After I Stopped Being Her “Backup,” She Broke Down Outside the ER

Chapter 1

The girl I liked was dating a total scumbag.

He gambled, slept around, and hit her, and she still insisted he was a good man.

She got tired of me standing up for her, called me a troublemaker, and said I disgusted her.

Later, when I stopped loving her, she lost her mind trying to get me back.

Chloe Jennings got hit again by her trash boyfriend.

When she came to me crying, I rolled up my sleeves and said I was going to go settle things with Tyler Knox.

She grabbed my arm. "Don't. He just drank too much and got carried away for a second, that's all."

I ached for her, and at the same time I wanted to shake her until she came to her senses.

"How many times has he put his hands on you now, and you're still defending him."

Chloe was crying so hard she could barely breathe, and the marks on her neck were unmistakable.

"But when he's not drunk, he really is good to me. Look at this bracelet, he bought it for my birthday. He even cooked for me."

I looked at the bracelet.

It was one of those TikTok Shop bestsellers, basically two bucks with free shipping, cheap enough to fall apart in your hand.

And that so-called cooking was just a cup of instant ramen with an egg tossed in.

I didn't get it.

Chloe came from money. She'd been spoiled in the best way, raised with everything she could ever want. Her parents gave her all the love in the world and the kind of education people fight to get into. And I’d spent years treating her like glass, terrified she’d ever feel even slightly wronged. Yet somehow she’d been completely taken in by a worthless thug.

I wanted to snap her out of it.

"A cheap bracelet and a half-hearted bowl of noodles counts as being good to you. Coco, wake up. What is it about that guy that's worth holding on to."

She argued back, "That's because you don't understand him. He's not like us. His parents split up when he was little, he grew up struggling, but what he feels for me is real."

"Real, my ass. A guy like that doesn't deserve to be loved."

Chloe's face tightened, she was clearly angry that I’d said that about her boyfriend.

Then her phone rang, the caller ID said Tyler Knox.

Her expression softened instantly, like she'd flipped a switch.

"honey."

His voice came through harsh and impatient. "Chloe Jennings, did you go running to that simp again."

Chapter 2

"Honey, please don't be mad. I just came to get something from Ethan, I'm leaving right now."

Chloe ignored my pleas to stay, scrambling to get up and leave.

Just then, her mother arrived, flanked by two men.

Chloe looked confused.

"Mom?"

Mrs. Jennings was stone-faced.

Realizing what had happened, Chloe turned and glared at me, "Ethan, I can't believe you snitched to my mom!"

I had no choice. She wouldn't listen to a word I said, so I had to bring in the one person she feared.

When Mrs. Jennings saw the bruising on Chloe's neck, her expression darkened instantly. She snapped, "That boyfriend of yours did this, didn't he? That’s it, I’m calling the police to have him arrested!"

Chloe started crying in a panic, practically falling to her knees in front of her mother.

"Mom, I’m begging you, don't call the cops! I did this to myself by accident, it has nothing to do with Ty!"

"Starting today, you are moving back home. And that apartment I gave you? I'm taking it back!"

"Mom! I don't want to go home!"

But Mrs. Jennings wasn't up for debate. She signaled the men, and they forcibly escorted Chloe away.

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Sophie Blake Bonus

When I was nineteen, I fell for a guy.

The problem was he loved another girl.

I heard they’d grown up together, and it got under my skin. I didn’t want to lose without even trying.

The girl was in Dance Club, so I joined Dance Club too.

That way I could see him more often.

And that’s when I realized how hopeless it was.

He really did love her.

I was just background noise, someone he barely noticed.

So I hid it. I kept my feelings to myself.

But I couldn’t stop paying attention to him.

After graduation, I still found ways to ask around and keep up with his life.

When I heard he planned to go to the U.S. for school, I was so happy I felt dizzy.

Five years had passed, and I still hadn’t let him go.

So I decided to give myself one chance.

I quit my job and applied to the same university.

I waited at the visa office and “accidentally” bumped into him on purpose.

Maybe the gears of fate started turning back when that snow globe showed up.

It was small, only about the size of half my palm.

But inside it was a whole galaxy, bright little stars circling like they’d never leave their sun.

She used to be his sun.

He used to be mine.

I thought I would never get a turn.

Turns out fate wasn’t cruel to me after all.

At the airport, I asked Chloe, "Do you actually love Ethan."

Even weak and pale, she looked at me like I was the enemy.

"Of course. We grew up together. What would you know."

"So do you love him," I asked, "or do you love the feeling you get from him always being there for you."

She tried to argue, but I didn’t let her.

"Junior year, Ethan sprained his ankle playing basketball. You gave him the silent treatment for a week because he couldn’t travel with you to a concert."

"At graduation, Ethan wanted to study abroad and take you with him. You didn’t want to go, so you dragged your feet and kept him from going too."

"You started dating someone else. You knew it hurt him to watch, and you still kept rubbing it in his face. And when he stood up for you, you let him get torn apart."

"He has a sensitive stomach. Cold soy milk gives him cramps. He gets headaches sometimes. When the seasons change, his throat gets inflamed. Did you even know that."

"You keep saying you grew up together. Did you ever actually care about him. Did you ever bother to learn him."

"He treated you like a princess," I said, "but to me you just had princess syndrome. Everything was always about your feelings, your mood, your wants."

Chloe looked past me at Ethan and froze.

I’d said what I needed to say.

On the plane, Ethan asked what I’d said to Chloe.

I didn’t tell him.

There was no point, right.

Outside the window, the view stretched forever.

Ethan and I interlaced our fingers.

In my headphones, Avril Lavigne’s voice came through, sweet and sharp.

"Sorry girl, tough luck, that boy’s mine now."

Chloe, you were out of the game.