After My Four Childhood Friends Tricked Me, I Went North Alone

When our SAT scores came out, my four childhood friends came over to my house for drinks. Halfway through the night, someone suggested a game of truth or dare. When it was my turn, my stepsister, Selena, dared everyone to show which colleges they planned to apply to. The four of them opened their laptops. Each screen showed an application preview for the University of Alaska. Liam, the childhood friend I'd had a crush on for years, sent me a draft application with my information already filled in and pointed to my SAT score: 1580. "We said we'd be together forever. "You haven't applied early decision to an Ivy yet anyway. So how about it? Do you dare go to the same college as us?" So, in front of everyone, I added the University of Alaska to my application. Amid the whistling, Liam leaned down and kissed me deeply, his answer to my confession. The day my acceptance letter arrived, I took a bag of freshly baked muffins to Liam's house. But from inside, I could hear several of them talking about me with contempt. "Is Catherine really going?" "Of course. I watched her submit the application myself!" "Thanks to Selena, a few fake application pages were enough to get rid of that annoying tagalong." "Come on. If you ask me, Liam has it worst." "Relax, man. This little dating game will be over soon. School starts any day now." I froze, clutching the paper bag. Then the door opened. My four childhood friends came out, with Selena in the middle of them. The moment they saw me, their smiles vanished. 1 Liam was the first to react. "Catherine, when did you get here?" I took a quiet step back and looked at them. "Is it true? What you just said?" Ethan looked away guiltily, Noah pushed up his glasses, and Owen stared at the floor. "Catherine, since you heard everything, we'll stop pretending. "Selena's always been delicate. She could never handle Alaska's freezing weather. "But you're different. We've all known how independent you are since we were kids. You'll be fine on your own." Before Liam could finish defending her, Selena grabbed his sleeve, her eyes red. I looked at them coldly. "So which one of you made those fake preview pages?" Liam stepped forward. "I did." "Fine. Then whose idea was this game?" Standing in the middle of the group, Selena lowered her head and avoided my eyes. "That's enough!" Ethan stepped in front of Selena and frowned at me. "We came up with the idea together. Don't pick on Selena." I turned to Liam. "That night, when you said you'd be with me, was that part of the plan too?" Liam swallowed hard. "You said your parents divorced because of a long-distance relationship, so you'd never date anyone long-distance. "If I hadn't said yes that night, you wouldn't have submitted the application." I couldn't see a shred of guilt in Liam's eyes. My chest went so tight I could barely breathe. "You'd go this far just to get rid of me?" Noah pushed up his glasses and frowned at me. "Catherine, do you have to be so harsh?" Then Selena suddenly reached for the laptop on the table. "Catherine, this is all my fault. "I'll change my application right now. I'll go to Alaska, and you can stay—" Before she could finish, the four of them rushed to stop her. Owen snatched the laptop right out of her hands. "The acceptance letter's already here. It's all settled." "But what about Catherine?" Selena's shoulders shook as she cried, looking as fragile as ever. "It's all my fault. Now she has to go all the way up north for school by herself." Liam pulled out a handkerchief and gently wiped the tears from Selena's eyes. "Alaska gets brutal blizzards. You could never handle weather like that, silly. Don't do anything reckless just because you feel guilty." I stood a few steps away, knowing full well that an acceptance letter wasn't some form you could just swap out. Selena was only putting on a show, and my childhood friends were all happy to play along. Only then did I understand. It wasn't that the University of Alaska was a bad school, or the wrong fit for Selena. They just couldn't bear the thought of Selena suffering so far north. But they hadn't hesitated for a second to ship me off. Noah looked at me. "Catherine, I admit we took the joke a little too far. "But don't you like studying geology anyway?" I gave a bitter laugh. "Wanting to study geology and being tricked into going are two different things." Ethan's face darkened. "Oh, come on, Catherine. You were already interested in the Alaska program. We just gave you a push." "Gave me a push?" I repeated Ethan's words. It was beyond absurd. It was true. I'd always longed to join that program. Polar research was a dream I'd kept buried for years. But I couldn't bear to leave the four people I'd grown up with. I'd turned down the institute's early admission twice. I'd even planned to give up the major I wanted and apply to an Ivy League school near Boston with them. But there was no point in saying any of that now. I turned and walked out. Behind