Chapter 1: The Breakup Heard Around Campus

I spent three years chasing the school’s most unattainable heartthrob, and when I finally got him, I realized the truth: Ethan Blake was untouchable in every way.

No matter how hard I flirted, he kept his walls up—cold, controlled, never once making the first move. I thought it was shyness, maybe stubbornness. But the night my family lost everything, reality hit me like a freight train.

On my phone, ugly comments scrolled past, each one sharper than the last:

[The wicked supporting girl finally got what she deserved!]

[If he wasn’t protecting the main girl, would the hero really have kept up this act for years?]

[LMAO, she still doesn’t know the guy needs pills just to sleep with her, right?]

My hand shook as I opened the nightstand drawer. There it was—a plain, unlabeled bottle of pills. My breath hitched. Memories of our nights together flashed through my mind—his careful distance, those sudden trips to the bathroom, the restraint in his eyes. My stomach twisted. All those nights—were they just an act? Was I really that blind? Was every touch a lie?

I gripped the pill bottle so hard my knuckles ached, then scrolled to the top of my contacts and called Ethan. My voice trembled, but I forced it out:

“You’re a terrible liar, Ethan. We’re done.”

Ethan’s voice came through the phone, cold and sharp as a winter wind:

“Sophie, are you sure?”

The words caught in my throat, but I pressed them out, barely a whisper: “Yeah.”

He waited, silent for what felt like a lifetime. Then, with a chill that made my skin crawl: “...As you wish.”

The call disconnected with a final, merciless click. The busy signal echoed in my ears, but it was the silence after that really broke me.

I collapsed, legs giving out, sinking to the floor with the bottle still clutched in my fist.

On my screen, the comments kept coming, each one a fresh cut:

[LMAO, she actually dumped him?]

[Does she really think he’ll come crawling back? Pathetic.]

[He must have hated every second of those four years.]

[Who let this homewrecker think she was ever the main character?]

I couldn’t look away. My world spun, but the words stayed sharp and clear. I’d never felt so exposed—so utterly alone.