate, claiming that sitting next to the valedictorian would miraculously cure his bad grades. It was true that Liam had been so distracted by Maya's drama that he had dropped out of the top ten, while my grip on first place was ironclad. To his credit, Asher didn't actually drag me down. He spent every class either sleeping or silently playing games on his phone under the desk. He never participated in group projects. During study hall, I slammed a group worksheet down in front of him. "You better finish your half of this, or you can crawl back to whatever dark corner of the classroom you came from." I had zero interest in reforming my classmates. The only person I ever cared enough to manage was currently busy managing someone else. Asher definitely didn't need my pity. Asher looked at me like I had just told a hilarious joke. He propped his head up on his hand and smirked. "Princess, do you think you own the school? You make me move my desk, now you're forcing me to do homework? Is this your version of bullying?" I rolled my eyes, annoyed. I refused to let my parents see my group project average drag down my GPA. Under my withering glare, Asher rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "Fine. It's just a few questions. I'll do it." "Seriously, Princess, you're the sole heir to a massive company. Why do you work so hard? You're already going to inherit the earth. Leave some oxygen for the rest of us trust-fund kids." I ignored him, keeping my head down and focusing on my AP Calculus homework. Suddenly, I felt eyes on me. I looked up and met Liam's gaze from the front row. Our eyes locked, but neither of us spoke. Strangely enough, I was gradually losing interest in what Liam did. I rarely checked to see what he and Maya were doing during class anymore. "You don't need to help me anymore." Maya's voice broke his stare. "My mom was discharged from the hospital. She's recovering well, so I don't need to work as many shifts at the diner. You don't have to go either." With Liam's financial help, Maya's mom had quit her terrible job and opened a small diner. She had collapsed from exhaustion recently, so Liam and Maya had been working there after school. Liam looked at Maya with that eternal, gentle warmth. "Okay."
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