The post-exam party. Someone suggested Never Have I Ever.

Neal James went first.

"I got an early admission recommendation to Northbridge University. Didn't even sit the college entrance exams."

The karaoke lounge erupted in cheers.

Senior year, the Olympiad competition—make the national team and you walked straight into an early admission recommendation. I'd prepped for the better part of a year, then an allergy attack floored me right before the exam and I never made it to the competition at all.

I folded down a finger without a word.

A few rounds later, only Neal and I still had one finger left.

He grinned, all sunshine and confidence.

"I have a girlfriend!"

The room went dead quiet, then exploded.

My eyes went straight to Ellie Pruitt, sitting in the corner.

She'd told me so many times: "Bert, once the exams are over, we'll be together."

She was leaning back against the couch. She never once looked at me.

Someone called out, "Prove it! How do we know you've got a girlfriend?"

Neal smiled, stood up, and walked over to Ellie.

He took her face in both hands, bent down in front of the whole room, and kissed her.

She didn't push him away. Didn't so much as glance in my direction.

I lowered my head, folded down my last finger.

I lost.

And not just the game.

——

Whistles, screams, and applause crashed together into a wall of noise.

"Holy shit! I knew those two had something going on!"

"When did you get together?"

Neal straightened up, face flushed and beaming.

"Made it official the day exams ended!"

Every pair of eyes in the room was locked on the new couple.

Not one of them landed on me.

I watched them.

Watched Ellie raise her hand and drag the back of her wrist across her lips, lazy, like brushing away crumbs.

"Come on, tell us how it happened!"

"Who confessed? Details! We want details!"

The crowd kept pushing, wave after wave.

Neal shot Ellie a bashful look, then started talking.

"Honestly, it was nothing special. The day exams ended, I asked her to come out…"

He spared nothing. How he'd texted Ellie, how he'd gotten her to meet up, how he'd reached for her hand, the exact moment he'd said, "Let's be together."

With every new detail, the laughter in the room got louder.

With every new detail, another pair of eyes drifted toward me.

"Wait, aren't Ellie and Bertram a thing? They grew up together!"

"Says who? When has Ellie ever given Bertram a second look?"

"Oh, Bertram—you mean the sad little puppy who follows her around? That one?"

"Right, and who'd date a guy like that? Ellie's not into charity cases!"

"That meal that gave Bertram his allergic reaction? Ellie made it with her own hands—on purpose, so he'd miss the competition."

"Well, Neal needed that recommendation spot, and Bertram was the only one in his way. What else were they gonna do?"

"Genius move. Bertram was just a stepping stone."

Neal ducked his head, playing sheepish, but every line of his face was smug.

"Bertram, I'm sorry, man. I mentioned the whole recommendation thing to Ellie, and she just… she cares about me too much, you know? If you're going to blame anyone, blame me…"

So everyone had known.

Everyone except me.

Or maybe I should have known all along.

Freshman year of high school, Ellie started pulling away.

If we crossed paths on campus she'd drop her head and walk right past me, like I was no one.

I caught up with her once and asked why. She said, "Don't give people the wrong idea."

I told myself she was just shy.

In the hallway she'd lean against the wall talking to Neal, eyes bright, laughing like she couldn't help it.

The moment I walked over, the laugh died. "What do you want?"

I told myself she was just putting on a front around classmates.

She changed my contact name from "Bert" to "Bertram Harding." Scrubbed every photo of us off her social media.

I told myself she was worried a teacher might see.

Now I know it was Neal she was worried about.

Worried Neal might not like it.

So she destroyed my early admission recommendation with her own hands.

In the one way I'd never think to question—her cooking, her gentle voice telling me to eat more.

The girl I grew up with, the one who said she'd marry me someday, pushed me into an emergency room for another guy.

My eyes burned dry and raw. I forced myself not to cry.

I looked at Ellie. Squeezed every word out of what was left of my voice:

"Is it true?"

She sat next to Neal. Her expression didn't change at all.

"Does it matter? It wouldn't change anything."

Her voice was flat, without a single ripple, and my words sank like a stone into deep water—didn't even break the surface.

Because she didn't care.

Didn't care about eighteen years of growing up together. Didn't care about the future we could have had.

My throat clamped shut, acid rising in waves.

I bit the inside of my lower lip, using that small pain to hold everything else down.

I stood and bolted out of the room. Behind me, muffled laughter and jeering.

"Bertram! Where are you going? Your childhood sweetheart's got a new man and you can't even say congrats?"

"Wait—is he actually crying?"

"So what if he is? Ellie never liked him anyway. Who's he doing this for?"

I stood on the curb for a long time.

The night wind dried the tears on my face.

My phone buzzed.

Ellie.

Where'd you go? Come back. Don't let people laugh at you.

