After the SATs, the foster home suddenly shut down.
Knowing Ethan Carter had big ambitions, I chose to drop out to support him through college.
In the summer, I worked long hours at a diner, pushing through heatstroke without taking a day off.
In the winter, I took on job after job washing heavy coats in icy water. Even when my hands cracked and oozed from frostbite, I just wore gloves and kept going.
Ethan, who had never cried before, broke down sobbing when he saw my frostbitten hands.
He swore he would do everything to give me a good life, that he would love me forever.
He said he would introduce me to all his friends, let the whole world know he had a kind and beautiful girlfriend.
To reassure me, Ethan changed his Facebook cover photo to a picture of us together, and he always wore my hair tie around his wrist.
But at some point, that hair tie disappeared.
One day over dinner, when I asked him about it, Ethan just said casually:
“Lily Evans said wearing your girlfriend’s hair tie looks too emo, so I took it off. You can keep it with you from now on.”
His Facebook cover photo had also changed without me noticing—now it was a group shot from a mountain hike with his friends.
Front and center, in a pink jacket, stood Lily.
When I asked him about it, Ethan shrugged:
“Everyone else updated theirs. I couldn’t be the odd one out.”
He always had an excuse.
I looked at Ethan, wanting to ask him what excuse he had this time—for letting Lily push me out of his social circle with just a word.
But when I saw him laughing and horsing around with her again, I suddenly lost the urge to ask.
It didn’t matter anymore.
From the moment Ethan first said he owed me, our relationship had never been equal.
My phone buzzed—it was my diner boss, demanding I come in for an extra shift.
Ethan just glanced at the message and looked away.
To ensure Ethan lived comfortably at school, I always worked two jobs every month.
Even when I was so tired I could barely lift a finger, I still felt motivated.
But now, exhaustion weighed heavier than ever. Before I realized it, I had already typed out my resignation.
The reply came quickly, filled with curses: “If you won’t work, plenty of people will! Who do you think you are, refusing an extra shift? You’ve got thirty minutes to come clear out your stuff.”
As I turned to leave, one of Ethan’s friends offered to walk me back.
But Ethan just waved dismissively:
“It’s her boss. He’s calling her in. You guys went out of your way to come hang out with me—I can’t just leave.”
Lily bumped his shoulder with a grin:
“You really know how to treat your friends. No wonder your dad likes you so much. Remember that time you got drunk and I—”
Her words were cut off when Ethan clapped a hand over her mouth.
With a sly look, Lily licked his palm.
Ethan’s face flushed crimson. He snatched his hand back, glancing quickly toward me. Seeing my back turned, as though I hadn’t noticed, he finally sighed with relief.
But I had seen everything—through the reflection in the glass.
By the time I reached the diner, my belongings had already been tossed out onto the ground.
The boss sneered at me:
“Get out of here. You’re an eyesore.”
He tossed me a small stack of bills, maybe two hundred dollars. But he still owed me at least five hundred.
Because I’d always been meek and agreeable, he clearly thought he could trample over me.
But to his surprise, I collapsed on the floor, clutching a customer who had just walked in, and cried hysterically.
I spilled everything—not just the unpaid wages, but also how the kitchen was stocked with spoiled meat and diseased poultry.
