At the engagement party for one of our former high school classmates, the bride suggested we play King's Cup. Whoever drew Eight had to do a cross-arm toast with someone of the opposite sex in front of everyone.

My husband, Luke Flandern, had always been a germaphobe. The second he saw the card in his hand, his brow furrowed.

I stood up, ready to help him out.

But then—Sarah Weaver, the girl everyone called the beauty of our class, who was sitting right across from him—asked softly, "Need a hand?"

Luke looked at her, and the frown on his face instantly melted.

"Yeah, sure."

The room erupted. Everyone was laughing and cheering.

"Classic Luke—always generous. No wonder he was valedictorian back in the day."

"Someone get this on camera. The golden couple from high school is finally reconnecting after all these years? That's destiny right there."

Sarah blushed and shyly reached her wine glass toward him.

Luke smiled and didn't pull away.

I just stood off to the side, quietly watching the two of them drink that cross-arm toast together.

And then I remembered how I'd been ready to help him out.

A bitter smile crossed my lips.

Guess I was kidding myself.

After the drink, the party really took off.

The maid of honor was Sarah's best friend from high school, and feeling bold from the alcohol, she went straight for it.

"Hey, Mr. Valedictorian, we've all been classmates for years, so be honest with us—does Sarah still stand a chance? She's waited for you all this time. Just give it to us straight. Is there still room for her in your heart?"

The other former classmates, loving the drama, jumped right in.

"Come on! Back in high school, you and Sarah were the couple everyone rooted for."

"You finally ran into each other again at a classmate's wedding. If you don't speak up now, it'll be too late."

Everyone piled on one after another, relentless in egging them on.

Sarah's face turned even redder. She practically melted into Luke's arms.

"Knock it off," she whispered.

Luke laughed and lightly scolded the group, but he didn't deny anything.

And he didn't push her away, either.

I just sat there quietly, my hands shaking as I watched it all unfold.

Then the bride suddenly turned to me, her tone openly taunting.

"Avery, what about you? Are you cool with Luke and Sarah getting together?"

Suddenly, the room went quiet.

Every pair of eyes turned to me.

Those looks—curious, mocking, hungry for a show—yanked me straight back ten years, to the day Sarah confessed to Luke.

I remembered it like it was yesterday.

It was a sunny afternoon during gym class.

In front of everyone, Sarah laid her heart out to Luke.

At the time, Luke was already my boyfriend.

Too embarrassed to turn her down directly, he shot me a helpless look.

Acting on instinct, I stepped in front of him.

"Sarah, Luke doesn't like you. Please stop putting him on the spot."

Sarah froze. Her eyes went red, and tears immediately started streaming down her face.

Luke's expression shifted too. Without a second thought, he shoved me aside and ran after her.

The people around us immediately started whispering.

"Avery's out of line, don't you think? What does who Luke likes have to do with her? She's such a busybody."

"For real. Who does she think she is? Just because she sits next to Luke, she acts like she owns him. So gross."

I stood there helplessly, trying to explain that I wasn't just his deskmate. I was Luke's girlfriend.

But just then, Luke came back to grab some tissues. He heard what I said and stopped in his tracks.

"She's joking."

He said it to the classmates around us, defining our childhood-sweetheart relationship of a year and eight months with a single sentence.

For that entire gym class, I endured the strange looks from everyone around me until I wished the floor would open up and swallow me.

That night, I hid in my room and cried by myself when Luke knocked on my door.

He apologized, saying he hadn't meant it that day. He just didn't want everyone gossiping about us, so he hadn't admitted we were together.

He also said I shouldn't have been so harsh with Sarah. She had cried for a long time afterward, and he couldn't stand seeing her like that.

In the end, he gave me a braided bracelet and made me a promise that once we graduated, he would officially tell everyone we were a couple.

Ten years later, that braided bracelet was still wrapped around my wrist.

I snapped back to the present. The bride was still defending her best friend.

