I was on a video call with my online boyfriend when my roommates crowded around, clamoring for a look. Staring at his handsome face on the screen, I felt a blush creep up my neck as I shyly handed over my phone. But the moment my roommate and my boyfriend locked eyes, the playful atmosphere vanished. Their faces dropped in unison. “You?” Lexie yelled, her voice dripping with sudden, venomous rage. “You think you’re actually good enough to be with Willie? Does Cora know you used to worship my body? That you’d do anything, even lick my toes, just to stay in my bed?” Willie leaned back, a lazy, shameless smirk spreading across his face. “What’s the matter, babe? You acting like you didn’t love every second of it?” They went back and forth, trading sharp, familiar jabs, entirely oblivious to the fact that my own face had gone completely pale. 1 Nobody noticed the quiet breaking inside me. Hearing Willie’s crass, dismissive words, Lexie’s face flushed a deeper, angrier red. She bit her lip, her voice trembling with embarrassment and fury. “Keep talking like that, Willie, and see if I don’t ruin you.” Willie didn’t even blink. He leaned against the back of his chair, arching an eyebrow. “Oh, come on, sweetheart. Are we really playing the cold-hearted ex card now? You used to love what this mouth could do.” The words felt like a physical weight on my chest. My fingernails dug hard into my palms. We had been dating online for six months. I knew Willie was rough around the edges—he had that wealthy, reckless bad-boy charm—but this was different. This crossed a line. Perhaps sensing my silence, Willie finally shifted his gaze back to me. But before he could speak, Lexie snatched my phone and slammed it onto the hardwood floor. “Crack.” “God, he makes me so sick! Still the exact same arrogant prick!” She was practically hyperventilating, her chest heaving as she turned her frustration onto me. “Cora, seriously, how is your taste this bad?” She stepped closer, her voice laced with a strange, frantic need to assert herself. “Do you have any idea what he was like when we were together? He was completely obsessed with me. Foot massages, rubbing my shoulders… honestly, I had to dump him because he was just too high-maintenance in bed. Insatiable, really.” I didn’t miss the flash of smug superiority in her eyes. It was a look I had seen too many times over the four months since college started. Lexie looked at me that way when she realized my monthly earnings from my part-time jobs didn’t even cover half of her weekly allowance. She looked at me that way when she saw my off-brand, ten-dollar shirts hanging in the closet. And she was looking at me that way now, realizing the boy I loved was just her discarded hand-me-down. I kept my head down, swallowing the bitter taste in my throat, and knelt to pick up my phone. The screen was spider-webbed with fresh, jagged cracks. Lexie glanced down and shrugged, entirely unbothered. “It’s just a cheap piece of junk anyway. You’re welcome for the excuse to upgrade.” But to me, that “cheap piece of junk” represented a month’s worth of groceries. I took a slow, deep breath, forcing the chaos in my mind to quiet down. “Give me fifty dollars. For the screen repair.” Lexie sneered, muttering something offensive under her breath, but I ignored her. I held the power button down until the screen flickered back to life. A notification popped up immediately. It was from Willie. “Hey babe. Let’s meet up this weekend. In person.” 2 During our six months of online dating, Willie and I had shared endless late-night texts, filled with the kind of heavy, suggestive banter that made my heart race. But he had never once suggested meeting in person. I didn’t want to examine the timing of this sudden urge to see me. But lying in bed that night, his photos kept flashing behind my closed eyelids—the sharp angle of his jaw, his lean, athletic build. He carried himself like a man who got exactly what he wanted. He looked, just as Lexie had said, like someone with an insatiable appetite. My mind betrayingly pictured him with her. A dull ache bloomed behind my eyes. Lexie was beautiful, vibrant, and effortlessly spoiled. Since the first day of freshman year, boys had trailed after her like gravity. I, on the other hand, was quiet, plain, and entirely forgettable. I closed my eyes tighter, forcing the thoughts away. It didn’t matter. The past was the past. Still, when the weekend arrived, I couldn’t help but hope. I put on my best outfit—a simple, delicate white sundress that made me feel small and pretty. Lexie let out a sharp, mocking laugh when she saw me. “Seriously, Cora? You’re playing dress-up for him? Don’t be so desperate. It’s pathetic. When he wanted me, he spent a year begging for a single date.” Her words stung, leaving a lingering sense of humiliation that followed me all the way to our meeting spot. But when I finally saw Willie, the way his eyes widened with genuine appreciation made the tightness in my chest loosen, if only