I Was the One They Were Willing to Lose Chapter 07

I Was the One They Were Willing to Lose Chapter 07

A month into the semester, I joined the campus astronomy club.

On the club’s first observation trip, the advisor put me in charge of the records.

I photographed the Orion Nebula and organized all the data into tables.

We worked until past midnight.

Club president Desmond Cole handed me a cup of hot water.

“You’re really good at this. Did you do it a lot before?”

“I used to handle logistics for other people.”

He looked a little puzzled. “For other people?”

I smiled and didn’t explain.

The skills that used to be taken for granted were, for the first time, actually recognized here.

I could take photos, edit video, plan routes, remember what everyone needed.

Around Poppy, all of that was just a set of tools that made it easier for them to take care of her.

Here, they were mine.

After the observation trip ended, a package arrived from Mom.

It was stuffed with clothes, snacks, supplements, and a thick letter.

Mom wrote that she’d restored my room to how it used to be. The projector was gone. Poppy had

moved back home.

She said she only realized afterward that the room barely had any trace of me left in it.

My awards were missing, my photos taken down, the closet full of nothing but Poppy’s new dresses.

Over and over in the letter, she asked when exactly I’d started planning to leave.

I didn’t reply. I just split the food from the package among my roommates.

Once winter came, Beckett and Julian showed up too.

I’d just finished a lab session and was walking out of the building when I saw them standing under a

streetlight.

Beckett was holding the chestnut cake I used to love as a kid. Julian had the photo album in his

arms.

The two of them stood there in silence. Neither spoke first.

Finally, Beckett held out the cake. “It got a little squashed after a full day of flying.”

“I don’t like chestnut anymore.”

His hand froze.

Honestly, I’d stopped liking it since I was twelve. They’d just never noticed.

Julian handed me the album, his voice rough.

“I looked through it.”

“Okay.”

“Why is it there are hardly any photos of you here?”

I glanced at him. “Because I was the one taking the pictures.”

Such a simple answer. And yet they seemed to only be understanding it now.

Julian lowered his eyes.

“We put together a new one. There were a lot of old photos still floating around the group chat, and Beckett tracked down some from other classmates.”

He opened it.

The first page: me standing on stage at my middle school graduation, wearing a red hair clip, smiling a little stiffly.

The second page: a middle school sports day. Me crossing the finish line, the three of them running up to hand me water.

Further in, Poppy started appearing.

My position in the photos slowly drifted from the center to the edge, and eventually disappeared

from the frame entirely.

They didn’t even need to explain it. One photo album had already recorded the entire shift.

Beckett said, eyes red, “How did I never notice before?”

“Because you didn’t care to.”

He opened his mouth and had nothing to say.

Julian set a bank card on the table.

“There’s $7,000 in there. $5,000 for the trip, the rest for the album and years of photography. The extra $500 on top is interest.”

I didn’t take it.

“Beckett already sent me $6,500.”

“Then think of this card as us making up for your birthday.”

“I don’t need it.”

Beckett’s voice suddenly rose. “Then what do you actually need?”

People on the sidewalk turned to look.

He caught himself and lowered his head fast, like he was fighting to hold something in.

“Wren. We apologized. We paid you back. Your room’s still there. The master bedroom in the apartment is empty too. Whatever else you want, just say it.”

I thought suddenly of the Sync Game.

The favoritism they gave Poppy never needed her to ask for it.

When it was my turn, I had to lay out conditions first, prove I deserved to be made whole.

“I don’t want anything.”

“I just want you all to stop showing up to bother me.”

Beckett’s eyes went red in an instant.

Julian gripped his shoulder and asked, slowly, “Not even as friends?”

“Not even that.”

This time, I didn’t leave them a shred of hope.

Beckett stared at me for a long moment, then hurled the cake into a trash can.

He turned to walk away, took a few steps, then stopped.

“Poppy was right.”

“You’re doing this to punish us on purpose.”

Julian shouted at him sharply to stop.

I just laughed.

“Beckett. When you three gave up on me, it was just a game.”

“Now I’m giving up on you, and suddenly it’s punishment?”

He stood with his back to me, unmoving.

I didn’t wait for an answer.

I turned and walked off into the falling snow.