Chapter 2

At 6:00 AM, I pushed open the door to my dorm room.

Most of our classmates had already moved out. Only Chloe's and my things remained.

Chloe’s desk was covered in unwashed mugs and scattered makeup.

Usually, I would have cleaned up after her.

Today, I didn't even look at it.

I pulled out two large cardboard boxes and started packing my life away.

I didn't have much. Most of the room's space had been taken up by Chloe's random clutter anyway.

While sorting through the bookshelf, a thick binder containing my senior thesis fell out.

I flipped to the acknowledgments page.

Chloe had written: "Special thanks to Avery. Even though you're as boring as a robot, thanks for doing all my data analysis."

I threw the entire binder straight into the trash can.

During our junior year summer, Chloe wanted to go to a music festival, so she dumped her entire research workload on me.

I pulled two all-nighters to build her statistical models.

The day she submitted it, she and Tyler went out for expensive sushi to celebrate.

Tyler posted a picture of them clinking glasses on Instagram with the caption: "Celebrating my girl Chloe crushing her thesis!"

Someone in the comments asked where I was.

Tyler replied: "A certain someone is still typing away in the dorm. We have different roles in this squad, lol. Plus, she hates going out anyway."

I had felt so hurt back then, yet I still liked the post.

Looking back, that wasn't trying to fit in. That was just pure stupidity.

Two hours later, I rolled my suitcase out of the dorm.

I had already rented a cute one-bedroom apartment near my new office.

While riding in the Uber to my new place, a text from an unknown number popped up.

"Avery, what is the meaning of blocking us? Chloe didn't even eat dinner last night. Haven't you played this drama long enough? We’ll be at the campus cafe at 2 PM. Get over here and let's talk this out."

I deleted the text immediately.

Then, I blocked the number.

Once I arrived at my new apartment, I spent the entire afternoon cleaning and organizing.

No cloying sweet candles that Chloe liked. No ugly action figures Tyler forced me to display.

The whole place smelled of clean linen, decorated with simple, aesthetic bedding I chose myself.

That evening, I went downstairs and treated myself to a bowl of pasta.

When I paid, the owner smiled and said, "New to the neighborhood, sweetie? You look like you’re ready to take on the world."

I smiled back.

"Thank you."

Back home, I opened my laptop and checked my onboarding email for tomorrow.

Vanguard Consulting—one of the top elite consulting firms in the country.

I landed this offer entirely on my own. I had never told them.

Tomorrow was a brand new beginning.