a little. “You’re even prettier than you are on screen,” he murmured, a cigarette dangling loosely from his lips as he offered a rakish smile. But Lexie, who had insisted on tagging along under the guise of “protecting” me, chose that exact moment to stumble. With a dramatic gasp, she twisted her ankle on the curb. The smile wiped clean from Willie’s face. He swore under his breath, stepping past me without a second thought to scoop Lexie up into his arms. “Jesus, Lexie! Are you still this clumsy? You can’t even walk on flat ground? Did you put all your skill points into your face?” Lexie wrapped her arms around his neck, pouting with effortless familiarity. “It’s your fault, asshole. Hurry up and take me to the clinic!” Willie carried her over to his motorcycle, throwing a rushed, muffled apology over his shoulder as he started the engine. The roar of the bike drowned out his words. I stood on the sidewalk, watching them speed away. Just before they rounded the corner, Lexie looked back at me. The triumph in her eyes was impossible to hide. I looked down at my carefully chosen dress, suddenly feeling very cold, and very foolish. 3 The next day, Willie texted me, promising to make it up to me. He booked a table at one of the most expensive restaurants in the city. But when I arrived, I wasn’t surprised to find Lexie already sitting there. Before I could even take my seat, Lexie’s eyes locked onto Willie’s wrist. She reached out, unbuckling his watch with a look of pure disgust. “Willie, seriously? Since when do you wear this cheap garbage?” Without waiting for an answer, she tossed it casually into the nearby trash can. My entire body went rigid. That watch was my birthday gift to him. I had survived on instant ramen for three solid months just to afford it. Lexie knew that. And Willie knew it too. Willie froze for a fraction of a second. But then he simply flicked Lexie’s forehead, his tone mild and teasing. “Hey, princess, don’t do that. My girlfriend bought me that.” Lexie just stuck her tongue out, completely unfazed. For the rest of the meal, the two of them dominated the table. They bickered, laughed, and fell into the easy, exclusive rhythm of people who shared a history. I sat there in silence, my eyes fixed on the trash can where my three months of sacrifice lay buried under food scraps. My throat felt so tight I could barely breathe. Finally, I stood up, fighting with every ounce of my strength to keep my voice steady. “You guys enjoy. I have to get to work.” “Work?” Willie frowned, looking up. But before he could say more, Lexie’s high-pitched laugh cut in. “Oh, let her go, Willie. Cora’s a straight-A student, working her way through college. She’s not like us. She actually washes my clothes and shoes for fifty bucks a week. It’s a great little side hustle for her.” “She’s that broke?” Willie murmured. His voice held a trace of pity that felt like a slap to my face. I turned and walked away, my pace quickening until I was almost running. Going to work wasn’t an excuse. My mother’s upcoming surgery required fifty thousand dollars. Ever since I started college, my life had been a relentless cycle of scraping together every penny I could find. I took every odd job, every cleaning shift, living on less than ten dollars a week. The watch had been the only luxury I had ever allowed myself. Lexie was right. We were not the same. I didn’t even have the luxury of stopping to cry. 4 When I finally dragged my exhausted body back to the dorm after a double shift, the room was cluttered with glossy shopping bags. Lexie was parading around, showing off designer jewelry Willie had bought her. “Cora, guess how much this is?” she beamed, holding up a sparkling diamond bracelet. “Forty thousand dollars. Willie said my skin is too pale to go without diamonds. God, the asshole is still so rich.” I stood in the doorway, staring at her, unable to move. Forty thousand dollars. That was almost enough to save my mother’s life. I looked down at my own hands, rough and calloused from hours of scrubbing dishes. The bitterness in my chest finally boiled over. Later that night, I called Willie. My pride was screaming, but I couldn’t stop the question from escaping my lips. “Why are you buying things like that for Lexie?” Willie let out a low, amused exhale through his teeth. “What, babe? Jealous?” “Yes,” I said quietly, refusing to hide it. The amusement left his voice, replaced by a sigh. “Look, she’s incredibly vain, Cora. When we broke up, she lost everything, and I saw her wrist was completely bare. We have history. I can’t just stand by and watch her struggle. Besides, it’s just a bracelet. Are you really going to be this petty?” “Petty.” I looked down at my worn-out sneakers, the canvas faded to a dull gray. Willie could notice a bare wrist on his ex-girlfriend, but he had never once noticed that his actual girlfriend didn’t even own a decent pair of shoes. In that quiet moment, the truth settled over me with absolute clarity. 