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The Boy I Trusted Sold My Dream For Another Girl

Novelix Completed

追妻火葬场、背叛、出轨、青梅竹马、追悔莫及、霸凌者、大女主、第一人称视角、女性力量/大女主、剧情/戏剧、校园

Chapters (3)

第1章

The afternoon of the Common App deadline, Chloe Ashford, the Homecoming Queen who had made my life hell for three years, dropped a poll link into the party chat. 【Who's brave enough? Post the school you actually want.】 The guys started hollering, asking what the stakes were. Chloe blinked, her smile all sugar. "Whoever hits submit first, if he ends up at the same school as me, I'll be his girlfriend for a whole year." Before she'd even finished, my childhood friend Adrian Whitmore had already tapped submit. Under the roar of cheers, he tilted his head toward me and lowered his voice. "When have I ever not been first? Games are no different. Don't overthink it, Zoe." I looked at the perfectly measured shyness on Chloe's face and couldn't muster a smile. I just stubbornly held out my hand toward him. Adrian studied me for two seconds, then finally gave in and pulled up his submission record. 【Submission time: 1.5 seconds. School: Harvard University.】 Exactly what we'd agreed on. And everyone at Ashford Prep knew Chloe had been telling anyone who'd listen that she wanted NYU Tisch. I let out a quiet breath. Chloe watched us for a beat, then laughed. "That's what growing up together gets you. Look at Zoe Bennett, everyone. She's got her golden boy wrapped around her finger in front of the whole class." Everyone laughed and started teasing me for being so hard on Adrian. I glanced at the way Adrian's face had darkened and was already opening my mouth to apologize quietly. The phone in my lap buzzed. A text from an unknown number lit up the screen. 【Don't trust him. Adrian did submit Harvard. But he changed yours to NYU Tisch.】【Chloe already switched hers to match his. You two agreed to go public at prom, but he's been with her for months.】 I froze in my chair, fingertips ice cold. When I came back to myself, I instinctively unlocked the screen to check the Common App. Before the page could load, a hand with long, defined knuckles reached over from the side and lifted my phone right out of my grip. My heart lurched. I looked up and met Adrian's eyes. His eyes looked bottomless, dark and unreadable. "You're on your phone again?" He leaned in close, his warm breath brushing my ear. "I know you don't like these class parties. I know you don't like getting overshadowed by Chloe." "But, Zoe." He looked at me earnestly, wearing that familiar, gentle expression that always made me feel like he put me first. "This is our last high school party. I don't want you looking back and regretting it." Any other time, I would've melted into his chest. I would've told him in a small voice how good he was to me, how he always thought of everything. But right now, watching him slip my phone smoothly into the inside pocket of his blazer, that warm breath by my ear sent a cold sweat crawling down my spine. The text wasn't a prank. He really had tampered with my application. I held out my hand, my voice a little hoarse. "Give me back my phone." No. I wanted it back, but not for him. Harvard was where the professor I'd wanted to study under since I was twelve taught. It was the place I'd been working toward since I was twelve—the university where the professor I wanted to study under taught. Every report card, every late night, every sacrifice had been for that dream. Adrian just happened to be going there too. He wasn't the one who made that dream possible. He just happened to be walking the same road. We were supposed to be on the same road all along. Adrian's expression darkened further as he took in the seriousness on my face. His voice dropped even lower. "You're going to grab your phone back from me? Again?" "Zoe, I've spoiled you for years. But this, right now, in front of everyone? Isn't this a bit much?" The commotion had already caught the attention of a few classmates. Whispers and strange looks came at me from every direction. Once, I would've been terrified of him going cold on me. I would've trailed after him for the rest of the night trying to smooth things over. But now, out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at the clock on the wall. 2:59 PM. Two hours until Ashford Prep's internal Early Decision cutoff at 5:00 PM. That was the deadline for the school counselor to upload transcripts and recommendation letters. After that, my entire application would be dead. I looked him straight in the eye. For the first time, I didn't back down. "My phone. Now."

