The night before our graduation trip, the boy I had loved since middle school tagged me in our group chat and wrote, “Stella didn’t book your ticket. Sit this one out.” What hurt wasn’t being left behind—it was realizing, with terrifying clarity, that I had spent years begging for a place in a life where everyone else had already decided I was optional.
Chapter 3
Zimmer University felt like another planet.
Palm trees lined the roads. Magnolia branches shaded old brick buildings. Students hurried between classes carrying iced coffee and backpacks while cicadas screamed from the trees.
Liam showed me everything.
The quiet floor in the library.
The cheapest coffee.
The dining hall station that served surprisingly good grilled chicken.
On move-in day, he carried my suitcase six floors because the elevator stopped working.
Then he opened his backpack.
Sheets.
Pillowcases.
A comforter.
“You bought bedding?”
“And washed it.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because your mother said you’d forget something important.”
“I remembered clothes.”
“Congratulations.”
He made my bed while I watched.
No performance.
No teasing.
No expectation that I should be grateful forever.
Just kindness.
That night, one of my roommates asked, “Who was the cute guy?”
Before I could answer, Liam texted.
If they ask, tell them I’m still trying to win you over.
My face heated.
“No,” I told my roommates. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Yet?”
I looked at the message again.
“Apparently not yet.”
Over the next several weeks, Liam became part of my daily life.
During orientation, he waited outside with iced tea.
He took me to restaurants all over Miami.
When I complained about professors, he listened.
When I got lost on campus, he never made me feel stupid.
The difference between Liam and Jake was not that Liam performed grand romantic gestures.
It was that Liam noticed.
One evening, walking home from a movie, he stopped beneath a pedestrian bridge.
“Leah?”
“Yes?”
“Can I stop saying I’m trying to win you over?”
My heartbeat sped up.
“Why?”
“Because I’d like to actually date you.”
I smiled.
“Approved.”
He blinked.
“Approved?”
“That’s your romantic answer.”
He laughed and brushed a strand of hair from my cheek.
“So it’s official?”
“It’s official.”
Chloe eventually posted a photograph of us online.
Somebody sent it to our old classmates.
That was how Jake found out.
He called from his real number.
“Leah.”
I was sitting beside Liam near Biscayne Bay.
Jake’s voice sounded rough.
“Where are you?”
“Miami.”
“I went to Silverton looking for you.”
I said nothing.
“They told me you never enrolled.”
“No.”
“But we promised.”
“That was years ago.”
Silence.
Then he whispered, “I get it.”
He hung up.
I thought that was the end.
The following afternoon, my roommate texted while I was studying.
Some guy has been standing outside the dorm forever. I think he wants you.
I went downstairs.
Jake was beneath the magnolia tree.
He wore jeans, heavy shoes, and a dark jacket despite the brutal September heat.
“Jake?”
He turned.
His face was bright red.
He took one step.
Then collapsed.
Students shouted.
Liam, coming from the dining hall, reached him first.
“Call campus medical.”
We helped carry Jake to the clinic.
The doctor diagnosed severe heat exhaustion bordering on heatstroke. They cooled him, started fluids, and kept him for observation.
When Jake woke, I was sitting nearby.
“Leah.”
He tried to sit.
A nurse stopped him.
“I messed up,” he said. “I know I did.”
His eyes were desperate.
“I blocked Stella. I blocked everybody. I’ll stop talking to them. Come back with me.”
“Jake—”
“You said we’d always stay together.”
I studied him.
For years, I had imagined this.
Jake choosing me.
Jake regretting everything.
Jake finally understanding.
Now that it was happening, I felt only sadness.
“Do you remember when those boys let the air out of my bicycle tires?”
His expression brightened.
“Of course.”
“You walked my bike to the repair shop.”
“Yeah.”
“I thought you were the best person in the world.”
His smile faded.
“That’s why I followed you everywhere. That’s why every time you hurt me, I found an excuse.”
“Leah, Stella manipulated—”
“No.”
He stopped.
“You gave her rides. You left me behind. You switched colleges and didn’t tell me. You let your friends humiliate me. Stella forgot one ticket out of eleven, and when I walked away, you called me petty.”
His eyes filled.
“I can fix it.”
“I spent a year waiting for you to notice I was hurting.”
“I didn’t know.”
“That was the problem.”
I took a breath.
“I have a boyfriend.”
His face emptied.
“Liam?”
“Yes.”
“I can change.”
“I hope you do.”
The door opened.
Stella rushed inside.
“Jake!”
She hurried toward the bed.
He pulled away.
“Get out.”
Her face crumpled.
“I came all this way.”
“This is your fault.”
I stared at him.
Stella stared too.
“What?”
“If you hadn’t come between us—”
“That’s enough,” I said.
Jake looked at me.
“If you still think Stella is the reason you lost me, then you haven’t learned anything.”
He seemed stunned.
I continued.
“She didn’t force you to treat me badly. You chose what mattered to you every day.”
Stella wiped her eyes.
Jake said nothing.
I stood.
“What happens between you two is your business.”
I walked out.
Liam waited in the hallway.
He did not ask whether Jake had begged me to return.
He did not demand reassurance.
He simply held out his hand.
“Frozen custard?”
I smiled.
“Extra toppings.”
“Obviously.”
I took his hand.
Behind me was a boy I had once believed I could never live without.
Ahead of me was someone who had never once asked me to prove I deserved a seat beside him.
