The Girl He Wanted Was The Girl He Dumped Chapter 04
The laughter at the door died instantly, like someone had hit pause.
Everyone went quiet.
Someone finally asked,
“Wait—is she Carter’s girlfriend or his ex?”
“And that’s supposed to be ugly?”
Carter frowned and called after me, “Sophie.”
I stopped mid-step, “What did you just call me?”
Julian let out a soft laugh and took the umbrella from my hand.
“Carter, how much have you had to drink?”
He tilted his chin toward the distance, “That’s your girlfriend.”
I followed his gaze.
Sophie was walking toward us under a clear umbrella.
Carter looked over too.
His face went completely blank. Like he was seeing her for the first time.
The words slipped out before he could stop them.
“Who the hell is that?”
Then he whipped his head back toward me.
Shock, confusion, disbelief—all flashed across his face at once.
“Wait—”
“You’re Audrey?”
I stared at him.
“Who else would I be?”
Sophie had clearly dressed up for tonight.
She hurried over with a bright smile, her cheeks flushing under all the attention.
“Carter, I came to pick you up.”
Carter narrowed his eyes.
“So this whole time, the person I’ve been talking to was you?”
“Of course, bab—”
He cut her off sharply, “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“You knew I was looking for Audrey. Why would you pretend to be the girl in that photo?”
Sophie faltered, then quickly sidestepped the point, “Does it really matter what someone looks like?”
“Didn’t you say you liked me for my personality?”
Carter let out a cold laugh, “Bullshit.”
Then his eyes snapped back to me.
Julian casually stepped into his line of sight and rested a hand lightly on my shoulder.
“Come on. Rain’s getting worse.”
I walked away with him.
Behind us, Carter’s voice came through gritted teeth, “Julian—don’t touch her!”
“You knew the whole time?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Julian glanced back, the picture of innocence.
“But Carter.”
“Didn’t you introduce Audrey to me yourself?”
I couldn’t resist adding,
“And don’t forget.”
“You’re the one who said we were done.”
“Told me to stop obsessing over you, remember?”
Every word he’d thrown at me came boomeranging straight back at him.
The fury on Carter’s face froze.
The whole night had been chaos.
It wasn’t until we left the restaurant that I finally pieced everything together.
On move-in day, the girl Carter had offered $200 to get the Instagram of was me.
Sophie had simply let him believe it was her.
No wonder she’d kept putting off meeting him in person.
But wasn’t she afraid the truth would come out eventually?
I was still turning it over when Julian spoke casually.
“Because she gave Carter too much credit.”
“She thought if she could make him fall for her online first, then by the time they met in person, he’d be too emotionally invested to care.”
Julian smiled faintly, “But guys like Carter will always put themselves first.”
He looked at me, “What about you?”
“Now that it’s pretty obvious he still has feelings for you—would you go back?”
I gave him a thin smile, “Not a chance.”
I’m not a recycling center.
The rain had stopped.
Julian folded the umbrella.
He looked like he had more to say, but I was already heading inside.
“Good night, Julian.”
His quiet laugh followed me.
“Good night.”
Carter and Sophie broke up.
The news spread across campus fast.
One of my roommates could barely contain herself.
“I heard Carter saw Sophie in person and his face went completely dark. Dumped her on the spot.”
The other roommate still wasn’t following.
“But didn’t he really like Sophie?”
“They got together within days.”
The first roommate suddenly connected the dots.
“They were dating that whole time and never met in person. Doesn’t that tell you Sophie was scared to show her face?”
Then she looked at me, “Wait.”
“That photo Carter posted in GroupMe had two girls in it, right?”
“The other one was you?”
I nodded, “I was the one he was actually looking for.”
Both roommates went silent.
Then it finally clicked, “So—”
“The girl Carter fell for at first sight on campus was actually the same online girlfriend he’d just dumped?”
“And Sophie swooped in and pretended it was her?”
I nodded.
One of them stared at me.
“That is genuinely shameless.”
Later, I told them everything happened that night.
They latched onto an entirely different point.
“Julian wasn’t as innocent as he looked.”
“Carter calls that gorgeous mystery girlfriend of his to come pick him up, and Julian conveniently calls you to come get him at the same time?”
“He knew that whole crowd was waiting for the drama, and he didn’t give you a single heads-up.”
“You got turned into their entertainment without even knowing it.”
Carter started making burner account after burner account just to DM me.
I couldn’t be bothered to block every single one.
Eventually, I just unblocked his main account.
The messages flooded in almost instantly.
The first one: “I’m sorry.”
Then came a wall of explanations and apologies.
I barely read any of it.
Every time he sent something—
I sent his own words right back.
“Leave me alone. We’re done.”
“Stop obsessing over me.”
Over and over.
Until he finally broke.
“Audrey, please don’t do this.”
I glanced at the message.
Then blocked him again.