They Said She Was Strong So They Never Had To Choose Her Chapter 07
A month into the semester, I joined the campus astronomy club.
The first time we went out for observation, the faculty advisor put me in charge of documentation.
I photographed the Orion Nebula and compiled all the data into spreadsheets.
I worked until dawn. The club president, Caleb Reyes, handed me a cup of hot coffee.
“You’re good at this. Have you done it a lot before?”
“I used to be the one planning things for other people.”
He looked puzzled.
“For other people?”
I smiled and didn’t explain.
The skills that had always been taken for granted before were finally being recognized in this new place.
I could shoot photos, edit video, plan routes, and remember what every person needed.
Around Mia, those skills had only been useful for helping everyone take care of her.
Here, they belonged to me.
After the observation trip, a package arrived from my mother.
It was crammed with clothes, snacks, vitamins, and a very thick letter.
She said she had put my room back to the way it was.
The projector was gone. Mia had moved back to her own house.
She said she had only realized afterward that there were almost no traces of my life left in that room.
My awards were gone. The photos had been taken down. All that was left in the closet were Mia’s new dresses.
She kept asking, over and over in the letter, when exactly I had started planning to leave.
I didn’t reply. I just split the food from the package with my roommates.
When winter set in, Grayson and Ethan came too.
I had just finished a lab session and walked out of the science building to find them standing under a streetlamp.
Grayson was holding a box of pumpkin spice cake.
Ethan was holding the photo album.
Neither of them said anything at first. They just watched me.
Finally, Grayson held out the cake.
“It got a little crushed on the flight over.”
“I don’t like pumpkin spice anymore.”
His hand went still.
The truth was I hadn’t liked it since I was twelve.
They had just never noticed.
Ethan handed me the album, his voice hoarse.
“I looked through it.”
“Okay.”
“Why aren’t there many pictures of you in it?”
I glanced at him.
“Because I took all the pictures.”
Such a simple answer.
But it seemed to be one they had only now understood.
Ethan lowered his eyes.
“We put together a new one. We pulled a lot of old pictures from the group chat, and Grayson tracked down more from other classmates.”
He opened the album.
The first page showed me standing on stage at my elementary school graduation.
The girl in the photo had a red barrette in her hair and a slightly stiff smile.
The second page was middle school field day. I was crossing the finish line, and the three of them were crowding around me with water.
Then Mia appeared.
My spot slowly shifted from the center toward the edge, until I disappeared from the frame entirely.
They didn’t need to explain a thing.
A single album had documented every shift.
Grayson said, his eyes red.
“How did I never see it?”
“Because you didn’t care.”
His mouth opened, but he had nothing to say back.
Ethan set a card down on the table.
“There’s seven thousand on it. Three thousand for the trip, five thousand for the album and everything you’ve shot over the years.”
“The extra is interest.”
I didn’t take it.
“Grayson already Venmo’d me five thousand.”
“Then consider this a late birthday gift.”
“I don’t need it.”
Grayson’s voice suddenly rose.
“Then what do you need?”
People on the sidewalk turned to look.
He quickly lowered his head, like he was fighting to keep his emotions in.
“Chloe, we apologized, we paid you back. Your room is still yours. The master bedroom at the apartment is still empty. If there’s something else you want, just say it.”
I suddenly remembered the game.
The favoritism they had shown Mia never required her to ask for anything.
When it was my turn, I had to list out my conditions, prove I deserved to be made up to.
“I don’t want anything.”
“I just want you all to stop showing up in my life.”
Grayson’s eyes went red instantly.
Ethan put a hand on his shoulder and asked, slowly.
“We can’t even be friends?”
“No.”
This time, I didn’t leave them a shred of hope.
Grayson stared at me for a long moment, then abruptly threw the cake in the trash.
He turned to leave, took a few steps, and stopped.
“Mia was right.”
“You’re doing this on purpose. To punish us.”
Ethan snapped his name sharply.
But I just laughed.
“Grayson, when you gave up on me, it was just a game to you.”
“So how is me giving up on you suddenly a punishment?”
His back stayed to me. He didn’t move.
I didn’t wait for his answer. I turned and walked into the falling snow.