I stared at those words, and suddenly I was seven again—bawling my eyes out at the kindergarten graduation ceremony while kids pointed and laughed, and she marched straight up to them. "He can cry if he wants to! Mind your own business!"

Back then, she was every bit of courage I had.

Now she was telling me not to let people laugh.

That was just a dare I lost. Come back, I'll explain everything.

A dare.

I gripped my phone. My palm was slick with sweat.

A taxi rolled past. The driver honked twice.

"Getting in or not?"

I didn't move.

All those years kept flooding back.

Ten years old—I had a fever, and she climbed the wall to bring me medicine. Our dog chased her three blocks.

Twelve—I bombed an exam, and she tore up her own ribbon and said, "These things are useless. Next time I'll help you get first place."

Fifteen—I was getting bullied, and she threw herself into the fight, got a chunk of her scalp ripped out, and still looked at me grinning. "Doesn't hurt."

Had she changed?

Or had she never changed, and I just never said what I needed to say?

Had I just been lying to myself the whole time?

"Getting in or not?" The driver called again.

I clenched my jaw, turned, and ran back.

I pushed open the door full of hope.

A basin of cold water came down over my head.

Ice water poured through my hair, blinding me, soaking through every layer of my clothes.

I stood there shaking.

The room exploded with piercing laughter.

"Oh my god, he actually came back!"

"Neal, how did you know that pathetic little puppy would come running back?"

"A bet's a bet! Ellie, hand over your jade luck pendant!"

Neal was leaning against Ellie's side, doubled over laughing.

"Told you he'd come back!"

He crooked a finger at Ellie.

"He's your loyal little dog—you couldn't chase him off if you tried!"

Ellie smirked and reached behind her neck, unclasping a red cord necklace.

A jade luck pendant hung from it.

I had one too.

We'd gotten them together when we were seven, both families visiting the same temple.

One for each of us. We'd worn them since we were kids, never once taken them off.

She'd called them tokens of a promise.

On our wedding day, we'd exchange them.

Now she placed hers in Neal's hand.

He held it up to the light, turning it over, his eyes crinkling into a grin.

"Pretty. Mine now. And so are you!"

I wiped the water off my face and looked at Ellie.

She glanced back at me, the smile dropping from her lips.

"What? I need your permission to give away my own things?"

No explanation. Just a bucket of cold water and a room full of people who wanted to watch me drown.

The girl who'd once fought the world for me was gone.

Someone shouted, "Let's go, let's go! Karaoke's next, I already booked a room!"

The crowd headed for the door.

As Neal passed me, he stuck his foot out.

I pitched forward, my knee cracking against the door frame. The pain tore a sharp breath out of me.

He glanced back with that bright, poisonous smile of his.

"Oh, my bad—didn't even see you down there."

Then he looped his arm through Ellie's and walked out.

She let him pull her along, passing right by me.

She looked down at me once.

It was brief. So brief I couldn't read what was behind it before she turned away.

And followed him out.

I knelt on the cold floor, blood seeping through the skin of my knee, water dripping from my hair and hitting the ground.

Drop after drop. Like all those years I'd poured into her, hitting nothing.

I didn't dare go home.

Looking like this, my dad would worry the second he saw me.

I found a hotel and checked into a room.

The hot water ran for a long time before I finally felt warm again.

When I came out, there were several messages on my phone.

From Ellie.

Your dad called. Wanted to know when you're coming back. I said you were with me. Head home soon.

Where are you? Are you safe?

Then a video call request.

I hesitated, then picked up.

Her face filled the screen, still beautiful, a dimly lit hallway behind her.

She frowned. "You're at a hotel?"

"Yeah."

"Which one?"

"None of your business."

A few seconds of silence. Then:

"Just stay put. I can't be covering for you with your dad."

"Ellie."

I looked at her. "That jade luck pendant—you actually gave it to him?"

She didn't answer.

"You said when we were kids. You said it was a token of a promise. That we'd exchange them on our wedding day."

"…"

"You gave it to Neal. So what about me?"

Her lips parted, but all that came out was:

"It wasn't worth anything."

I laughed.

"Yeah. Not worth anything."

"Neither am I, right?"

"Bertram—"

I hung up.

Half an hour later, the doorbell rang.

A delivery.

A tube of ointment for scrapes, and a bowl of hot porridge.

I sat on the hotel bed. The class group chat kept buzzing.

Videos were going around.

Neal and Ellie, doing a duet at the karaoke lounge.

He was leaning against her shoulder, both of them holding microphones, singing some love song I'd never heard.

The messages piled up underneath:

Omg the way Neal looks at Ellie?? He's literally whipped

Please I am BEGGING you two just kiss once, do it for us

Kiss!! Kiss!! Kiss!!