She Left Me for the Man Who Destroyed Me

I didn’t have many classmates close to me, and after Arden came, people around us began to say Calliope, and he was the right pair, even though the girl who liked someone was Calliope liking me.

“School beauty with school prince, why is Rayne squeezing in?”

“Who knows, maybe a frog dreaming of a swan.”

Back then, I truly saw Arden as a buddy. I even asked if I really wasn’t worthy of Calliope.

But Arden only curved his lips and said, “How could that be? Though you really aren’t bright like others, Calliope doesn’t mind.”

“Oh, and she wants you to go to the amusement park this weekend. She’s too timid to say it, so she asked me instead. Don’t skip it.”

Even though what we shared was an unspoken love, that would have been our first day out like that.

That day after class, I left ahead of time. Even under heavy rain, I still went far to a mall to pick a present for her.

I chose a bottle of perfume.

The salesgirl asked whether it was for my girlfriend. I couldn’t stop the small smile and nodded.

Girlfriend

It was the first time someone called her that.

When amusement-park day came, I dressed up a bit. While standing at the gate, I wondered if I was doing too much.

But I waited until dark, and she still didn’t come.

My texts sank like pebbles into deep water.

My heart collapsed. I only feared she had met trouble.

It was too dim, and on the road back, I slipped and fell into dirty mud.

My neat white shirt became smeared with dirt. The scent I bought for her flew from my hand, too.

When I hurried to her place and pushed open the door, I saw Arden lying on her bed while she mixed cold-medicine tea for him.

The second she saw me, Calliope’s lovely face tightened in anger.

“Why did you show up only now? Where were you? I searched for you the whole day.”

“You didn’t know Arden got soaked yesterday and passed out with a fever early this morning? If I weren’t next door, who can say what danger it could have caused?”

No reason for missing our date, only blame thrown onto me.

In all the years I knew her, it was the first time she shouted at me like that.

Arden then lowered his face and spoke, “Rayne, I think something must have held you back, but you shouldn’t have taken my umbrella during such heavy rain.”

“My place had no cold pills. My mom and dad were not home. I sent you message after message, but you blocked me. Luckily, I fainted at Calliope’s house. If not, I really don’t know what might have happened.”

His tone sounded even more pitiful. “I just moved here, and I always treated you as my closest friend. Why treat me like that…”

Hearing this, Calliope’s anger rose.

I stood frozen right there. So in his story, I was the selfish one again.

After a long while, I finally opened my mouth and held out the present toward Calliope.

“I didn’t… I only…”

But she didn’t even glance at me. She simply passed the cup to Arden instead.

I became like a stranger standing in that room.

After some time, I walked out of her house. From that moment, we entered our first silent fight.

When classes resumed, I quietly switched my seat, no longer beside Arden.

The looks classmates gave me turned even more unusual.

Arden told others I picked on him because of Calliope, making himself seem like the wronged one.

Anywhere I appeared, the room swarmed with low voices about me.

“See? I told you he isn’t good enough for the class beauty. Yet he still kept hanging around.”