Before the College Application Deadline My Boyfriend Unplugged My Mouse Chapter 07

Before the College Application Deadline My Boyfriend Unplugged My Mouse Chapter 07

A hot breeze moved through the night.

Nolan stood beneath the streetlight, looking noticeably thinner.

The moment he saw me, his eyes lit up.

“Natalie.”

I stopped three steps away from him.

“Say what you came to say.”

He held out the document envelope.

“These are copies of your academic-award certificates, proof of the summer journalism program, and the

articles you published in the school paper. I thought you might need them for the interview.”

I did not take it.

“I already prepared everything myself.”

His hand froze in midair.

“Then keep these as backups.”

I looked at him.

“Nolan, do you think doing this now will make me forget those ten minutes?”

His eyes reddened.

“No.”

“Then why are you here?”

His voice was painfully hoarse.

“I want to be there with you.”

I laughed.

“That is the last thing you should be saying to me.”

His breath caught.

“Natalie, I’ve already made it clear to Hailey where I stand. I won’t step in for her again.”

“Once college starts, I can apply to transfer to Bayview. Or I can take a leave and go to San Francisco with

you.”

“You’re deciding everything for me again.”

He stared at me.

I spoke slowly, making sure he heard every word.

“Nolan, you have never once asked what I wanted.”

“When you took my mouse, you decided my application could wait.”

“When you said you would take a gap year with me, you decided I should put my life on hold.”

“And now that you’re saying you’ll come to San Francisco, you’re deciding you still have a place in my life.”

His face turned terrifyingly pale.

“I’m only trying to make it up to you.”

“I don’t need you to.”

Tears fell from his eyes.

“Natalie, do you really have to be this heartless?”

I looked at him calmly.

“Yes.”

That single word seemed to pin him in place.

After a long silence, he asked quietly, “What if I got down on my knees?”

I frowned.

He actually started to kneel.

I stepped back.

“Nolan, don’t make me even more disgusted with you.”

He froze halfway down.

My voice was cold.

“Getting on your knees isn’t atonement. It’s another way of pressuring me to forgive you.”

The last trace of hope faded from his eyes.

I turned and headed back upstairs.

Behind me, his voice came out strained.

“Natalie, I’ll wait for you.”

I did not look back.

“Don’t.”

“I’m not coming back.”

My parents came with me on the day of the interview.

As we waited outside the interview room, my palms would not stop sweating.

My mother took my hand.

“What are you afraid of?”

“That something will go wrong again.”

She looked at me, her eyes slightly red.

“It won’t this time.”

“Why not?”

She placed my photo ID, award certificates, and application portfolio into my bag one by one.

“Because this time, the final click is yours to make.”

My eyes burned.

The interviewer asked me, “Why did you apply to Bayview University at the last minute?”

I was quiet for two seconds

“Because I once built my future around plans I expected someone else to share.”

The interviewer looked up at me.

I continued. Then I realized that if they let go, I would be the one who fell hard.

“So I decided to take a different path.”

Tm not running away. I’m taking back the right to choose for myself.”

The interviewer smiled.

After the interview I received a conditional offer of admission.

My mother threw her arms around me and cried.

My father wiped his eyes when he thought no one was looking, then tried to act tough.

“Why are you crying? My daughter has always been amazing

Only then did I finally breathe again.

There really was more than one way forward.

Even a life derailed by someone else could be set back in motion.

The day before I left for San Francisco, the incoming-students group chat for Nolan and Hailey’s college

suddenly blew up

Someone had posted screenshots from the computer lab’s security footage online.

The headline was impossible to miss.

[College-Bound Senior Deliberately Sabotages Her Best Friend’s Application So She Can Attend the Same College as a Guy!]

Hailey’s name had been blurred out, but everyone from our school knew who it was.

She called me, but I did not answer.

Then she sent me a voice message, sobbing so hard she could barely speak.