第2章

Adrian's face went completely dark. The whispering around us grew louder. "The Valedictorian looks pissed…" "Even if they're childhood friends, that's no way to embarrass him in front of everyone." "Please. Childhood friends is just a technicality. Adrian and Chloe are the couple Ashford Prep voted for." "She should just bow out gracefully. Zoe really can't read the room." They weren't even trying to keep their voices down. But Adrian just glanced over at them, then brought his gaze back to me. When he looked at me again, the anger was gone. Now his face wore that expression of weary, resigned patience. "Zoe, didn't you promise me on the way here that didn't you promise you'd spend today with me?" I curled my fingers into my palm and said nothing. I had promised. But he hadn't told me that after the party, everyone was going out on the Hudson River yacht cruise. By the time it wrapped up, it would be past eleven. Into the stalled silence, Chloe piped up sweetly. "Come on, Zoe. Today's the submission deadline. Everyone just wants to unwind after hitting send." "You've been glued to your phone all afternoon. It's kind of insulting to the rest of us, don't you think?" Some classmates chimed in. Others jumped on the pile. I clenched my teeth and said nothing. It was always like this. Ever since Chloe transferred in junior year, every cold shoulder, every accusation, had landed on me. Every time she confessed to Adrian and got turned down, the girls in her orbit would come at me. I'd fought back at first. I'd told them loudly that Adrian liked me, that he and I had agreed to go to college together. Then, one after another, they'd shoved me into supply closets and locked the door. And then, plain as day, I saw it. The furrow in Adrian's brow the day Chloe first confessed publicly, it wasn't as deep anymore. The first time Chloe confessed to him, his frown hadn't been nearly as deep. There had even been a hint of helplessness at the corner of his mouth. The same look he gave me. So I stopped pushing back. But my silence didn't stop the isolation or the attacks. I lifted my head and looked Chloe dead in the eye. She clearly hadn't expected me to face her head-on. Normally at school, I did everything I could to avoid her. Caught off guard, she didn't hide the flash of malice in time. I pointed at her phone. "You just said me being on my phone was disrespectful to everyone. So what's that in your hand?" She stumbled over her words. Adrian frowned and stepped just slightly in front of her. "Zoe, Chloe was only posting the poll. You know that." "So she gets to be on her phone. I don't." He didn't have an answer. I didn't give him a chance to find one. "And you. I told you I'd come to this one party. And this is what you do?" I gestured to the room full of people. "When they were mocking me and laughing at me, you pretended not to hear!" Tears were rising in my eyes and I couldn't stop them. I raised my voice into something like a shout, hoping the force of it would keep them from falling. "I'm saying it one more time. Give me back my phone." The clock on the wall had crawled to 3:20. I couldn't afford to waste another minute. The room went completely silent. Every pair of eyes in the place was on the two of us. After a long moment, Adrian rubbed his temple like he was exhausted to the bone. "Zoe, you know I've always spoiled you." "I don't want to fight with you. But can you at least tell me, what do you actually need your phone for?" I looked into his eyes, and something small and stubborn still hoped. Hoped that this was all in my head. Hoped that the text was just someone stirring the pot. "The application system is closing soon. I just want to double-check my submission…" "Ha." The laugh came out of nowhere. It was soft, but in the dead silent room it cut like glass. He looked down at me, eyes full of disappointment. "Zoe. You gave me your Common App login. Yourself." "You told me you wanted to go to Harvard with me. You said you wanted me to look it over. And now you want to snatch your phone back and check it again yourself?" His voice cracked, showing a rare thread of hurt. "You don't trust me?"

第3章

Stares came at me from every corner of the room like needles. I almost caved and started to explain. I was one breath away from apologizing. Adrian was never one to show weakness. From the time we were small, he was the one calling the shots in every group of kids. The year he pulled me up out of the woodchips under the elementary school slide, after another kid had shoved me down, he'd said it clearly. "Anyone pushes you, you push back. Don't be scared. I've got you." From that day on, he had my back all the way through middle school and high school. He'd shake his head and sigh. "Zoe, you're too soft. What are you gonna do when someone messes with you later on?" "Whatever. Just stick with me. I'll always look out for you." Watching that bright, cocky boy grow up, I'd been absolutely certain. He would be the person I trusted most in the world. And now, that boy I'd spent my whole life looking up to was crumbling in front of me, revealing a side of him I'd never seen before—cold, vulnerable, and utterly unfamiliar. Suspicion and guilt tangled in my chest, ringing out in a soundless howl. I took a deep breath and met his eyes. "I just want to double-check it." "You know how I am. I've never been good at just…trusting things like this." But Adrian's face didn't soften. He slowly let go of my hand, one finger at a time. "Zoe. You still don't trust me." Right on cue, Chloe stepped forward with a drink. "Come on, guys. We're all friends here. This is getting ugly. Drink this and cool off, okay?" I looked at her coldly. I didn't miss the malice in her eyes. When I didn't take it, Adrian's brow tightened. "Chloe put this whole party together. Chloe organized this whole party. Everyone's here because of her, and you're making her look bad." "She's tried to be nice to you so many times. And you shut her down every single time. Zoe, when did you get so cold?" My eyes stung. I nearly lost hold of the tears. He seemed to have forgotten. I had a severe tree nut allergy. And what Chloe had just handed me was a Nutella milkshake. Sophomore year, a girl next to me in the cafeteria opened a jar of Nutella and started eating it with a spoon. A tiny drop landed on the back of my hand. I didn't think anything of it and wiped it away. Ten minutes later, my entire arm was covered in hives and my throat had started closing up. Chloe was the one who noticed first. She stared for two full seconds, then pointed at me and shouted at Adrian. "Adrian, look! Zoe looks so gross when she breaks out!" Adrian's eyes had gone red with panic. He'd snapped, "Zoe is the most beautiful girl in the world to me no matter what she looks like," and then he'd scooped me up and carried me all the way to the nurse's office. For as long as I'd known him, Adrian had made sure not a single nut ever came near me. And now, he was blaming me for not taking the Nutella milkshake. Blaming me for making Chloe look bad. I gritted my teeth. "If I drink it, will you give me back my phone?" He hesitated for two seconds. Before he could answer, Chloe giggled. "It's just a phone. I'll make the call for Adrian." "You drink it, you get your phone back." I clenched my jaw and glanced at the clock on the wall. 3:58. "Fine." I reached for the glass. Adrian looked like he wanted to stop me. Then something crossed his face and his hand paused in midair. Before my fingers could even close around it, the glass slipped from between us. It shattered on the floor, thick chocolate-brown liquid splashing everywhere, shards of glass scattering across the hardwood. "Ah!" Chloe shrieked and stumbled backward, slamming hard into the side of a console table. "Chloe!" Adrian bolted to her side, lifted her into a chair, and crouched down to inspect her ankle. "Are you hurt?" Chloe looked up at me, eyes brimming. "Zoe, if you don't like me, fine. But smashing the glass on purpose? What if someone had gotten hurt?" The blame came from every direction and swallowed me whole. I bit the inside of my cheek and tried to ignore the sting of the glass cut on the top of my foot. But under Adrian's disappointed stare, the pain in my foot became almost unbearable. After a long moment, Chloe sniffled and let out a delicate sigh. "You know what? Maybe she really does need her phone for something important." "Adrian, just give it back to her." Adrian looked at her, then clicked his tongue. He fished my phone out of his blazer's inner pocket and tossed it my way, impatient.