Spoiled by Comments: I Trap My Cheating Ex

The night I get my SAT scores, comments suddenly start floating across my vision. "Liam Zimmerman really is a jerk! He uses the heroine Aster Sullivan's phone to check her scores. Did he memorize her password?" "While Aster, the idiot, gets him a glass of water, that jerk changes her college choice from a top school in the country to a local college!" "Summer, that pretentious snake, only makes it into the same local college, right? Liam wants to go there with her and have Aster act as his stand-in whenever he needs her!" I freeze. So in Liam's heart, I'm only good enough to be Summer Skye's replacement. Liam's message pops up on my phone. "I'll look over your college choices tonight." I reply, "Sure. I'll wait for you." He replies right away, "Good. Wait for me." My fingers tap across the keyboard as I change my password, turn on screen recording, and adjust the camera. The comments flashing across my vision suddenly light up. "Warning! Liam is on his way! He even swears to Summer that if he can't tamper with Aster's college choices tonight, he'll do whatever Summer wants!" My smile deepens. The trap is already set. All I have to do is wait for him to walk into it. Chapter 1 It was dark outside, so I turned on the living room lights to a warm yellow. It was exactly the same lighting I always used when Liam Zimmerman came over. I flipped through the old college admissions guide an upperclassman had given me the year before. The edges were worn from how many times I had gone through it. However, I hadn't taken in a single word. All my attention was on the comments drifting across my vision. "Damn! I just caught Liam coming out of Summer Skye's place. He was carrying her favorite strawberry cream frappuccino. He'd just taken it up to her!" "I'm so sick of seeing that flash drive in his pocket. Summer gave it to him last week as part of a matching set for couples." "There's a little sun printed on the case to match Summer's online username. It's so disgusting!" I pinched the corner of the page without meaning to, but it still crinkled under my fingers. I remembered our junior year, when he was preparing for a computer science competition. I had saved my breakfast money for two months and had someone bring me a limited-edition flash drive from overseas with his initials engraved on it. When I gave it to him, my palms were covered in sweat from nerves. He had smiled and ruffled my hair, saying, "Aster, you're so thoughtful." Less than two weeks later, he told me he had lost it and couldn't find it anywhere. He hadn't lost it. He simply hadn't cared about it and had switched to the matching one Summer, his first love, gave him. Now he wanted to use that flash drive to take away the future I had spent three years working toward. I pulled the softcover notebook from the back of my desk drawer. It was the notebook I had used during my sophomore year. The first half of it was filled with problems I had gotten wrong. The second half was filled with pages of "Liam Zimmerman" written in secret. Liam had come across it the last time he came over to borrow my notes. He smiled then and gently stroked my cheek. He hadn't given me a yes or no. He'd just said, "Oh, you." Back then, I had thought he was quietly admitting that he felt the same way. Now I opened the notebook to the page covered in his name and set it beside my scratch paper. It was so obvious there was no way he could miss it. After some thought, I took out my phone and snapped a picture of my desk with the scratch paper and notebook spread across it. I captioned it, "I'm going crazy trying to figure out where to apply. Good thing I have someone to help me choose." I set it so only Liam could see it and hit the post button. Before long, Liam liked the post and sent me a GIF of someone patting another person on the head. "Oh my God! That jerk is checking his social media feed in a cab. He's practically grinning from ear to ear." "He even messaged Summer, 'See? What did I tell you? She can't get by without me.'" "Warning! He'll be downstairs at Aster's place in two minutes! Liam checked his pocket three times to make sure the flash drive was still there!" I got up and headed to the front door. I stopped in front of it, and the doorbell rang. I opened the door. Liam was standing outside, a bead of sweat still clinging to his forehead. Chapter 2 Liam held up a brand-new official college admissions guide and smiled warmly. "Aster, have you been waiting long?" He smelled faintly of the peach perfume Summer always wore. It was a little too sweet. The perfume mixed with the citrus scent of his usual laundry detergent, and the smell of it made my stomach turn. I pretended not to notice and stepped aside to let him in. I took the guide from him. "No. I was just looking through last year's guide, and there was so much I didn't understand. It's a good thing you came." As he changed his shoes, he glanced toward my desk and spotted the notebook covered in his name. Liam's smile deepened. He walked over and casually ruffled my hair. "I knew you'd have trouble with this. That's why I came to help." I handed him a cold drink. When he took it, his fingers brushed mine. His skin felt a little warmer than usual. I quietly