me, Liam reached out on instinct to stop me. "Where are you going?" "Home." Liam frowned. "Stop it. We haven't finished talking. "If you just walk off like this, how do you think that makes me feel?" I looked Liam in the eye and spelled it out. "Liam, what are we to each other? Why should I care how you feel?" "Catherine, don't throw a tantrum," Liam said coldly. "I admit I agreed to date you that night so you'd submit the application, but that wasn't my only reason. "Before school starts, I'll spend as much time with you as I can. And when I don't have classes, I'll fly out to see you. "I'll give you all the time I can. Isn't that enough?" So lying to me for Selena's sake and dropping by now and then was his idea of treating me well. Selena spoke softly beside him, trying to calm me down. "Catherine, Liam still cares about you. "The night you filled out the application, you drank too much, and Liam was the one who took care of you." I almost laughed out loud. I took off the necklace Liam and the others had given me and set it on the entryway table. I turned to Selena, my voice calm. "Haven't you always wanted this? "Oh, and you can have them too." Selena went pale and waved her hands frantically. "Catherine, that's not what I meant..." Liam cut in. "Catherine, are you done yet? "Didn't you always say the five of us would be together forever? "So what's this supposed to mean?" I walked toward the door. "That was before. I don't want that anymore." My phone was still buzzing in my pocket. It was an email from my advisor at the Polar Research Institute. "The pickup vehicle will arrive in town in two days. Please confirm whether you'll join the team early. "Please note that once the program's confidentiality agreement takes effect, all personal communication devices will be temporarily held in secure storage, and you won't be able to contact anyone outside the program." I sent my confirmation without a second thought. They must have thought I'd do what I always did after a fight: cry for a few days, then come back with my head down. But this time, I didn't want them anymore. 2 The day before I left for the institute, I decided to return everything that belonged to them, one thing at a time. The first stop was the school football field. When we were 12, Ethan won his first medal in a school game. He shoved it into my hands and asked me to keep it for him. He swore that someday he'd give me a gold one. When I reached the sidelines, clutching the bronze medal, Ethan was crouched on the grass, putting together a storage rack for Selena, surrounded by a pile of bins. "This is too high. It's hard for me to reach things." Without a hint of impatience, Ethan took the nearly finished rack apart on the spot. When he saw me, he frowned, as if something had just occurred to him. "What are you doing here?" I held it out to him. "The medal you left with me. I'm giving it back." Ethan paused, then took the medal and tossed it into a box of junk beside him. "Didn't we say you'd keep it? Why are you bringing it back all of a sudden?" "No reason. I'm just getting rid of things that don't matter." Ethan didn't catch what I meant. He wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Perfect timing. Give me a hand. This rack's kind of hard to put together by myself." I didn't say a word. I just stood there. Selena smiled and waved it off. "It's okay, Ethan. Catherine's leaving for Alaska soon. She must be busy packing." Ethan scoffed and went back to tightening screws. "College has everything. What could she possibly need to pack?" I ignored Ethan, turned, and walked off the field. The second stop was the physics lab. I'd kept Noah's award-winning competition models at my house for years. When I set the cardboard box next to his lab bench, Noah didn't even look up. "Catherine, good timing. Leave your camera here. "Selena said the other day that she wants to make a short video looking back on her childhood for the freshman photography exhibit. The photos and videos on your camera would be perfect." "But this is my camera." Noah looked up and frowned. "It's just for a few days. It's not like I'm going to break it." Then he beckoned gently toward the door. "Selena, come in." Selena jogged in, her eyes lighting up as they swept over the camera. "Catherine, I'll just pick a few photos of everyone from when we were little. I won't mess with your stuff." "But those are my childhood photos with Noah and the others." Selena froze, unsure what to say. Noah's face immediately darkened, and he stepped in front of her. "Catherine, why are you being so petty? Selena just wants to feel like one of us." Then Owen appeared out of nowhere and blocked my way. He took the camera from Noah, pulled out the memory card, and tossed it to me. "You're the best editor among us. Before school starts, help Selena put together a documentary for her 18th birthday. "She doesn't have enough old footage, so use ours. Just cut out every part with you in it and add a few photos of her." I looked down at