His Heart Stayed Flat for Me, Raced for Her, I Stayed for Neither Chapter 02
When the reunion ended, it was already one in the morning.
It was raining outside.
In front of everyone, Caleb offered to take Olivia home.
He reached over and snatched the umbrella right out of my hand.
“Emily, Olivia and I don’t have one. Let us take this. You can catch a ride with someone else.”
Olivia popped her head out from behind him. “Emily, be careful on your way home! I’ll give your umbrella back tomorrow.”
Caleb just pulled her away. “Olivia, don’t get too cocky. This is just a contract thing. Once the time’s up, we’re done!”
“Fine with me! Who’d want you anyway? I don’t even like you!”
The two of them disappeared into the rain, bickering the whole way.
Only I noticed that the umbrella Caleb was holding was tilted almost completely toward Olivia.
His own shoulder was soaked.
One by one, my classmates left. No one offered me a ride.
I stood there, my tears mixing with the rain.
Caleb knew I wasn’t popular. He knew no one would take me home.
But he still took my umbrella and left me there alone.
We had promised to go public after the SATs.
But instead, I got a breakup and watched him be with someone else.
Tears blurred my vision.
My phone rang again. It was my mom, who was living abroad.
“Emily, if you want to stay in the country for college, that’s fine too… We trust Caleb. Your father and I won’t object to you two being together anymore.”
I closed my eyes.
The rain hit my face, cold and sharp.
“Mom, I’ve thought it through.”
“Go ahead and finalize the study abroad plans.”
By the time I got home, I was completely drenched.
My phone chimed.
Caleb, who almost never posted anything, had posted a status update.
[Meet my girlfriend, @OliviaHartwell.]
In the photo, Caleb had his arm around her shoulders, grinning with pure confidence.
Olivia was glaring at him with her arms crossed, looking both feisty and adorable.
The comments were going crazy.
[Ahhh! We’ve been shipping you two for three years! Rivals to lovers forever!]
[ The school heartthrob and his queen. Perfect together.]
…
Then I saw the latest comment.
[The king announced it so fast. I bet his little childhood friend is crying again.]
Someone replied instantly: [Why would she deserve to cry? Sure, her family’s got money, but what else does she have to offer Caleb?]
Below it, someone had posted an ugly picture of me, a candid shot taken at field day last year.
More and more people joined in, flooding the post with my worst photos.
I turned off my phone, collapsed onto the couch, and wiped my tears as hard as I could.
“Not good enough.” Those words had followed me since the day I met Caleb.
He was born under a lucky star. Good looking, and always first in everything.
I was average at everything. Invisible in class.
The girls were jealous that Caleb and I grew up together, so they formed a clique and shut me out.
The guys found creative ways to make fun of me, voting me onto the “Four Plainest Girls” list.
At school, Caleb never got too close to me.
But whenever someone bullied me, he was always the first to step in and protect me.
One time, he even got into a fight with a group of guys over me and almost got suspended.
I cried the whole time I was patching him up. I was so distraught I couldn’t speak.
Later, we started dating. In secret.
I thought I was special to Caleb.
Until Olivia transferred to our school in tenth grade.
She was pretty and smart. She beat Caleb for the position of class president as soon as she arrived.
Caleb couldn’t stand it. He started picking fights with her.
They competed over test scores, fought over projects. The loser had to do whatever the winner asked.
The whole school shipped them. Caleb would always grumble, but he never really denied it.
I had never seen him like this before.
Later, I realized that this was what a teenage boy looked like when he really liked someone.
He picked fights with her just to get her attention.
When she gave a speech, his eyes followed her.
If she looked back, he’d look away fast and pretend he didn’t care.
When she had her period, he secretly filled a water bottle for her.
When she failed a test, he challenged her to do better.
But the moment I knew I was really losing him was halfway through eleventh grade.
