Loving the Boy My Family Raised

3: 3

With Jenna's grades and ability, she could only apply to the low-bar schools that would take almost anyone.

Seven days later, one of them accepted her application.

Burton had spent every recent day out with Jenna, barely showing his face anywhere.

I sent him the school's information, and he replied:

*Good enough, I guess. Jenna says she's not picky.*

*Don't forget she starts in mid-September too. The tuition has to be transferred in the next few days, so we can all leave together.*

As if letting me pay the bill were him doing me a favor.

I sent back three words: "Got it."

A few days later, Burton called out of nowhere.

"Jenna's inviting everyone to her mom's little diner for dinner, and she wants to thank you in person."

"Remember to print out the acceptance letter and bring it. She'll need it for the visa and entry paperwork."

I was curled up in bed, riding out cramps, and I turned him down. "Another day, okay? My period came, my stomach hurts a little…"

His tone dropped a few degrees at once.

"May, don't lie. I remember it's not due until next week."

"But it came early—"

He cut me off before I could finish, cold. "Jenna's been looking forward to seeing that acceptance letter ever since her application went through."

"Some of the classmates who are free are coming too. Don't kill the mood at a time like this and leave her let down."

That last half sentence was the part he'd really meant to say.

I was quiet for a moment. "Understood."

At the long table in the little diner, the other classmates looked at her with open envy.

"Wow, Jenna, I had no idea you were this amazing. I hear the English proficiency exam is really hard."

Jenna, pressed close against Burton, laughed. "Oh, it's nothing, it's all thanks to how well Burton the heartthrob taught me. He stayed up a whole month, tutoring me over video."

"If I'd transferred into our class two years earlier, I might've gotten into a top school right here at home."

At that, my fingers tightened around my chopsticks without my meaning to.

It was only when I submitted Jenna's paperwork that I learned she'd sat the English proficiency exam in the same round as us.

Back then, there'd been one article I couldn't quite make sense of, and I'd wanted Burton to walk me through it.

He'd turned his phone face-down without a flicker, his expression cool. "May, if you don't have the ability, then don't go abroad."

"You're the Coleman family's little princess, sure, but no one owes it to you to be the knight who rescues you. You can't keep expecting to lean on other people."

So he'd been quietly preparing for Jenna that early.

And still he'd faked her sitting the SATs, faked her filling out college applications, just to keep me from seeing it. That wish card was the opening he'd picked.

Burton glanced at me, uncomfortable, and prompted her, "Jenna, May put in a lot of effort for you too. Thank her."

Jenna's expression shifted, then she smiled again. "You're right. May, thank you for being so generous and kind."

"All right, everyone, drink the chicken soup while it's hot. May, to thank you, I had my mom save the plumpest chicken just for you. It's very nourishing."

The others picked up their chopsticks, praising nonstop how wonderfully fresh the soup was.

My stomach was cold and aching.

Without thinking twice, I lifted my bowl and took a sip.

All I tasted was a mouthful of sickening greasy film, laced with the taste of dish soap.

I spat it right back out.

"May, what's wrong?" the deskmate asked, concerned.

I frowned and answered honestly, "There's dish soap in the soup. It tastes like leftover rinse water…"

The others exchanged glances. "Huh? That can't be. How come none of us tasted it?"

The deskmate went to check, but Jenna snatched the bowl away and smashed it on the floor.

Her eyes rimmed red, brimming with hurt, she said, "May, I know your fine-lady stomach is precious and you look down on a little diner like ours."

"But my mom poured her heart into that soup, simmered it all afternoon. You don't have to like it, but do you really have to smear it? We still have to run this business…"

I tried to explain. "I didn't—"

"Enough!"

Burton looked at me, disappointed. "It's my fault. I should've seen this coming the moment you faked a stomachache to get out of coming."

"If you want a fancy meal, then go crawl off to some five-star hotel. Don't come here putting on airs and trampling on other people's good intentions."

Except for the deskmate, everyone was watching me with complicated looks.

Their faces said it all: so awful, how could she be like this, why doesn't she just scram already.

My cheeks burned, and with nowhere to put myself, I turned and ran out.

I ran a long way before the tears I'd held back so long finally spilled over in fat drops.

Calvin the butler called.

"Miss, are we transferring your tuition and Burton's tomorrow?"

Before I could answer, Jenna posted an update.

"Hehe, who knew our heartthrob wasn't just smart, he's this caring too."

In the photo, her index finger had a little cut from a broken shard.

Burton had his head bent, carefully putting a bandage on it for her.

His comment underneath read: *That's because you're too clumsy.*

Jenna: *Yes yes yes, so from now on I'll have to trouble our heartthrob to keep taking care of me up close~*

Burton replied with an okay hand sign.

It felt like a drill was grinding into the flesh low in my belly, the pain bending me double.

I wiped my eyes and answered Calvin.

"Go ahead and transfer it, but only mine."

Since Burton was so eager to take care of Jenna up close, and had no use for what I was worth.

I'd go abroad on my own.