They Said She Was Strong So They Never Had To Choose Her Chapter 02
The next morning, I asked Julian to meet me at the coffee shop on the corner.
Not to confirm the trip, but to end it in person.
When I pushed the door open, the four of them were already sitting at the booth by the window.
Mia was cradling a hot latte and going over the accommodations with Julian.
“That cabin at the top of the mountain only has two rooms left?”
Julian nodded and turned his screen so she could see.
“One with two twin beds, one with a king. If all five of us stay, someone has to take the pullout in the living room.”
Grayson glanced at me before the words had even finished landing.
“Chloe sleeps like a rock. Let her take the couch.”
Ethan frowned.
“It gets cold in the mountains at night. There’s no heating in the living room.”
I looked at him, a little surprised.
Then he kept going.
“Chloe likes taking photos, right? She could stay at a place in the town at the base. Drive up before sunrise to shoot for us. It’d be more convenient that way.”
Whatever warmth I had felt for a second turned to ice.
He wasn’t worried about me being cold.
He just thought I didn’t even deserve a spot on the pullout couch.
Mia rushed to grab my hand.
“That won’t do. We’re on this trip as five friends. How could we make Chloe stay by herself at the bottom of the mountain?”
She hesitated for a moment, then offered up a suggestion.
“How about Chloe and I share the king, and you three take the other room?”
Julian shot it down immediately.
“You’re a light sleeper. You wouldn’t get any rest sharing a bed.”
Grayson nodded along.
“Chloe tosses and turns all night. What if she kicks you?”
They remembered that Mia was a light sleeper, but they had forgotten about the old injury in my knee that flared up whenever it got cold.
That injury came from the night I got stranded in the mountains when I was sixteen.
I slowly pulled my hand back.
“There’s nothing to discuss. I’m not going.”
All four of them went quiet at the same time.
Mia’s eyes welled up.
“Is it because of the room thing? I’ll take the couch, really.”
“No.”
I lifted my phone.
“I picked up a summer job. The dates conflict.”
Grayson scoffed.
“See, I told you she wouldn’t be upset about something this small. You guys wasted all that time trying to smooth things over.”
Ethan went back to studying the route.
Only Julian kept his eyes on me for a few seconds.
“You’re really not coming?”
“Really.”
“Then what about the graduation photos?”
“You can hire a photographer out there.”
His brow furrowed slightly, like he wasn’t used to hearing me say no.
Mia suddenly clutched her chest and let out a soft gasp.
All three of them turned to her at once.
Grayson dug through her bag for her medication, Ethan cracked open a bottle of water, and Julian crouched in front of her, coaching her breathing.
I stood up on my own and walked over to the counter.
I pulled a thick photo album out of my backpack.
It was three years of my work.
All four years of high school, I had documented every important moment the five of us had shared, planning to give it to them on the graduation trip.
But when I flipped through it now, I realized I was barely in it at all.
I was the one behind the lens.
The one whose job it was to preserve their memories.
And the one who was easiest to crop out of the group shots.
I carried the album back and sat down in front of them again, setting the printed Airbnb order on the table in front of Julian.
“Explain this.”
His face shifted the second he saw the payment record.
“Chloe, hear me out first.”
“That three thousand you gave me two weeks ago, I’ll pay you back.”
He paused.
“Mia kept saying she wanted to stay at the cabin at the top, and the budget for four just wasn’t enough. So I… used that money to upgrade the trip for them.”
“So I paid, but I wasn’t on the booking?”
He pressed his lips together.
“I was planning to talk to you before the trip. Ask you to chip in a little more so all five of us could go together.”
“I just hadn’t found the right moment to bring it up.”
The three thousand dollars was the money he had said he needed to plan a surprise for my eighteenth birthday.
I had thought he was finally making good on the promise he made when we were sixteen, up in those mountains. That he was going to take me to the Rockies to see the stars.
Instead, that money had gone toward upgrading a trip for three other people.
My gaze landed on Mia’s hand.
On her ring finger was a white gold band, engraved on the inside with all four of their initials.
“Was that ring bought with my money too?”
Mia’s face went white, and she scrambled to pull it off.
“Chloe, I had no idea it was your money. They just told me it was a graduation gift, something to remember our friendship by.”
Grayson shot to his feet.
“How much? I’ll Venmo you right now. Leave Mia out of this.”
“Fine.”
I pulled a printed invoice out of the album.
“Add up four years of shooting, editing, and album production. It comes to five thousand.”
He froze.
“What photography fee?”
“Since I wasn’t a friend on the trip, just the person taking your pictures, we might as well settle it at market rate.”
The entire booth went silent.
I put the order away and picked up the album with none of me in it.
Behind me, Julian called out my full name for the first time in his life.
“Chloe Sinclair, do you really have to be this calculating?”
I didn’t turn around.
Of course I had to.
Because from now on, all that was left between us were accounts to settle.