5 In the beginning, before we met, I hadn’t let myself fall too deep. Willie was charming and wildly handsome, but he was just a boy on a screen. I wasn’t the type to lose my head over a fantasy. Until the night I couldn’t pay my mother’s hospital deposit. I had been sitting on the cold floor of the hospital corridor, weeping in absolute despair, when his FaceTime call came through. Seeing my tears, Willie had panicked. He paced his room, frantically transferring money to my account, ordering delivery flowers to my dorm—doing anything and everything to make me smile. Watching his genuine worry that night, I believed, for the first time, that there was someone in this world who actually cared about me. I had forced a smile, telling him I was only crying because my dinner tasted bad. He had let out a breath, looking relieved but exhausted. “Babe, next time you want to give me a heart attack, just tell me, okay?” I used his transfer to clear the hospital deposit. But unlike Lexie, I had never been pampered. I couldn’t accept such a large sum of money without feeling the crushing weight of obligation. I was too sensitive, too terrified of him looking down on me. So, I worked day and night to pay him back every single cent. Now, at least, there was comfort in that. Because I owed him nothing, I could walk away without carrying his weight. 6 For the next two days, my schedule was packed with back-to-back shifts. I had no time to process my grief, let alone figure out how to officially end things with Willie. But I hadn’t expected my confrontation with him to get back to Lexie. The moment I stepped into the dorm room, Lexie blocked my path. Without warning, she hurled the heavy designer boxes Willie had bought her straight at my head. A sharp corner clipped my temple. The sting of broken skin was immediate, followed by the warm trickle of blood. “Who the hell do you think you are, trying to embarrass me to Willie?!” Lexie screamed, her face contorted with rage. “If I wanted to get back with him, do you honestly think you’d even have a chance?!” Our other two roommates stood solidly behind her, casting icy, judgmental glares at me. “You’re just jealous because her boyfriend actually buys her nice things and treats you like charity,” one of them sneered. “Exactly. She’s just mad she couldn’t leech off his money.” I bit my lip, my voice shaking but cold as I looked at Lexie. “I have never asked him for a dime, and I am not jealous. Lexie, you know exactly what you’re doing.” I couldn’t stay there another second. I turned on my heel and walked out. Some of us don’t even have the luxury of a breakdown. I couldn’t afford a hotel, so I spent the night curled up on a makeshift bed of tablecloths in the back room of the restaurant where I worked. But when I returned to the dorm the next morning, my heart stopped. Lexie had poured a bucket of dirty water over my bed. And hidden beneath my pillow was the one thousand dollars in cash I had painstakingly saved for my mother’s next round of medication. The bills were soaked, torn, and completely ruined. The room blurred. Without hesitation, I turned and walked toward the campus police station. But as I reached the university gates, Willie’s motorcycle roared to a halt, blocking my path. He leaned against the handlebars, his brow furrowed in annoyance. “It’s just a grand, Cora. Don’t blow this out of proportion.” Behind him, Lexie stood with her arms crossed, offering me a smug, triumphant smirk. 7 The last thread of my restraint snapped. “Blow this out of proportion?!” My voice broke, tears finally spilling over. “Do you have any idea how many sleepless nights I worked to save that thousand dollars? Do you have any idea that my mother is waiting on that money to stay alive?!” Willie merely extinguished his cigarette, his expression flat and defensive. “So what? You’re going to ruin Lexie’s life over some wet cash?” My breath hitched. The last lingering warmth I held for him died in that exact moment. “Willie, we’re done.” I took a deep, steadying breath, forcing my voice to lose its tremor. “You are not my boyfriend anymore. And you have absolutely no right to tell me what to do.” Willie stiffened, a flicker of irritation crossing his handsome face. “Are you serious right now? If you need the money, I’ll write you a check. You’re really going to throw a tantrum and dump me over a grand?” I didn’t answer. I wiped the tears from my face, held my head high, and walked past them. Once I got on the bus, the tears came in earnest. I cried until my chest ached, letting the grief wash out of me. By the time the bus reached my stop, I felt surprisingly light. I opened my phone. There were several texts from Willie. “Where the hell did you go?” “Don’t be childish. You know you don’t actually want to break up with me.” Without an ounce of regret, I blocked his number and deleted him from every app. “I do,” I thought. And just like that, the six months of my life I had given him were gone.
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