pulled my hand back and sat in the chair beside him as he looked over my list of colleges. "Harvorton University, the top school in the country?" He tapped the list I had written. His voice gave nothing away. "Aster, that's too far from home. What are you going to do all the way out there by yourself?" I deliberately lowered my head and twisted the hem of my shirt between my fingers, pretending to struggle with the decision. "But my scores are good enough, and Ms. Bale said I'd have a great shot at Harvorton University. I've been thinking about it for a long time," I said. "Why push yourself so hard? You don't have to." He pushed the list aside, sounding as if he really had my best interests in mind. "Creston University, the local college here, is pretty good too. I applied there. "I can be with you every day, and we can come home for dinner on weekends. Isn't that better than you being all alone so far from home?" I looked up at him. "You really applied there?" He nodded without even thinking. "Of course. Would I lie to you? If you went that far away, I'd worry about you." "That idiot Aster fell for it again! The jerk applied to the computer science program at Creston University. He'll be in the same program as Summer!" "Oh my God! I just found backup messages in his cloud storage. Summer said she didn't have enough money to spend, so she told Liam to sweet-talk Aster into using her scholarship money to buy her a bag!" Rows of comments highlighted in red flashed before my eyes until they started to sting. I clenched my fingers around my pant leg, my nails digging painfully into my palm. But I still put on a shy smile. "Liam, you're so kind to me." He was about to say something when his phone on the desk buzzed. The screen lit up with a message from Summer. "How's it going? Did you get it?" He quickly turned his phone face down and casually explained, "It's just some spam. Don't worry about it." I pretended not to see it, so I nodded and got up to head for the kitchen. "Oh, right. I boiled some water. You just came in from outside, so have something warm to drink instead." I walked slowly on purpose. From the corner of my eye, I saw him sitting stiffly in the chair. Liam didn't relax until I was in the kitchen and out of sight of the desk. I leaned against the kitchen doorframe and waited for the sounds from outside. "He took out the flash drive! Damn, it really is the matching one with the little sun on it." "He's entering the password. Oh my God! He actually got in!" I heard a click from outside. It was the sound of the computer locking him out. Then came Liam's panicked mutter. "What the hell? What's going on?" I picked up the hot water I had just poured and headed for the desk. The show was about to begin. By the time I reached the desk with the hot water, Liam was frantically hitting the keyboard. A lockout message was flashing right in the middle of the computer screen. Chapter 3 Liam's hands were shaking so badly that he couldn't pull out the flash drive, even after three tries. Sweat ran down from his temples and dripped onto the college admissions guide spread out before him, leaving small wet spots on the page. When he saw me coming, he quickly clenched the flash drive in his hand. Liam hurriedly shut off the screen and forced a smile. "Everything is fine. Your computer is just a little slow. I was just checking out the colleges you chose, then the system crashed." I said nothing. I set the glass beside him and turned the screen back on. A red lockout message covered most of the screen. The small print underneath clearly said, "Unrecognized device detected. Your account has been locked for your protection." "A recording of this login attempt has been sent to the email address on file and your guidance counselor. To unlock your account, contact your counselor for assistance." I looked up at him, keeping my voice calm. "How did it detect an unrecognized device? It was working fine when I logged in earlier. Did you try to access my account?" His eyes darted away. The veins on the back of his hand stood out as he gripped the flash drive. Liam stubbornly denied it. "I didn't touch your account. I was just looking up Creston University's program options for you. Who knew your system was this sensitive? It probably just flagged me by mistake." "Oh? You needed a flash drive to look up a college's program?" I held out my hand to him with the palm up. "What are you holding? Let me see." His face went pale in an instant, and he hid the flash drive behind his back without thinking. "It's nothing. It's just a flash drive I use for my own files and has nothing to do with you." I stared at the hand behind him and suddenly smiled. "That's the matching flash drive Summer gave you last week, isn't it? The one with the little sun on the case that matches her username?" Liam tried to speak, but no words came out. The comments were exploding across my vision so fast that I could barely see anything else. "Holy shit! He's still trying to hide it. He was lightning-fast when he entered the password earlier." "The recording was already sent to Aster's counselor. I just saw the security alert. The account is flagged, and the college he tried to switch her to is still on the activity log!" "Aster's guidance