"If anyone's curious, I can share some of the special methods I used."
The comments section, predictably, begged for details.
Jacob replied below: "It's simple, really. Figure out what she needs most."
"Before I made my move, I spent a long time doing research. My girlfriend grew up in a single-parent household. Her family didn't have much money. She was deeply insecure."
"Plenty of guys on campus were interested in her, but most of them looked down on her because of her background. They couldn't get anywhere near her heart."
"So I showed up in the place she was most comfortable. Naturally, she let her guard down."
I remembered how I'd met Jacob. It was at the tutoring center where I worked part-time.
My family didn't have much. My mother raised me on her own, and none of it came easy.
After starting college, I refused to be another burden on her. I picked up every part-time job I could find, and that was how I met Jacob, who was supposedly there doing the same thing.
It wasn't until we were already together that I found out his family was well-off. I asked him why he'd bother picking up shifts at a tutoring center.
He just smiled and said, "My parents taught me early on that money doesn't come easy. I wanted to see what it felt like to earn my own."
But now, in that post, he'd written: "Who would actually want to work part-time if it wasn't to get close to her? And she bought it. So naive."
"But that alone wasn't enough. If you want to make someone feel safe, you have to show up when they need support the most."
"My girlfriend didn't come from money, but she was well-liked on campus. So I had to create an opportunity."
"At the time, her grades were right on the edge for a graduate-school recommendation slot. She was one spot short, and her best friend held the position right above her."
"I happened to know that her friend had someone else run the fitness test for her back in college. So I reported it. Just like that, my girlfriend got the slot."
"It was anonymous, of course. But since my girlfriend was the one who directly benefited, suspicion fell on her immediately."
"Then I pretended I didn't know anything about the recommendation situation. In a casual conversation with some mutual friends, I let it slip that my girlfriend hadn't been job hunting lately and seemed to have 'new plans.'"
"And just like that, everyone was convinced she was the one who'd done it."
The comments were blowing up now.
"Dude, don't you realize how disgusting you are? How can you even type this out?"
"Honestly I don't see the big deal. His girlfriend still benefited. It's just one friend, who cares. And if the friend hadn't cheated on the fitness test she wouldn't have gotten reported anyway."
"Am I the only one who feels bad for the friend? She lost a recommendation slot that should've been hers, all because of someone else's game."
Something sharp stabbed through my chest.
Disgusting. It was so disgusting.
If someone asked me what the most painful stretch of my college years was, it would be those weeks when everyone around me kept saying how lucky I was to land that recommendation slot. That period nearly destroyed every good memory I had of college.
My best friend was Rachel Fox. She was my roommate. We went to class together, ate together, complained about the cafeteria food together. For practically all four years, we were inseparable.
She said I was her best friend. I never doubted that I felt the same.
Her grades had always been better than mine. I never once thought about competing with her for that slot.
When the recommendation fell into my lap, it felt at first like an unexpected gift. Then it became a reason for everyone around me to look at me with contempt.
Rachel's feelings toward me shifted too. She trusted me at first. Then the rumors wore her down, seeding doubt where there had been none. And eventually, we became strangers.
