The Letter I Refused to Accept Chapter 01

The Letter I Refused to Accept Chapter 01

Three days before college started, my best friend handed me two plane tickets.

“Sienna, Cole and I aren’t going to Union University with you after all. The truth is, we committed to Ashford. We faked two acceptance letters that matched yours to make you happy.”

“School’s about to start, so it’s time you knew the truth.”

I looked across at them, completely lost.

My boyfriend, Cole Bennett, only gave a small nod and sighed, like he had no choice. “Chelsea and I can’t keep playing along with you forever.”

“Sienna, school’s never been your thing. Forcing yourself into the same college as us wouldn’t make you happy anyway.”

“It’s time to grow up and find people who are more like you.”

Playing along?

Cole Bennett and Chelsea Vance had been the stars of every school we’d ever gone to. And no matter how hard I tried, I could never keep up with them.

Cole always said, sweet as anything, “My girlfriend doesn’t need to be a genius. She’s got me to look out for her.”

Then he’d turn around and charge into one championship after another, side by side with Chelsea.

That changed when my SAT scores came back. I’d done better than I ever had before, and I’d finally scored high enough to get into the same university as them.

I’d been naive enough to believe that if we got the same acceptance letter, I’d get to walk into their future too. It turned out the whole thing was a scam they’d carefully set up for me.

I looked at the two of them, still daydreaming about college, and I didn’t feel a thing.

Fine. If that was how it was, I’d stay out of their future.

*****

When Cole saw me zone out, he ruffled my hair. “Come on, it’s only that we’re not at the same school. Is that really worth getting this upset about?”

“I looked it up. Your major doesn’t have that many classes, so you’ll have plenty of time to come visit us at Ashford.”

I looked at him, so completely unbothered, and my heart started to ache.

Union and Ashford were more than a thousand miles apart, and there weren’t many direct flights between them. Besides, I’d gotten through all of high school on hardship assistance. How was I supposed to pay for plane tickets?

“Why?”

Cole frowned. “Why what?”

I wiped my face. When I looked at him again, my eyes were clear. “Union was the school you two always wanted. Why did you suddenly switch?”

Was it only to get away from me? That seemed like a pretty high price to pay.

Chelsea sighed, looking guilty. “Sienna, if you want to blame someone, blame me. Ashford’s bioengineering program is better, but I was scared to go so far away by myself.”

“So an hour before the commitment deadline, I talked Cole into switching with me.”

She patted the back of my hand. “You’ve got your grandma at home, so I knew you couldn’t come with me. That’s why we didn’t ask you.”

I ignored her and looked at Cole. “Is that what you think too?”

He didn’t say anything.

A month before the SAT, we’d made a promise. If we got into the same university, we’d stop keeping our relationship a secret and stay together forever.

Now Cole seemed to have forgotten that promise. Or maybe he’d never cared about it in the first place.

I pushed down the sting in my eyes and forced a smile. “That’s great.”

Cole gave me a strange look and was about to say something, but I turned and walked away.

He caught me before I got out of the alley.

Cole frowned. “Sienna, don’t throw a fit. I know you worked yourself to death senior year so we could go to the same college, and we even promised…”

“I was kidding,” I cut him off.

So he knew all of it, and he remembered all of it. But none of it would ever matter more than Chelsea saying she was scared.

Cole only sighed and laughed, then pinched my cheek. “And you say you’re not throwing a fit.”

I swatted his hand away, and my face went cold.

“Chelsea’s a girl going somewhere far away by herself. It makes sense to worry about that, and it makes sense that you’d want to go with her.”

“As for that promise, it was a joke. I didn’t take it seriously, and you don’t have to either.”

When Cole saw I meant it, he let out a cold laugh and repeated it under his breath through gritted teeth. “Don’t take it seriously?”

He let go of my wrist. “Fine. Sienna Kane, don’t you dare regret this.”

With that, he flung my hand away, turned, and left.

I watched him walk off and found the whole thing kind of funny. He was the one who’d broken the promise first, yet he always had to act like he was the one who’d been betrayed.

I got to the restaurant at eleven thirty, changed into my uniform, and started bringing food out to a private room.

After my parents divorced, I’d lived with my grandmother, Ruth Kane. But her small benefits check couldn’t feed a growing kid, and it couldn’t pay my tuition either.

Over the years, I’d tried every part-time job I could find. Waiting tables was the only one that didn’t care about my education or my age.

When I got to the door of the private room, I raised my hand to knock. Then I heard a familiar laugh through the crack in the door.

It was a graduation party for Cole and Chelsea’s friends from school.

“We called it! The golden couple of our class is going to the same college after all. You two are totally planning your future together.”

The second he finished, Chelsea teased the guy, scolding him playfully. “What are you talking about? Cole and I are strictly study buddies.”

But he wouldn’t let it go. He turned to Cole. “Cole, is that true? That girl Sienna used to come looking for you all the time. I always thought she was your girlfriend.”