Chapter 3

I crouched by the entrance of his dorm for what felt like an eternity before I finally saw him walking back.

"Logan!"

I called out, my voice cracking. He froze, turning toward me.

I rushed over, shoved my phone in front of his face with the post open, and choked out, "Have you seen this? I swear I didn't know you had a girlfriend. If I knew, I never would have done that! Can you... please make a post and explain?"

Logan took the phone, skimmed the thread, and looked back at me blankly. "I don't have a girlfriend. Explain what?"

I froze, caught off guard.

"You don't have a girlfriend? Then just tell them that! Tell them you're single, so people stop calling me a disgusting homewrecker!"

To my shock, Logan shook his head.

"I can't do that. If I say that, what happens to Serena? She comes from a broken home; she's already so insecure and fragile. If I publicly clear your name, it'll humiliate her. I can't do that to her."

"What... what are you talking about? How does clearing my name hurt her?!"

"Everyone on campus assumes Serena is my girlfriend right now," Logan said, his tone infuriatingly reasonable. "If I come out now and say I'm single just to defend you, how will people look at her? What will they say about her? She's sensitive, Mandy. What if she does something reckless?"

I stared at him in utter disbelief, tears welling in my eyes. "What about me, Logan? What about what they're doing to me?! Do I just deserve to get dragged through the mud?!"

Logan looked at me with deep disappointment. "Mandy, can you stop being so overly dramatic? It's just internet gossip! Words can't kill you! Stop being so selfish for once and think about someone else!"

In that split second, the boy standing in front of me turned completely into a stranger. My mind flashed back to high school.

Back when I was mocked relentlessly for my weight, called every cruel name in the book.

I had gone to teachers, but all I got were hollow, insincere apologies from my bullies.

During my darkest hour, Logan had stepped between me and the world.

He drove off the bullies, cheered me on, and painstakingly helped me rebuild my self-worth.

It was the exact same person. So why had he changed so completely?

He knew better than anyone how devastating rumors could be. That was why he was shielding his precious little sophomore from them. But me? Apparently, my pain didn't matter at all.

"Logan," I said, my voice eerily calm. "We've known each other for six years. Even if we're just ordinary friends... you really won't say a word for me?"

"Are you guilt-tripping me right now? Just because we've known each other longer gives you the right to hurt an innocent girl?"

Ha. What a noble, heroic speech.

I gave a bitter, empty laugh, gave up trying, and turned on my heel.

It had all been my own delusion. Six years of devotion felt like a giant, humiliating joke.

But fine. At least I stopped the bleeding before it destroyed me completely.

Back in my room, I tapped open my smartwatch. Maybe Logan was right about one thing: I was going to be selfish.

Knowing Logan might refuse to help, I had secretly turned on the voice recorder on my watch before approaching him.

I wasn't a saint. I wasn't going to set myself on fire just to keep someone else warm.

I clipped the crucial few seconds of the audio and uploaded it directly to the campus forum. In crystal-clear audio, Logan's voice rang out: *"I don't have a girlfriend."*

Along with the audio, I attached my own calm statement. Several mutual classmates who knew the truth immediately stepped up in the comments, confirming Logan had always been single. Just like that, the slander painting me as a homewrecker evaporated.

The original video post was quickly deleted, but internet sleuths on campus tracked the IP and user history of the anonymous OP.

It led straight back to Serena.

The backlash was instant and brutal. The very mob that had attacked me turned their pitchforks on her, calling her out for playing the victim and framing someone else.

Logan didn't escape unscathed either. The campus labeled him a manipulative two-timer, the absolute poster boy for toxic fuckboys.

That was when Logan finally came looking for me.

"Mandy!"

He blocked my path as I was walking back from class.

"You uploaded that recording to the forum, didn't you? Delete it right now! And post a clarification saying the audio was AI-generated and that I never said that!"

He stood over me, furious and demanding, acting as if I owed him obedience.

It had been an entire month since I begged him for help. In that whole month, he hadn't called once, hadn't checked on me once.

The only reason he showed up now was because his own reputation was burning.

"Ha."

I scoffed right in his face. "Logan, can you stop being so overly dramatic? It's just a few words on the internet, right? What's the big deal?"

I threw his exact words right back in his teeth. Seeing the veins pop on his forehead gave me a rush of pure satisfaction.

Turns out, people only scream when the knife is stuck in their own chest.

"You...!" Logan choked on his rage, unable to form a coherent sentence.

Taking a deep, ragged breath, he tried another angle. "Fine! But what does this have to do with Serena? You dragged her into this mess for no reason! Don't you owe her an apology?!"

"An apology?" I stared at him like he was insane. "Are you blind, or do you just not use the internet? She was the one who secretly filmed me and posted it with a fake caption! She slandered me first out of pure malice! I defended myself with facts. How on earth am I in the wrong?!"

My outburst caught him off guard. His eyes shifted away guiltily.

"She... she didn't mean it. Why do you have to be so relentless? Besides, she already took it down..."

Watching his shifty demeanor, cold realization washed over me.

"Logan... you knew it was her from the very start, didn't you?"

He went dead silent. That silence told me everything. He was complicit.

"Logan..." A lump formed in my throat. "Six years. I can't believe I spent six years blind to who you really are."

I should have realized it sooner. Logan was a top-tier computer science major. If he wanted to trace an anonymous account, it would have taken him five minutes.

Tears silently traced down my cheeks. For weeks, I had held it together, but in that moment, the dam broke.

The sheer feeling of betrayal—of realizing I had been systematically deceived by the person I trusted most—stripped away the final illusion.

Logan had probably always been this cowardly, selfish person. My childhood crush had simply painted a golden halo over his flaws.

Now that the halo was shattered, his ugly, pathetic true colors were completely exposed.

"Mandy..." Logan stepped forward, his voice softening with fake pity. "Don't be like this. Serena knows she messed up. She'll change. Just forgive her and take down the post, okay?"

I reached up and wiped away my tears. Along with them, I wiped away the last remaining trace of affection I had for him.

"You want me to delete it? Fine. Have her come to me in person, apologize on her knees, and post a public statement admitting that she maliciously framed me to smear my name. Once she comes clean to the entire school, I'll delete it."

I turned to walk away, but Logan grabbed my arm tightly.

"Why do you have to be so vicious?! Serena isn't like you! She doesn't have an easy family background; she had to fight tooth and nail just to get into this college! You're going to ruin her life! Just let her apologize to you in private, and you take the post down. Isn't that enough?!"

I violently ripped my arm from his grasp, disgusted. "What makes her so damn special?! Who at this university didn't work their ass off to get here? Why does she get a free pass to ruin people just because she's poor? I've said my piece. Think whatever you want."

Before he could utter another word, I walked away without looking back.