Chapter 3

The next day, I went back to the lab.

Before I left the country I'd left a logbook in my locker, filled with experiment data and records of every failure, along with the formulas Piers had corrected for me.

When I pushed the door open, Piers was bent over, studying the test tube in Chloe's hand.

"Temperature's too low. Try again."

"How can you still be getting this wrong, Chloe."

Patient. Gentle.

I walked to my locker and pulled the door open.

It was empty.

"Looking for this?"

Chloe picked up the logbook from the desk.

"Give it back."

She flipped through a couple of pages, her tone all innocence. "I started late, there was a lot I couldn't keep up with, so Piers gave this to me to use."

The data inside had been circled all over in red pen, and several pages had been torn in half.

"What gives you the right to touch my data?"

I reached for it.

Chloe stepped back and bumped into Piers's chest.

He steadied her by the shoulders and frowned.

"You're scaring her. You're not even going to need it once you're abroad. Don't be so petty."

I looked at him. "You hand my things off to someone else, and you don't need my say-so?"

"Piers, do you think that as long as it's something Chloe wants, I'm supposed to give it up for her?"

I watched him, and my chest went tight.

He said nothing.

The silence was already the answer.

I took the logbook back and tore it out, page by page.

In my first six months in the lab I didn't know anything, and every day I'd chase after him with this book, asking questions.

He'd call me slow, but every time he'd take it and rework the whole thing from start to finish.

But now, there was no point keeping it.

Piers's face changed. "What are you doing?"

"It's mine. I get to decide whether it stays or goes."

I tore the last page in two and dropped it in the trash.

Chloe's eyes went red at once.

"Piers, did I do something wrong?"

"It has nothing to do with you." He looked at me, his voice turning cold all the way through.

"You were taking morning-after pills four times a week and never said a word. So what's the act now?"

I froze where I stood, forced the tears back down, and turned and walked out.

That night a post drifted up to the forum's front page.

《The Story of the Girl at Our School Who Threw Herself at a Guy for Five Years and Still Couldn't Get Promoted from Side-Piece》

The post named no one, but it spelled out my major and my year clear as day.

The poster held nothing back:

【This girl's been throwing herself at him since high school, applied to the same school just to follow him, and she still thinks she's the real girlfriend.】

The comments were nothing but mockery.

【Five years and still can't get official. Suggest finding someone new to grovel to.】

【The guy's got it rough too, being stalked by someone like that.】

Soon Piers's buddy replied underneath with a smirking-dog emoji.

【If you know, you know.】

Piers didn't reply. But he liked that comment.

I stared at the screen, my fingers ice cold.

Then I traced the account that posted it. It was Chloe.

I put the screenshot up, and the next second, the post was deleted.

I posted again. Deleted again.

I took my phone and found Piers.

"Did you delete my post? What gives you the right?"

"She's about to prep for grad school exams. Your post would hurt her reputation and her interviews."

"Besides, I've already deleted the post she put up. In a few days no one will remember."

"And my reputation? People talking about me, cornering me in the bathroom, sticking notes on my dorm door, none of that matters?"

Something flickered across Piers's face, but he went cold again fast.

"No one actually hurt you. Don't blow this up into something ugly."

Piers turned and left with Chloe, murmuring to soothe her:

"Don't be scared. I'm here."

He had never once said that to me.

Not when everyone was pointing and cursing at me. Not when I lost my mother, my home, him.

He never said it.

I stood there, and all at once I understood something.

It wasn't that I'd never won.

It was that every single time, Piers had never been on my side.