Too Late to Love Me

2: 2

Once we got home, I had no appetite for dinner and went straight to my room.

I'd just finished showering when there was a knock at the door. It was Margot.

She set a glass of juice and a plate of food on the table and sighed.

"I didn't turn Chester down back there because he's proud, and we're classmates. It would've been ugly to embarrass him in front of everyone. That's all it was."

I didn't say anything. She looked a little helpless.

"Still won't let it go? Then I guess I'll have to use this."

She took out a wish card.

"You said that as long as I held on to it, I could ask you for one wish. Right?"

I'd given it to her for her birthday this year.

I'd been afraid of picking the wrong gift and upsetting her, so I'd written this out for her instead.

Something in me softened. Was she going to spend her one wish just to get me to stop being angry?

Would she actually be the one to give a little for once? Every other time, I'd been the one to make peace first.

The next second, though, I heard her say:

"I want you to take Chester abroad to study with us."

"Don't worry about the English proficiency test. He already scraped past the cutoff."

I froze, sure I'd misheard.

"Didn't he already send in his college applications?"

Margot pressed her lips together.

"I know. But Chester's scores only get him into a community college here."

"His mom raised him alone, and it wasn't easy. Once he comes back with some polish from studying overseas, he'll have a better future, and it'll help his family's situation."

"It's fine if the school he applies to is a little ordinary. That kind of money is nothing to you, and being able to help someone out is a good thing, isn't it?"

I stared at her in disbelief.

Back when it was the pendant, she'd decided I was using money to humiliate her and refused to speak to me no matter what.

Later I happened to see her diary and learned her dream was to study abroad in England.

So I quietly applied to schools for both of us, and because I was afraid of touching that sensitive pride of hers,

I lied and said it was me who wanted to go, that I didn't want to be alone and hoped she'd come with me.

Back then Margot hadn't shown the slightest happiness. She'd even seemed reluctant.

"For the sake of your family taking care of me all these years, I'll go with you."

"But I'm still sitting the SATs here and submitting my college applications. I won't have people thinking I'm some parasite with no ability of her own, leeching off you."

And yet what was she doing now?

Me buying a pendant was pointless mooching off my parents, but blowing family money to send Chester overseas for free had a point?

I laughed, furious.

"That kind of money? Even the most ordinary school runs at least a few hundred thousand a year. If you know his mom had it hard, then he should've been working and studying instead of playing video games all day."

"He did badly, that's on him. Why should I cover for him?"

Margot's face went cold in an instant, and she gave a cold laugh.

"So you wrote this thing just to prove to me that you're a liar?"

"Sebastian, as a businessman's son, you should at least have some basic integrity. Don't throw away the reputation your parents spent years building."

"Families like yours love doing charity to dress up your image, don't you? I'm giving you the chance."

That was always how she was. She could always find some high-sounding reason.

To prove she was the one in the right, and I was always the one in the wrong.

There was no point arguing anymore.

I took a deep breath and took the wish card.

"Fine. I'll help him submit his application materials."

Only then did Margot allow herself a rare smile.

"You're finally showing some sense. I'll send you his file."

Her phone rang. She answered it as she headed for the door, her voice turning gentle.

"Mm, I'm heading out now. I know. The osmanthus milk tea at the South Street corner, no ice, a third sweetness, extra osmanthus, and one taro pudding on the side. Right?"

"Good, that's it. Wait for me at the theater, I'll go buy it."

Before she left, she glanced at the plate on the table.

"Remember to eat. It's not good to waste food."

The door closed. I picked up the glass of fresh juice, and the thick smell of mango hit me. I couldn't help a bitter smile.

So she'd already forgotten I was allergic to mango.

The truth was, when we were kids, Margot had been so gentle and attentive with me.

Once, an allergy landed me in the hospital, and it terrified her. The very next day she printed out a list of everything I was allergic to and taped it to the fridge.

She told our housekeeper never to use any of it, and whenever we ate out, she'd check everything a dozen times over.

Back then she could have recited every one of my allergies in her sleep.

When did it start, her smiling at me less and less, caring about my things less and less?

I'd told myself people change as they grow up, that she was buried in schoolwork and forgetting was only natural.

Turns out there was just someone else more worth caring about.

When my oldest friend heard about all this, he blew up at me over the phone.

"Sebastian, are you out of your mind? There's a limit to how far a lovesick idiot can go!"

I tore up the wish card and flushed it down the toilet along with the mango juice, and I smiled.

"I'm not crazy."

"After all, all I agreed to was helping him submit an application."

Margot was right.

You shouldn't give some object a pointless meaning.

Especially when the person it was for isn't worth it anymore.