Chapter 3

After my fever broke, I went to take the college placement test.

On the day the results came out, I was first place by a landslide.

The academic advisor specifically called me to his office, looking at my transcript with a face full of surprise.

"Wren, with this score, you could have gone to a much better school, even an Ivy League."

"Why did you enroll in the state university in the end?"

I froze where I stood.

Why did I come to the state university?

Because Beck was here, Miles was here, and Paige wanted to come here too.

I thought it was a choice of running toward "home" and the "people I liked."

Before I could open my mouth to answer, the office door was pushed open.

Paige poked half her body in and chimed in with a grin.

"Because Wren couldn't bear to leave us."

"She hasn't been able to leave Beck and Miles since she was a kid. If she went to another school, she'd cry."

A few students in the hallway heard this and started jeering and laughing.

My ears burned, and I instinctively looked out the door.

Miles was standing by the hallway.

He heard what Paige said, but he didn't outright deny it.

He just muttered a low, "Don't talk nonsense."

My heart softened for a brief moment.

But the next second, Paige turned her head and grabbed his sleeve.

"Miles, I didn't understand the major course this afternoon. Will you come to the library tonight and teach me?"

Miles frowned slightly.

"I promised Wren I would help her debug the underlying system for her competition at seven."

Paige's face immediately fell. She gently shook Miles's arm.

"But I have an in-class quiz tomorrow."

I stood by the desk and spoke up to remind him.

"The system must be submitted for review tomorrow."

Miles glanced at me, a flash of impatience in his eyes.

"You can do it yourself, it'll just take a little longer."

"Paige has a weak foundation. She needs me more."

Beck had walked up to the door at some point, carrying snacks he'd bought for Paige.

He casually chimed in.

"If Paige fails her class, she'll hide in her blankets and cry all night. Can't you be a little understanding?"

I looked at their self-righteous faces.

I folded up the perfect-score transcript in my hand and stuffed it into my pocket.

"Okay."

That night, I sat in my dorm room, debugging the system until two in the morning.

The system finally ran smoothly.

I discovered that Miles, trying to save time, had directly applied the old cloud drive code we shared as kids onto the underlying message board.

The cloud drive's original memo still kept a sentence I had typed out when I was twelve.

"Miles, will you lead the way for me from now on?"

I stared at that line of text for a long time, my hand hovering over the delete key.

My phone suddenly vibrated.

It was an Instagram Story posted by Paige.

In the photo, Miles was sitting next to her, looking down and writing calculus formulas on scratch paper.

The caption read: "It feels so good to have someone hold the umbrella for you."

My laptop popped up a new email just then.

It was from the admissions office at Cambridge University.

"Wren Harper, your full scholarship is active. Your reserved spot will expire in 48 hours. Please reply promptly with your flight information."

I stared at the screen, my mouse pointer hovering over the "Confirm Enrollment" button.

I hesitated to move.

Eighteen years of affection... when it was time to cut it off, it still hurt.