the memory card in my hand. It held our first beach camping trip, our first time watching the sunrise from a mountaintop, and every birthday they'd ever spent with me. Now they were cutting me out of those memories without a second thought, just so Selena could take my place. "Okay." I agreed so easily that Owen looked surprised. "That's it? You're actually saying yes this time?" "You know how I am. I'll get over it after a couple of days." He scratched his nose. Something felt off, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "Good. As long as you get it." Not one of them asked when I was actually leaving for Alaska. That evening, Liam came to find me. I didn't want to go, but he practically dragged me to our usual diner. The whole time, he kept looking down to answer messages on his phone. Selena said the light from her desk lamp was too harsh, so he immediately contacted the seller to get it replaced. Selena was worried she wouldn't get into the photography club, so he called to reassure her right away. The burger in front of me had gone cold, but he didn't notice at all. "Liam." "Hmm?" Liam didn't look up. His fingers kept flying across the screen. "Do you remember what I'm doing tomorrow?" Liam paused before he answered. "Making apple pie?" "Something like that." Liam looked relieved and pushed a glass of juice toward me. "Come on, cheer up. "I promise, once things calm down after school starts, I'll fly out to see you. I mean it." When we said goodbye, Liam leaned down and kissed my forehead. I didn't call him out on his lie. When I got home, I plugged the memory card into my computer and permanently deleted every photo and video that included me. Then I put the memory card in a shipping box and wrote Liam's address on it. This was my last gift to them: a past with every trace of me erased. 3 The next day was senior check-out day. I'd just left the records office when two girls blocked my path. The one in front was Laura, Selena's little sidekick. "You won't even let Selena borrow a crummy camera. So petty." Laura shot a look at the girl behind her, who reached out and yanked at the camera on my shoulder. I grabbed the girl's hand and shoved her back. "Who said you could touch my stuff?" The girl clutched her wrist and gave Laura a wounded look. Laura glared at her, then raised her voice on purpose. "Who touched your stuff? Her hand slipped, that's all. "You only act so cocky at school because you have four childhood friends backing you up, right? "Now they're all focused on Selena. Let's see who still cares about a tagalong like you!" I looked up, my eyes landing on the group at the end of the hallway. Ethan was carrying Selena's backpack, Noah was helping her with the records paperwork, and Owen was holding her favorite hot chocolate. Liam stood in front of her like a knight guarding a princess. He heard the commotion, but only frowned and looked away. Once, someone had claimed I'd only gotten into the geology club because I knew the four of them. After class that same day, Liam had dragged that person to our classroom door and made them apologize to me in front of everyone. Now Selena's sidekick had cornered me right in front of him, and he turned away as if he hadn't seen a thing. Then Selena hurried over and tugged on Laura's sleeve. "Stop. Catherine's probably just upset because she's leaving for Alaska." "So she gets to take it out on you? Selena, you're too nice." Selena lowered her head, tears welling in her eyes. Liam finally came over, but the first thing he did was pull Selena behind him. "Catherine, if you've got a problem, take it out on me. Why pick on your sister?" I gave a small smile and looked at the scratch on my camera lens. "Pick on her? Liam, please get your facts straight. "Selena's friend has a problem with me, so she had someone try to grab my camera. "What, she's allowed to bully me, but I'm not allowed to fight back?" The moment I finished, Laura lunged forward to shove me. I stepped back on instinct, and my elbow knocked into the cleaning bucket by the wall. It was half full of dirty water, and all of it sloshed right onto Laura's limited-edition canvas sneakers. I looked at her pale face and kept my voice flat. "Sorry, my hand slipped too." People around us gasped. Liam's face darkened as he looked at me. "Catherine! Stop making a scene!" "A scene?" I turned to Liam. "When Laura and her friend try to take my camera, it's an accident. But when I knock over a bucket dodging her, I'm making a scene?" Liam seemed stunned. I'd always been so gentle and easygoing, and he'd never heard me speak this sharply. