He Promised Me Photos, She Got Them Instead Chapter 02

He Promised Me Photos, She Got Them Instead Chapter 02

That was the first time in all of high school that Dylan had ever offered to do something with me.

I had been excited all night, and that morning I had even followed a beauty influencer’s tutorial to do my makeup.

Now he had left before we could make our college decisions together. Worse, he had done with someone else the one thing he had promised to do with me.

The pain left me unable to say a single word. I could only stand there stiffly while the security guard continued speaking.

“Those friends of yours make quite a power couple. They’re both straight-A students.”

“I heard they both committed to Columbia. That’s a lot better than those high school couples who let dating ruin their grades. They’re both smart and good-looking too. They make a great match.”

He paused and looked me up and down.

“Hard to believe someone as plain as you is friends with them.”

A wave of humiliation washed over me.

I forced a smile. “Yeah, I didn’t expect that either.”

With that, I walked away and took a rideshare to the hotel where the get-together was being held, still in a daze.

Contrary to what Dylan had claimed on the phone, plenty of our classmates had not arrived yet when I entered the private dining room.

Dylan and Madison were sitting shoulder to shoulder in a corner, their heads bent close together. Every few seconds, they laughed and joked over something on the phone.

“Hannah, why are you just standing there? Go find a seat.”

Only after someone called out to me did Dylan finally look up.

As though nothing had happened, he waved me over. “Come here. I have to show you something hilarious.”

Out of habit, my feet carried me toward him.

The moment I sat down, our class president teased, “Dylan, you three have been joined at the hip all through high school. Don’t tell me you’re planning to keep it up in college.”

I thought of UT Austin and was about to say that we would not.

Before I could speak, Dylan stretched out both arms and draped one over my shoulders and the other over Madison’s.

“Of course we are. Hannah takes forever to do anything, and she’s far too softhearted.”

“If she doesn’t go to the same school as Madison and me, who’s going to stop people from walking all over her?”

Madison laughed and joined in.

“Exactly. I heard Hannah spent all of senior year working one-on-one with a private tutor just to keep up with us. She must’ve spent a fortune.”

The arm around my shoulders stiffened.

Whispers immediately spread around the room. Through the murmuring, I heard someone call me a pathetic simp who followed the two of them everywhere.

I ignored it.

Instead, I thought about the past year. I had slept fewer than four hours a night and pushed myself so hard to avoid being separated from Dylan in college that my glasses prescription had worsened by a full diopter.

After all that, I had still committed to UT Austin, more than seventeen hundred miles away from Columbia. A dull ache settled in my chest.

Suddenly, someone called out, “Dylan, high school’s over.”

“So tell us already. Which two of you are the couple, and which one is the third wheel?”

Dylan froze, then instinctively looked at me.

That one glance was all it took to set the entire room off.

“I knew Hannah was the secret side chick!”

“Guess the new girl always wins over the one who’s been there forever.”

“Dylan, when did you finally tell Madison you liked her?”