"Sarah, don't try to stop me. Back in high school, Avery was always causing problems. If she hadn't gotten in the way, you and Luke would've been together ages ago. You never would've had to wait this long."

"Avery ruined your happiness. Today, I'm getting to the bottom of this. Avery, answer me—do you support Luke and Sarah being together or not?" The bride glared at me aggressively as the whole room fell silent.

Under the stares of countless eyes, I opened my mouth.

My voice came out almost at the exact same time as Luke's.

"Enough. Don't put her on the spot."

"I support them being together."

The private room went quiet for a moment.

Luke looked at me in surprise, then fell silent.

The bride frowned and studied me for a long time before letting out a dismissive laugh.

"I hope you mean that."

Someone forced an awkward chuckle, trying to smooth things over.

"All right, all right. We're all former classmates here. No need to make things so tense."

"Tina got married today, and Luke and Sarah found their way back to each other. That's two reasons to celebrate. Let's drop the unpleasant stuff and drink."

Everyone chimed in, eager to move on.

But the bride refused to let it go.

"It's not that I'm trying to bully her. Avery was the one who bullied Sarah back then. I just couldn't stand by and watch. Don't you all remember that love letter?"

It happened during our sophomore year of high school, not long after Luke gave me the bracelet.

I had been helping Luke turn in homework when a handwritten love letter slipped out from between his papers.

It was pink stationery, with Sarah's name written on it.

Without thinking, I immediately tried to hide the letter, but it was already too late.

The teacher saw it and called Sarah into the office.

Ten minutes later, Sarah came running out in tears and collapsed over her desk, sobbing.

Everyone rushed to comfort her.

Panicked, I tried to get Luke to explain for me. I really hadn't known Sarah's letter was hidden in his homework.

But he never even looked at me. Instead, he moved his desk right next to Sarah's.

That was when the isolation started.

No one spoke to me anymore. The class president always skipped over my seat when collecting homework.

During morning runs and evening study sessions, whenever I showed up, everyone would suddenly go quiet.

Throughout my entire sophomore year, I became an island in that classroom. I never understood what I had done wrong. I didn't understand why no one would listen to my side of the story.

And I especially didn't understand why, after I'd been isolated to the point of depression and called Luke in tears late one night to tell him how miserable I felt—

After listening to me cry for a long time, he finally said in that exhausted, helpless voice,

"Avery, have you ever thought that maybe you're just being too sensitive? Sarah was the one who got hurt here. Everyone else just feels bad for her. They never actually did anything to you.

"We're about to be seniors. I want to put all my energy into studying. Tomorrow, I'll ask our homeroom teacher to switch our seats. You can sit by yourself.

"But after graduation, my promise to you still stands."

I held my phone and sat there in silence for a very, very long time.

Remembering that night now, my hand holding the wine glass trembled slightly.

Then Sarah spoke.

"Tina, forget it." Leaning against Luke's chest, she smiled graciously. "I know you feel bad for me, but that was ten years ago. I've already forgiven Avery. And besides…"

She paused, glancing shyly at Luke.

"It's not like I ended up with nothing. If Avery hadn't exposed that love letter I gave Luke back then, Luke never would've personally asked the homeroom teacher to switch seats just to comfort me. He also wouldn't have given me a bracelet he braided himself."

She held up a braided bracelet around her wrist. It was identical to the one Luke had given me ten years ago.

Everyone's attention immediately locked onto Sarah's wrist.

"No way! No wonder Luke asked me for bracelet-braiding tutorials back in sophomore year. It was for Sarah."

"You have to admit, his handiwork is pretty good."

"Just what you'd expect from the couple our whole class thought were meant to be. This is so sweet."

Listening to their words, I only felt my wrist burning.

A sudden wave of anger, resentment, and bitterness I could no longer hide crashed over me all at once. I looked at Luke. He had his head down, absently scrolling through his phone as if all the chaos around him had nothing to do with him.

My eyes started to sting. Just as I was about to speak, suddenly, someone grabbed my hand and thrust it high into the air.

