Chapter 1

Freshman move-in day, Reg Vance posted in the new-student group chat: "Anyone from around here? Riverton native, looking for someone to team up with for check-in!"

Five minutes later he messaged me privately: "Don't reply. Let's keep us to ourselves for now. Being too flashy in college isn't a good look."

I said okay.

So on welcome day, he teamed up with Emily Donaldson, who volunteered.

They picked up their campus cards together, wandered the campus together, ate the first college meal together in the dining hall.

Three photos went up on his feed, all of him and Emily. I liked the post. He deleted my trace in seconds.

He grabbed Emily a spot with the most popular professor during course selection and left me the eight a.m. slot nobody wanted.

For the class icebreaker he grouped up with Emily and told me to find my own spot, not to make it obvious.

When Emily caught a cold he skipped class to bring her medicine. When I ran a fever of a hundred and two, he texted back, "Drink water, and stop coming to me all the time."

The whole class was saying Reg liked Emily.

I spent an entire semester defending him: "No way, he has a girlfriend."

But at the New Year's party, he walked onto the stage holding flowers.

"Emily, from September to today, I've thought it over for a hundred days, made up my mind a hundred times. You're the one I want to seriously like."

The whole place screamed and cheered.

Nobody noticed the girl in the front row who stopped clapping halfway through.

I stood up and cut through the cheering crowd toward the back door.

He saw me from the stage, and the flowers nearly slipped from his hand.

I didn't look back.

"You don't have to explain. Go chase her."

……

"What are you running for?"

Reg came out through the back door of the auditorium and grabbed my wrist.

He hadn't even caught his breath, his brows knotted tight.

"It was just a bit put on for the student council program. I lost at truth or dare."

"Emily's being hassled by her ex. I was helping cover for her."

"Can you not be such a killjoy?"

Cold wind poured down my collar.

I looked at the rose petal still pinched between his fingers.

Glaringly red.

"For a program effect you had to say you'd thought about her for a hundred days?"

My voice was very quiet.

Something impatient flickered in his eyes.

"The lines were written out in advance too."

"If I didn't say it like that, who'd believe it?"

"You're usually so reasonable. Why are you being so stubborn today?"

He let go of my hand and pulled out his phone to check it.

The screen lit up. A message from Emily.

"Let's cancel the plan to go to the field for New Year's."

He tucked the phone back into his pocket.

"Emily was nearly in tears up there just now."

"Everyone's saying we should go get barbecue to calm her nerves."

"Head back to the dorm on your own. We'll make up New Year's tomorrow."

I didn't say anything.

I just slipped my hand into my coat pocket.

My fingertips brushed the pair of matching couple's rings I'd meant to give him.

The metal was ice cold, cutting right through me.

"Let's go."

He turned and walked off, his steps quick.

The class dinner after the party was set at a barbecue place on the back street behind campus.

I hadn't wanted to go, but my roommate dragged me along to join the fun.

At the long table, Reg sat down beside Emily like it was nothing.

Emily sneezed.

"It's so cold."

She rubbed her arms, her eyes landing on Reg's jacket draped over the back of his chair.

Reg said nothing.

Emily just reached over, took the jacket, and pulled it over herself.

"Reg, let me borrow this for a bit. You don't mind, right?"

Reg was busy typing a reply on his phone and didn't look up.

"Go ahead."

A moment later, Emily frowned again.

"This juice is so sweet. It's making me sick."

She casually picked up the plain water in front of Reg and took a big gulp.

My roommate nudged my foot under the table.

I looked down at the skewer in front of me.

There was a bit of cumin stuck to the wooden stick.

"Classmates don't need to fuss over that kind of thing."

Reg finally lifted his head and tossed off the explanation.

The mood at the table caught fire instantly.

The class president stood up with his beer.

"Reg, that confession tonight was legendary."

"The best-looking guy and the best-looking girl in the department. Made for each other!"

Everyone joined in the teasing.

The guy sitting across from me suddenly turned to look at me.

"Edna Henson, you kept saying Reg had a girlfriend."

"See how off your intel was."

"Almost held up a perfectly good match."

A round of good-natured laughter broke out around us.

My fingers went slightly white around the cup.

Ripples spread out across the surface of the water, ring after ring.

I looked at Reg.

He was leaning back in his chair, head down, spinning a lighter in his hand.

The flame shot up and died out.

He didn't say a word, letting me be turned into a joke.

For a hazy moment, I thought back to those evening study sessions senior year.

To get into the same college, we'd pulled all-nighters grinding through practice sets until dawn.

He'd been so tired he could barely keep his eyes open, and he still forced himself to walk me through the hard math problems.

The hallway lights had been dim.

He'd leaned close to my ear, his voice hoarse and gentle.

"When we get to college, I'm going to let everyone know you're my girlfriend."

"I'm going to hold your hand and walk every corner of that campus."

Back then the promise landed like something solid.

Now the silence was deafening.

The dinner ended.

Everyone drifted back toward campus in twos and threes.

Reg and Emily walked side by side at the front.

The streetlights stretched their shadows out long.

Emily suddenly turned her head and gave me a sweet smile.

"Edna, thanks for covering for us."

"If you hadn't kept saying he had a girlfriend, everyone would've figured out we had a thing going way sooner."

I stopped walking.

I looked at Reg's back, not breaking his stride for a second.

I reached into my coat pocket and took out my phone.

I opened the messaging app.

I un-pinned Reg's chat.

I turned off his alert notifications.

In an instant, our chat thread sank down among the hundreds of unread messages.