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. I turned away, clutched my records, and walked out of the school building. Half an hour later, I'd just finished packing when someone began pounding on my door. When I unlocked the door and opened it, Liam and the other three stood outside my bedroom, clustered around Selena. Ethan looked at me. "Selena was worried you were upset, so she asked us to come check on you." Then he spotted the suitcase in the corner. He froze at the sight of the neatly folded polar gear. "Do you have to make everyone miserable? Are you packing this stuff now just to upset us?" Noah pushed up his glasses, his voice cold. "Catherine, didn't we already apologize to you last time?" Owen scoffed. "School in Alaska doesn't start until September. Are you planning to ignore us until then?" They were all convinced I was still just mad. But none of them noticed anything was different this time. Liam walked over to my desk. His gaze had just fallen on the agreement to join the research team at the top of the stack when Selena let out a soft gasp. "What's this?" Everyone followed her gaze to my computer screen. A folder was open, showing the backup videos I hadn't had time to delete. Selena gave me a pleading look. "Catherine, can I borrow these for my video?" I walked over and snapped the laptop shut. "No." Selena lowered her head, her eyes red. Standing beside her, Liam gave me a dark look. "Catherine, don't push it. "They're just a few videos. We can cut out every part with you in it." "Liam, don't touch my computer." He acted like he didn't hear me, flipped the laptop open, and selected every video with my name on it. I reached out to stop him, but Owen grabbed my wrist. "Over a few videos? Do you really have to be this petty?" The next second, Liam hit delete. The progress bar raced across the screen, and 12 years of footage went straight into the trash. "There. Problem solved. "The rest of the videos are of all of us, and we're letting Selena use them." I was annoyed that he'd messed with my things, but I felt no sadness or regret. I gave a wry smile. Liam probably thought I'd cry and scream and beg him to restore them. He had no idea he'd come to regret that decision more than any other. The phone in my pocket suddenly buzzed. It was a notice from the Polar Research Institute. "Catherine, the pickup vehicle will arrive in town in two hours. "Once you board, the confidentiality protocol begins. Please hand all personal devices to the team advisor for secure storage." 4 As evening fell, the institute's pickup vehicle was already waiting at the crossroads on the edge of town. When they saw me dragging my suitcase, my friends from the geology club came right over. My best friend, Lola, quickly took the heavy case off my hands. Megan, the club president, hugged me, her eyes red. "Catherine, are you really joining the team now? I heard that once you're in, you can't contact anyone for a long time." I gently hugged Megan back. "A chance like this doesn't come around often. I've already confirmed that I'm going." Judy, an underclassman, looked toward my house and hesitated. "What about Liam and the others..." I gave her a small smile. "It's all over." Then my advisor stepped out of the vehicle and loaded my luggage into the back. "Catherine, I need to remind you of something. "The confidentiality protocol starts as soon as you get in. Is there anyone you still want to contact?" At the same moment, a notification popped up on my phone. At some point, the group chat I'd shared with Liam and the others had been renamed the Ivy League Five. Selena's latest message was a photo of several people from behind. The four guys were cooking in Liam's kitchen. Then Selena posted the photo on Instagram with a caption. "It's just the five of us from now on. Hope everything goes well for Catherine in Alaska." Ethan was the first to comment. "Good luck with your research up north, Catherine." Owen followed with a string of laughing emojis. I left the group chat I'd been in for years. Then I deleted Ethan, Noah, and Owen from my contacts, one by one. Finally, I came to my chat with Liam. Just then, Liam texted me, as bossy as ever. "Come over tonight. We're throwing Selena a celebration party. And remember to bring your camera so you can take a group photo for us." He still thought I'd do as I was told and show up. But this time, I didn't reply. I just deleted him. My advisor checked his watch and handed me a sealable bag. "It's about time. Catherine, please turn off your phone and put it in the bag." I nodded and pressed the power button. From then on, I had nothing to do with any of them. I climbed into a seat at the back, and the black bus slowly pulled away from the curb. Outside the window, Megan, Judy, and Lola stood waving at me. With tears in my eyes, I nodded to them. Something in my pocket was still digging into me. It was the necklace Liam and the others had given me. I'd left it on the entryway table that night, but Selena hadn't dared to take it. Somehow, it had ended up back in my pocket. As the bus crossed the bridge, I opened my palm and looked at the necklace engraved with all five of our initials. Then I quietly slid the window open and threw it as hard as I could. The necklace splashed into the icy river and disappeared in an instant. The bond I'd shared with Liam and the others for all those years was gone too. There was no going back.