- 7.
I booked the earliest ticket back home.
I didn’t know anyone in California, and I was
broke.
I ended up spending the night in the bus
terminal.
When I got back to school, I got really sick.
When I woke up in the hospital, Sarah’s eyes
were red and swollen like walnuts.
く
“I told you, Liam was no good.”
Sarah had never liked Liam.
She used to say that I was a total love–fool,
and Liam was a macho jerk.
I’d always argue with her.
But now, after everything I’d been through, I
had no energy to fight back.
I just nodded.
“I should have listened to you, Sarah.‘
My phone rang.
It was the custom ringtone I had for Liam.
<
For my birthday last year, Liam had said that I
could have anything I wished for.
I had begged him to sing “Twinkle Twinkle
Little Star” for me.
And I made it my ringtone.
He had smiled at me, half annoyed and half
indulgent.
Back then, I thought, I really thought, that I had finally found my happiness.
I thought that Liam was finally going to
change for me.
We were finally going to be like any other
normal happy couple.
<
I smiled bitterly and almost cried again.
I hung up the phone and blocked Liam’s
number.
I opened up my messaging app and I saw that
Liam had sent a few messages.
He asked me where I was..
He sent a photo of Mia with a cast on her foot.
“Because of your attitude, other people got hurt.”
“Whatever happened between us shouldn’t have involved her.”
The usually green chat box was showing
L
But it was to blame me.
I couldn’t hold back the tears from pouring
onto my phone screen.
Liam and I had known each other since
middle school. We’d walked through our
teenage years together.
To me, he wasn’t just my boyfriend.
He was someone I looked up to.
His clumsy comfort when I failed a test, the
special tutoring sessions he set up for me
before the SATs.
The genius who never did his homework
made a whole notebook of study notes just
for me.
I
I held the notebook, my heart was beating like
crazy.
I pretended to be casual as I asked him.
“Liam, are you doing all of this because you
like me?”
I had tried to hide my true feelings with a
joke, but my voice was shaking.
Time kept passing, I didn’t know how long it
had been.
He finally spoke, his voice was calm, like
always. Just like he was talking about the
weather.
“Yeah, I like you.”
<
I looked up at him, surprised. The sunset
painted the sky a dazzling red, highlighting
half of his face.
In that moment, I thought he cared for me.
And that’s how I became the girlfriend of a
genius.
Everyone around me kept telling me I wasn’t
good enough, but I was never discouraged.
I kept running after him for such a long time.
I worked so hard for half a year, to go from a
small college to a 4–year university.
And now, I had a shot at getting into Liam’s
grad school.
<
I tried so hard to be closer to him.
I was so close, but no one told me that
people can change.
People change.
The boy who had confessed his love to me in
the sunset was now in love with someone
else.
My fingers tapped on the keyboard, typing a
long text.
Explanations, accusations, curses…
And finally, deleted them all, one word at a
time.
It was useless, I thought.
<
[Liam, I’m being nice enough to tell your
genius behind that you are cheating.]
After sending that message, I clicked on his
picture.
[Block this contact? You will no longer receive their messages.]
My finger hovered over the confirmation
button.
For a long, long time.
Finally, I tapped it.
I fell into Sarah’s arms, crying.