"Hey, look! Doesn't the bracelet on Avery's wrist look exactly like Sarah's?"

On the sofa, Luke's body went rigid for a split second.

"No way. Luke hand-braided Sarah's. There's only one like it in the world."

"Avery must've been jealous and copied it herself."

"That's a little much, don't you think? This is seriously embarrassing."

"Why don't we just ask Luke? He'd definitely know."

"Luke, what do you say?"

As if by unspoken agreement, everyone turned to look at Luke.

Sarah's eyes went red, like she was about to burst into tears the second she heard an answer she didn't like.

Luke looked up. His gaze flicked past me, then quickly pulled back as if he'd been pricked by needles.

"I never gave Avery a bracelet."

He said it calmly.

"I don't know where she got it either. Maybe she just liked the way it looked."

After speaking, he curved his lips into the faintest forced smile.

"It's just a bracelet. Don't bully Avery over it. We're all old classmates."

Satisfied, Sarah leaned into him, carrying herself with the confidence of a winner.

"Exactly. Avery's actually pretty pitiful. She's had a crush on Luke all these years and never got anywhere with it, so she secretly found a matching bracelet for herself. Honestly, when you think about it, it's kind of sad.

"Do me a favor and let's just drop it, okay?"

Everyone laughed again.

"Alright, alright. We'll listen to Sarah."

"After all these years, she's still so sweet."

"No more talking about it. Let's not bring it up again."

"Avery, you should let it go too."

The class sports coordinator smiled and tried to comfort me.

I pressed my lips together, forcing back the tears that were about to spill over, and nodded hard.

"Yeah. I should let it go."

I didn't stay much longer. I made an excuse and went home.

On the way back, Luke called me twice. I didn't pick up.

Then he sent me a text.

Luke: [What happened tonight was just a fluke. Everyone was there—I couldn't embarrass Sarah in front of all those people.]

Luke: [I'll explain everything when I get home.]

I didn't know what exactly he planned to explain.

The cross-arm toast? The bracelet? Or the ten years of letting everyone believe I was delusional, stuck in a one-sided crush?

All I knew was that once he walked through the door, he'd act exactly the same as always. Say a few nice things, smooth it over, and keep me playing the fool.

But ten years had passed. Even the dumbest person has to wake up eventually.

I pulled out my phone. The wallpaper was still the photo Luke and I had taken back when we first got together.

The background was our high school academic building. In the sunlight, I was looking at him. He wasn't looking at me.

My fingers brushed over that young face before I tapped the screen and deleted the photo.

Then I opened the drawer, took out a pair of scissors, and cut apart the braided bracelet I had treasured for ten years.

This should've ended a long time ago.

Smiling through my tears, I wiped my eyes dry and asked a coworker for the contact info of a divorce lawyer.

By the time Luke got home, I was packing my suitcase.

Seeing the open luggage spread across the floor, he paused for a moment.

"Going somewhere?"

He took off his jacket and tossed it onto the couch, walking toward me as if nothing had happened.

"I'm busy this week. I can go with you next month instead. Put the suitcase away for now."

I didn't even look up.

"That doesn't have anything to do with you. I'm going alone."

The smile on Luke's face faded.

"What's wrong? Why are you so upset?"

He crouched next to me and put his hand over mine, probing beneath his smile.

"Is this because I didn't take your side tonight? You saw how it was. Everyone was just having fun. I couldn't kill the mood.

"Besides, we're already married. Don't overthink it. I brought you something."

He pulled a small jewelry box from his pocket and opened it eagerly.

"I saw it while driving Sarah home. A diamond bracelet—the most expensive one in the store. Let me put it on you—"

"No thanks."

I cut him off.

He froze for a second, genuine confusion flashing in his eyes for what felt like the first time.

I looked at him, and the words leaving my mouth suddenly felt incredibly easy.

"Luke, let's get a div—"

Before I could finish, Luke suddenly grabbed my wrist tightly.

"Avery Anderson! Where's the bracelet? Where's the bracelet I gave you?!"