Chapter 1
19 21 19:21
A tiny, almost imperceptible smile touched the corner of his lips. He glanced back at me over his shoulder “What? Regret it already? Too late.”
I pulled the matching couple’s ring he’d given me from my finger. “Since we’re broken up, I don’t want thi: anymore. You can have it back.”
It was the gift he’d given me the day he asked me to be his girlfriend. Our names were engraved inside. used to adore it, never taking it off. But now, it was just a piece of metal.
Sean froze, his voice growing even colder. “Fine. If you don’t want it, just throw it away.”
I nodded and tossed the ring into a nearby trash can, where it landed among leftover scraps of food. Ther without a second glance, I picked up my bag and walked away.
For years, I had always been the one watching his back as he left. Maybe being the one to walk away wasn’ so hard after all.
Sean’s face was a mask of fury.
His friend tried to smooth things over. “Dude, she’s just trying to get a reaction out of you. You know how girls are, they love playing these little games.”
“Yeah, man, don’t let her get to you. If you give in now, you lose.”
“I bet you as soon as we leave, she’ll come running back, crying her eyes out and digging through the trash
like a clown.”
Sean gave a nonchalant laugh. “You’re right. She won’t last a few days.”
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
19.21
When I got home that night, I methodically deleted Sean from every social media platform, one by one. When I was done, a hollow feeling settled in my chest. I had expected to cry on my first night without him.
But then I remembered the study notes Adrian had lent me before evening study hall. I opened the notebook
and found it filled with detailed examples and step-by-step solutions. He’d even included meticulous note:
on the topics I’d missed when I was sick, though I had no idea how he knew.
I’d heard Adrian had transferred from a top-tier magnet school, one even more prestigious than ours. His best friend’s grades had never been great, but he’d managed to get into that same school, largely thanks to
Adrian’s notes. I couldn’t figure out why someone like him would suddenly transfer to our school, and to ou specific class.
For the first time in a long time, I was completely absorbed in my studies, tracing the lines of his handwriting
late into the night. When I finally closed the book, I stared at my phone, fighting the familiar, pathetic urge to
add Sean back and apologize.
But just as I reached for it, a message from Adrian popped up. He had looked over the practice problems l’c done and sent me a list of concepts I was still struggling with, along with a custom set of exercises.
My attention was immediately captured.
That night, for the first time, I didn’t think about Sean at all.
The next day, Sean didn’t wait for me to walk to school together. I knew it was his way of punishing me. A school, he began to ignore me completely, openly flirting and messing around with Olivia.
I thought I would be devastated. But every time I saw them, Adrian would send me a new set of practice problems tailored to my progress. With my focus shifted, thoughts of Sean gradually faded from my mind.
Then one day, I had a realization. Since breaking up with him, I was no longer consumed by his drama, nc longer obsessing over him and other girls. All my energy was now poured into my own improvement. Life was so much lighter, so much easier. Letting someone go wasn’t as hard as I thought.
I was happy. I felt like I had found myself again.
Not only that, but under Adrian’s guidance, problems that once seemed impossible were becoming clearer My academic weaknesses were being tackled one by one. The sense of accomplishment I got from this was far more satisfying than any fleeting joy a relationship had ever brought me.
About two weeks after the breakup, on a Friday evening, I was in the classroom working on practice questi- ons by myself.
My friend Chloe came over. “Hey, where’s Sean? You’re all alone? I thought you two were joined at the hip.”
Chloe was a childhood friend to both me and Sean.
1 fell silent, not knowing what to say.
She sensed something was wrong. “Did you guys have a fight?”
I nodded.
“It’s normal for childhood sweethearts to fight sometimes,” she said, trying to comfort me. “But you shouldn t just be burying your head in books. You need to focus on how to make up with him. Do you have any idea how much he’s been spoiling Olivia lately? Yesterday, she saw this dress at the mall-it was a five-figure pric tag-and Sean bought it for her without even blinking. He even took her to an amusement park. My friend saw them at the ice cream shop.”
2
She pulled out her phone and played a video. In it, Olivia, with her hair in pigtails and wearing a little tank top
was smiling sweetly at Sean.
“Hey,” she cooed, “if you and your little childhood sweetheart really break up, you wanna date me?”
Sean didn’t answer, just scooped up some of his ice cream and put the spoon to her lips. “Just eat your ice
cream.”
Chloe smiled at me. “See? He didn’t even respond to that. He’s obviously just waiting for you to apologize So, when are you going to give in this time?”
I was quiet for a moment, then a strange feeling bubbled up inside me. “Why should I be the one to apologi
ze?”
She stared at me, bewildered. “Because you’re always the one who apologizes? Sean’s way too proud. You
can’t seriously expect him to make the first move.”
looked at her. “My apologies were based on the fact that I still liked him. But what if… what if I don’t like hin
anymore?”
Suddenly, the classroom door slammed shut with a deafening bang. A split second later, I saw Sean stormi ng out, his face a thundercloud. Olivia scrambled to follow him.
had no idea when he had come in, or how much he had heard.
The comment-feed lit up.
【LMAO, Sean totally sent Chloe in to ask when Ava was going to apologize. Whoops. Looks like she has nc
plans to.】
[I always thought it was unfair that she had to be the one to apologize. He’s too proud, he never backs down.]
【But didn’t they break up this time because Ava was being too stubborn? She always apologized before, why not now? I still hope she just says she’s sorry.】
I had no energy to deal with the phantom comments. I just lowered my head and went back to my work.
- Once, I even saw Sean kneel down to tie her shoelace for her.
I started hearing the whispers around me.
“Looks like Ava really lost her childhood sweetheart for good.”
“So what? Olivia is the campus queen. They look perfect together, a power couple.”
“Ava’s… nice, I guess. But she’s plain. Like plain rice. Good for a while, but you get sick of it.”
“If I were Sean, I’d choose the hot campus queen tob.”
“Ava used to follow Sean around like she couldn’t live without a man. Now he won’t even look at her. It’s so
embarrassing, lol.”
Whenever I heard those things, I just buried my head deeper in my books and ignored them.