counselor just messaged her, asking if someone tried to access her account. He already forwarded the recording to the school administration and said they're going to investigate." Liam suddenly stepped forward and reached for my arm. I stepped aside, leaving his hand hanging in the air. "Aster, I know I should've told you first," he said. "You must be angry, but I really did it for your own good. The capital is more than 600 miles from home, and you've never even left our state. "You hate the cold in winter and the heat in summer. You can't even change a lightbulb. If something goes wrong, who's going to help you? "Wouldn't it be better to stay here? I applied to Creston University too. We could go to class together every day and come home on weekends for your mom's cooking. "I already told my mom. We'll get engaged in our sophomore year and get married after graduation. I've already planned everything." He sounded so sincere that his eyes even grew red-rimmed. If this had been before, I would have fallen for it and nodded along without a second thought. "Is that so? What program did you apply there?" I folded my arms and looked at him. "Didn't you say last time that you were going to apply to a business program with me?" Liam froze for a moment, then quickly answered, "I changed it to computer science at the last minute. There are more jobs in that field, and I'll spend all the money I make on you. I can even fix your computer for you. How great is that?" I laughed and opened the picture my cousin had just sent me. Then I held it up in front of him. Chapter 4 That was Liam's application record. He had clearly listed computer science as his major. It matched the screenshot Summer had posted three days ago, down to the last digit of her major code. "Is this a coincidence?" I tilted my head and looked at him. "Or did you really change your major for me?" Liam scrambled for an excuse. "Aster, listen to me. Summer and I just happened to pick the same major. There's really nothing between us. "You're the only one I care about. I changed your application because I was worried about you struggling so far from home. I can't live without you!" The second he finished speaking, a notification popped up on my phone. I opened it right in front of him. It was a screenshot of the live messages between him and Summer that the comments in my vision had just shown me. Summer had sent these ten minutes ago. "Come back soon! I ordered those spicy wings you love." "Once you finish changing Aster's application, we can celebrate." "I already told Mom. Once school starts, we're getting our place and having Aster come over to cook for us. She's such a good cook. We might as well take advantage of that." Liam's reply was right below hers. He had sent it the same minute I went into the kitchen to get water. "I'm almost done. She's so dumb that she hasn't suspected a thing. I'll come back and eat with you once I'm finished." I shoved my phone in front of him and watched the color drain from his face. He couldn't even keep up the act of looking sincere anymore. "For my own good?" My voice was soft, but he heard every word. "You wanted me to stay here so I could be your and Summer's free maid. "You want me to bring you food, copy your notes, and hand over my scholarship money so you can buy her designer bags. Is that it? "You're worried about me struggling away from home? I've been at the top of my class multiple times in three years, and I've earned over 10,000 dollars in scholarship money. "When you said you wanted a new gaming laptop, I sent you 5,000 dollars without a second thought. But you turned around and used that money on a designer bag for Summer. Did you think I was blind?" "You said you remembered that I loved cold soda, but on my birthday, you brought me a mango smoothie. I'm allergic to mango. How could you not know that? "And then you brought Summer her favorite strawberry cream frappuccino, even remembering that she liked extra whipped cream. "That's your idea of caring about me? You only cared about whether I, Summer's stand-in, would be obedient." I kept going, one accusation after another. Liam finally panicked. His legs gave out, and he fell to the floor with a thud. He reached for the hem of my shirt, but I kicked him away. "Aster, I'm sorry. I really am!" He was crying so hard that he was a complete mess, looking nothing like the popular heartthrob everyone at school admired. "I lost my head and listened to Summer. She threatened to leave me if I didn't make you stay. I wasn't thinking and made a stupid mistake! "Please delete the recording. If the school finds out, I'll get suspended, and my future will be ruined. I swear I'll never do it again!" I took a step back in disgust. Just as I was about to speak, the doorbell suddenly rang. Summer's sweet voice came through the front door. "Liam, are you done yet? I brought your drink. I also picked up our matching school jackets. Let's take a picture and post it so everyone knows we're together." Liam was so shocked that he stopped crying. He just sat there, frozen. Seeing the terror in his face only made me smile wider. I turned toward the front door. "Don't worry. I'll let your precious first love in. The three of us can settle everything today."