They Said She Was Strong So They Never Had To Choose Her Chapter 04
After Mia moved into my room, Grayson and the others were over almost every day.
Grayson brought food.
Ethan put together prep materials for her college classes.
And Julian bought a projector, mounting it on my wall himself, worried she’d get bored while she healed.
While he was calibrating it, he finally noticed the half-empty bookshelf.
“Where’s your stuff?”
“Packed up.”
He glanced at the luggage in the hallway and asked, offhand:
“Starting move-in prep this early?”
I made a small sound of agreement.
Julian didn’t think twice about it and went back to fiddling with the remote.
“School’s right around here anyway. You can come back for anything you forget. No need to bring much.”
Mia, leaning against the headboard of my bed, bit her lip when she heard that.
“Chloe, do you not want me here?”
She pushed back the covers as if to get up.
“I can just go back to my own place. I don’t want to make things awkward for Chloe.”
Her toes hadn’t even touched the floor before all three boys rushed over.
Grayson pressed her shoulders back down.
Ethan pulled the covers back over her.
Julian turned to look at me, his brow slightly furrowed.
“She’s only staying for two months. Do you really have to make that face?”
I paused.
Apparently not smiling counted as making a face now.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to. Mia’s practically ready to leave because of you.”
Mom walked in with a plate of fruit just in time to catch the tail end.
“I’m the one who told Chloe to give up the room. Don’t blame her.”
She set the mangoes down by Mia and turned to me.
“Mia’s sensitive. Watch what you say and do around her.”
I looked at the plate of mango and said nothing.
I’ve been allergic to mango since I was a child.
Mom had never allowed it in the house. But once Mia mentioned she liked it, our fridge always had a few containers of it.
It wasn’t that Mom had a bad memory.
She just remembered what Mia liked, and forgot what I couldn’t touch.
I stepped out of the room and dragged the last suitcase into the study.
That afternoon, Ethan sent me a floor plan.
They had rented a four-bedroom apartment near the local college, only a ten-minute drive from campus.
【Mia needs a lot of sunlight. Could she take the master with the bay window?】
I sent back a single “Sure.”
A few minutes later, another message came in.
【There’s a storage room off the living room. We can fit a folding bed in there. You can stay in it during the week and go home on weekends.】
The storage room was under sixty square feet, no windows.
Before I could reply, Grayson dropped a voice message in the group.
“Chloe doesn’t care where she sleeps. Let’s lock in Mia’s room first. Doctor said she needs sunlight. Master’s the right call.”
Then Julian sent a Venmo request.
【Sorry to put you out. I’ll take you to dinner once school starts.】
I didn’t accept it.
I just opened the lease from the leasing office at my school’s apartment complex, and paid six months of rent up front.
A few days later, their acceptances came in one after another.
Just as expected, they were all admitted to the same local college.
Mia squeaked into the hospitality and tourism program.
When the news came out, Mom was so excited she booked a restaurant on the spot.
At the celebration dinner, Grayson pulled out a Polaroid and said he wanted to use it to document all four years of college.
The first picture had Mia in the center, with the three boys standing behind her.
As the film developed, she looked at it, then suddenly turned the camera on me.
“Chloe, let’s take one of all five of us.”
Before I could even stand up, Grayson took the camera out of her hands.
“We’re running low on film. Save it for move-in.”
Mia looked disappointed.
“But we still don’t have a graduation picture with all five of us.”
Ethan checked the film cartridge.
“We’re all going to be in the same city. There’s plenty of time.”
Julian handed the earlier photo to me.
“You’re the best at holding on to things. Keep this safe for us.”
The four of them were grinning in the picture.
I took it and slipped it into my bag.
They kept saying there would be plenty of chances later.
Which was why they didn’t have to wait for me now, didn’t have to choose me, didn’t have to save me a spot.
But they didn’t know we had already run out of laters.
Halfway through dinner, Mia suggested one more trip before school started. To the coast.
“Chloe didn’t get to come to the Rockies. She has to come this time.”
Grayson agreed without hesitation.
“Sure. I’ll drive.”
Ethan started looking up hotels on the spot.
“How’s September third? Right before move-in.”
Julian turned to me.
“Don’t back out last minute this time. Bring your camera. Take a proper set of graduation photos for us.”
I did the math in my head.
By September third, I would already be seventeen hundred miles away.
“Okay.”
They kept talking excitedly about the route.
Not a single one of them ever asked which college I had actually gotten into.
Late that night, I put the four-person photo in the bottom drawer of my desk.
Right next to the three answer cards from the Who Knows Who Best game with my name on them.
One was the person they had chosen to stay.
Three were the people they had chosen to leave behind.
The next morning, I threw a backpack over my shoulder and walked out the door.
My three suitcases had already been shipped ahead to my school. Nothing in the study belonged to me anymore.
I didn’t say goodbye, and I didn’t leave any kind of explanation.
On the way to the airport, my phone wouldn’t stop buzzing.
Mia asked if I could swing by the pharmacy and pick up her prescription.
Grayson sent a long list of household stuff the apartment was missing and asked me to bring it over.
Ethan told me to organize the move-in paperwork for all five of us, and especially not to forget Mia’s immunization records.
The last one was from Julian.
【Why aren’t you answering?】
【Still upset about the game?】
The boarding announcement came over the speakers.
I turned my phone off and walked down the jet bridge.
For the next month, they kept arranging my life in the group chat.
Told me to pick up Mia’s prescription, revise the trip itinerary, and head over to the apartment early to clean out the storage room.
I never responded.
And not one of them ever actually came looking for me.
Not until September third, the day of the beach trip.
At six in the morning, Julian pulled up outside my building.
Grayson kept messaging in the group telling me to hurry.
Ethan reminded me not to forget the camera.
Mia sat in the passenger seat holding the snacks they had packed, waiting for me.
Ten minutes passed, and I didn’t come down.
Julian ran out of patience and marched upstairs, banging on my door.
My mother opened it, still in her robe, looking like she hadn’t fully woken up.
“Chloe isn’t home. You guys didn’t know?”