Chapter 1
Tanner’s words hit me like a physical blow, stealing the breath from my lungs.[]
Applying to MIT together–that promise we’d made on our very first day of middle school.
Just two days ago, both our families had sat around the dining table, deliberating for hours before solemnly submitting our early
decision applications.
And now he’d changed his. Without a word to me.[]
From inside the private dining room, his friends pressed with curious laughter:[]
“How do you even know Drielle will check your application portal again?” ||
“What if she doesn’t notice…“]
Tanner snorted like he’d heard the world’s biggest joke:
“Notice? That’s all she does. You don’t know her like I do.”
“She probably checks that thing eight hundred times a day, paranoid about messing up some detail and ending up in a different program than me.”
His tone carried that familiar note of exasperation.[]
του κ
birth–someone you can never shake off.”
I wouldn’t understand. Try having a shadow following you around since h
Laughter rippled through the room
]
Jake persisted, still skeptical: “Even if she finds out, you’re that confident Drielle will just switch her application to match yours?”
Tanner glanced up from his phone game, his laugh sharp and dismissive: [
“Dude, please.”
Drielle hasn’t been apart from me for
me for longer than a
a week since we were born. Who else would she go to college with?”
Connor couldn’t resist chining in: Tanner, man, this is kind of a dick move, though” |||
“Couldn’t you just tell her you changed your mind?“]
Tanner’s fingers paused on his screen, irritation flickering across his face; [
“Honestly forgot It’s such a hassle–I didn’t want to deal with explaining everything.“]
“It’she knew
I switched to Georgia Tech for Harper, she’d throw a complete fit.”
“Besides, it’s not like I changed on a whim. Harper said she’s nervous about going to Atlanta alone, and she’d feel better with a familiar face around“]
His friends exchanged knowing looks, their voices taking on d family situation… hard not to want to look out for her.“]
that conspiratorial tone: “Makes sense. Harper’s gorgeous, and with her
Ryan added with a smirk: “Not like your linle puppy dog Drielle–always looking half dead, nose buried in textbooks. Honestly no comparison to the campus queen.”
Marcus laughed. “Damn, giving up aerospace engineering for a girl? That’s our Tanner, always the gentleman.”
The laughter and gaming sounds continued to drift through the door.
But I stood frozen in the hallway, my world crumbling to ice around me.
My nails bit crescents into my palms.
Every fiber of me wanted to burst through that door, grab Tanner by the shoulders, and demand answers.
But my feet felt anchored in concrete.
I couldn’t move.
Istood there in that suffocating silence for what felt like hours
In the end, I couldn’t find the courage.
I simply turned and walked away, my steps echoing hollow against the restaurant floor
