The night before the university applications were due, the senior class group chat exploded.

[0:00]The night before the university applications were due, the senior class group chat exploded. Holy sh*t, Terry, why did you switch your application to the UK? I thought you and Ava were set on Paris. Terry's reply was casual, almost lazy. I switched. So what? She has my login info anyway. He followed it up with a smirk I could feel through the screen. She'll see I changed it and she'll follow me. That little shadow can't live without me. I stared at my phone, my mind a complete blank. My half-packed suitcase lay open on the floor. The gift I'd painstakingly chosen for him sitting right on top. I left the group chat, tossed the gift into the trash, and never looked at the application portal again. He had no idea. He could throw away our future for Rachel, but I could throw him away to secure my own. All those sleepless nights, all that grinding, it was never just for him. Terry's words were like shards of glass in my heart. Paris. We'd worked our a*ses off for 12 years dreaming of that specific university. It was our sacred goal. And now he'd changed it just like that, without even bothering to tell me to my face. Someone in the chat asked him, what if Ava doesn't see it? The portal closes tomorrow at midnight. Terry's reply was laced with mockery. Since the portal opened, Ava's been checking it every 10 minutes. She's more obsessed than my own mother. There's no way she'll miss it. Ugh, you guys wouldn't get it. The chat filled with sycophantic replies, all variations of, Terry, you're the man. Then another voice piped up, but what if she doesn't change it? That school in Paris is a way better fit for her program. Terry paused for a few seconds before answering. His tone turned icy. Bullsh*t. Ava has major separation anxiety. I was gone for one day last year, and she dropped everything to come find me. This is three years. You think she can handle three years without seeing me? To her, I'm more important than any school. She'll choose me. She always does. A heavy silence fell over the chat. After a long moment, someone tentatively typed, Terry, isn't that a little rough on Ava? We all saw how hard she worked for this. You should at least give her a heads up. Terry sent a single dismissive message. It took him a while to type again. It's a pain in the a*s. I don't want to deal with it. You guys know how she gets. If she finds out I did it for Rachel, she'll cry and it'll give me a headache. It's just easier this way. Less drama for me. The chat immediately sprang back to life. Yeah, that makes sense. Ava's great, but she's no Rachel. Damn, Terry, you've got it made. The banter, the casual cruelty of it all, felt like a physical weight crushing me. I wanted to call him, to scream, to demand an explanation. But my fingers wouldn't move. In the end, I just threw myself into bed, my body numb, and stared at the ceiling as my thoughts began to unravel. How could a person change so completely? When we were drowning in French lessons, crying from exhaustion, neither of us ever considered giving up. Every time we felt like we couldn't go on, we'd pull up a picture of the Eiffel Tower and crack jokes to keep each other going. The day our acceptance letters arrived, we cried and laughed at the same time, feeling like all our struggles were finally about to pay off. Our perfect ending was right there, within reach, and he just let go of my hand and ran towards someone else. Honestly, I wouldn't have even been angry if he just told me he wanted to change plans. But why wouldn't he just tell me? Did he see me as that pathetic, that insignificant? If I was such a nuisance to him, then what were his promises from that night when he held me under the stars and whispered about marrying me? Was the night just too dark, the lights too dim for him to see who he was talking to? I curled into a ball, pulling the blankets over my head, and let myself break down in the darkness. The truth is, I'm not the one who can't live without him. I don't have separation anxiety. He does. Ever since we were kids, if we ended up in different schools or even different classes, he'd get moody and withdrawn for no reason. The only thing that would snap him out of it was seeing me. So I just made it a habit. I followed my own path, my own ambitions, and I made sure to drag him along with me. Terry wasn't wrong about one thing. I had always woven him into the fabric of my future. When it didn't compromise my dreams, I was happy to pay the price for my heart. But that didn't mean my love had no limits. I closed the application portal I'd accidentally opened and wiped the tears from my face. I didn't open it again. He made his choice. I was making mine. From now on, we would go our separate ways. I'd just splashed my face with cold water when a video call from Terry popped up on my phone. Little shadow, pick up. I want to see you. When I didn't answer, he tried again and again.