They Bet I Would Leave, I Proved Them Right Chapter 01

They Bet I Would Leave, I Proved Them Right Chapter 01

The SATs were barely over when my four childhood friends roped me into a game of Truth or Dare.

My turn came around, and Brielle Sutton, the long-lost heiress who’d just been reunited with her birth family, dared me to reveal my top-choice school.

They went around the circle. Every single application listed Red Mesa University.

Nolan Mercer slid the form in front of me, tapped my 1580 SAT score, and grinned.

“Think you’ve got the guts to drop Kingsley so we can all go together? Back out, and you’re a coward.”

That night, I signed the binding Early Decision agreement right there in front of all of them.

Everyone cheered. And in the middle of all that noise, Nolan said yes when I told him how I felt.

The acceptance letters came a few weeks later. I went over to see them, only to find the projector in the living room still on.

On the screen was a group chat I’d never seen before: Bellhaven Guardian Squad.

[Did she sign it?]

[She did. Four fake application forms and she took the bait. Best trade ever.]

[Brielle’s a genius. One little game and the tagalong’s gone.]

[Nolan’s the real MVP. He has to fake-date her until school starts.]

I was frozen, staring at the screen, when the door opened behind me.

My four childhood friends and Brielle were in the doorway, champagne in hand, frozen mid-celebration. They’d all gotten into Kingsley.

…

Nolan recovered first.

“You’ve seen it. So I’m not going to deny it.”

“Brielle doesn’t have anyone, and she’d never survive out in Westreach on her own. You’ve always been tough. You’ll be fine wherever you end up.”

Brielle’s eyes were already red. She clutched Nolan’s arm.

I didn’t cry.

I just pointed at the chat on the screen.

“Who made the fake applications?”

Nolan didn’t even flinch. “I printed them.”

“Whose idea was Truth or Dare?”

Brielle looked away.

Grant Holloway stepped in front of her.

“It was all of us. Stop coming at Brielle like she’s the villain here.”

I nodded. Then I turned back to Nolan.

“That night, when you said yes to me, was that part of it too?”

Nolan swallowed hard.

“You don’t do long distance.”

“If I hadn’t said yes, you never would’ve signed.”

He said it like it was the most reasonable thing in the world.

Brielle’s face crumpled, and she lunged for the phone in Graham Redford’s hand.

“This is my fault. I’ll change my choice right now.”

“I’ll go to Westreach with Mara. The rest of you stay in Bellhaven.”

All four of them closed in around her.

Reid Lawson pulled the phone out of her hand.

“Your acceptance letter already came. What are you gonna change now?”

“But what about Mara?”

Brielle was shaking, tears running down her face.

“She’s going out there all alone. She’s going to be so lonely.”

Nolan pulled a tissue from his pocket and dabbed at her cheeks.

“She’s always been independent. She’ll land on her feet no matter where she goes.”

“You’ve never been away from Bellhaven, and your health isn’t great. Don’t throw away your future over this.”

I stood a few feet away and watched all of them gather around her.

So that was the answer.

It wasn’t that Brielle couldn’t handle Westreach.

They just couldn’t stand to let her suffer, so they traded me instead.

Graham pushed his glasses up, voice as level as if he were working through a math problem.

“Look, Mara, maybe we didn’t go about it the right way. But it worked out for everyone.”

“You’re going to the research program you were made for, and we’re staying in Bellhaven with Brielle.”

“Nobody lost anything.”

I smiled.

“So I should be thanking you, then?”

Grant’s face hardened.

“You wanted to go to Westreach too—don’t pretend you didn’t. The institute reached out to you how many times? Don’t act like you actually wanted to say no.”

“All we did was give you the push you needed.”

I had wanted to go. That part was true.

The program there was everything I’d dreamed about since I was a kid.

But I couldn’t bring myself to leave them, so I’d turned the institute down twice.

I’d even thought about giving up the field I loved most just to stay in Bellhaven with them.

But none of that mattered now.

I picked up my acceptance letter from the table.

Nolan moved to block me.

“Where are you going?”

“Home.”

“What about us?”

I looked at him.

“What us?”

His jaw tightened.

“Mara, don’t say things you don’t mean just because you’re mad.”

“Yeah, I agreed to date you so you’d sign. But it wasn’t all fake. I’ll stay with you until school starts, and I’ll come visit after that.”

“Isn’t that what you wanted?”

So in his mind, two months of dating me was already more than I deserved.

Brielle’s voice went soft.

“Mara, Nolan really does care about you.”

“Last night after you fell asleep, he put a blanket over you.”

I almost laughed.

He conned me into signing away my future, then tucked me in.

What a deal. I really came out ahead.

“Then you two deserve each other.”

I took the engraved birthstone pendant off my neck and dropped it in front of Brielle.

“You wanted everything we had growing up, right?”

“Here. Take this too.”

Brielle didn’t reach for it.

Nolan’s brow creased.

“What’s wrong with you today?”

“Didn’t you always say the five of us would never split up?”

“That was then.”

I turned and walked out.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

A message from the Federal Energy Research Institute.

[Transport will arrive in Bellhaven in forty-eight hours.]

[Miss Ellsworth, please confirm whether you wish to begin the program early.]

I tapped [Confirm].

The program required full confidentiality. Once I entered the research center, my phone and personal devices would be confiscated.

No one would be able to reach me for a long time.

I turned off the screen and muted the group chat, the one that had been my whole world for eighteen years.

They probably expected what always happened: I’d lose my temper, cry it out, and come crawling back.

But this time, I was done.