2: 2
I walked home along the platform, one step at a time.
My old shoes had rubbed the skin raw into blisters, and every step drove the pain straight through me.
But pain has a way of keeping you clear-headed.
Some people just aren't worth holding on to.
The next day, I took the few hundred dollars I had left and traded my phone for the cheapest smartphone I could find.
My feet hadn't healed when the graduation party rolled around.
Dozens of classmates had booked a restaurant.
The few of us who were close shared a table.
Harper wore a pure white dress, her makeup done to perfection.
The boys and girls in our class couldn't stop marveling.
"Harper's so pretty! They wouldn't let us wear makeup in school. They practically buried a movie star."
"Harper looks good without makeup too. She's gorgeous either way." Marvin's eyes were full of admiration.
And I sat right beside him, invisible.
The mood picked up fast, everyone comparing where they were headed.
Someone turned to me. "Mia, you scored so high. Which university are you going to?"
Before I could open my mouth,
Marvin took the question for me, easy as anything.
"Mia's repeating a year. She'll apply again next year."
It was a decision he'd made for me, all on his own, and yet he said it like it was the natural order of things.
The attention swung onto him. He played it casual, but there was a smugness in his eyes.
"I got into a top state university in Chicago, going with Harper. She got accepted by a prestigious prep school out there."
Our classmates looked envious, all of them praising what a perfect match the two of them made.
It was a while before someone asked,
"Didn't Mia score even higher than you? Why is she the one repeating a year?"
The question got swallowed under all the cheering, and sitting there beside them, I wasn't even a footnote.
Amid the laughter and chatter, the dishes came out one after another.
Harper picked up a jumbo shrimp and started peeling it, her movements clumsy.
A kid raised as a princess her whole life didn't even have to peel her own shrimp.
Marvin snatched it away and peeled it for her with practiced ease, and when he saw how much she liked it, he served her several more.
I remembered how it used to be.
He'd never once peeled a shrimp for me.
There was even a time I ate two extra, and he said,
"Go easy. You're already not as pretty as Harper. If you eat too much and break out, that only makes it worse."
Bernice Donaldson, across the table, knew the whole story. She couldn't stand watching it, and said, dripping with sarcasm,
"Marvin, you and Mia are the real couple here, aren't you?"
"I remember how sweet you two were back in junior year. There was that time Mia got sick, and you skipped class to sit with her in the nurse's office all afternoon."
"Right, right! Every night after study hall you two would walk through the little grove. Don't think none of us saw it."
The group chimed in, and Marvin's hands froze mid-peel.
"Harper's Mia's sister. We're family. I just care about her because of that."
I kept my head down, the food sitting on my chopsticks, not making it to my mouth for the longest time.
That line of his had turned, somewhere along the way, from a fact into a cover story.
After it broke up, everyone gathered for a photo outside the restaurant.
Marvin and Harper drifted to the very center without thinking, smiling, looking made for each other.
I got shoved off into a corner, and even in the photo they took, I was lost in the shadows.
In the car on the way back.
The class group chat was flooded with photos, and Marvin scrolled through them, delighted, the comments underneath all about how good Harper looked.
Someone tagged Marvin. "You and Harper look like a real couple standing together. When are you two going public?"
The corner of Marvin's mouth curved up. He replied with a smiley face and left it at that.
On the road Harper yawned and let her head fall against Marvin's shoulder.
Marvin gently smoothed her hair for her.
I turned away and leaned my head against the cold window.
Watching the streetlights fall away behind us, one by one.
By the time I got home it was evening, and the moment I pushed open the door, I froze.
