Crew's POV
My phone won't stop buzzing.
I crack one eye open. Sunlight stabs through my bedroom window like a knife. My head pounds. My mouth tastes like old pizza and regret.
Prom was last night. I remember dancing with Autumn. I remember her smile—that real, genuine smile she only shows when she thinks no one important is watching. I remember her laughing at something I said.
Then I remember nothing.
My phone buzzes again. I grab it, squinting at the screen.
Madison: Did she say anything???
Madison: CREW ANSWER ME
Madison: This is important
Madison: If she knows we need to do damage control
I stare at the messages, my brain moving like sludge. If she knows what?
I scroll up through our conversation from last night. There's a gap. Hours missing. The last thing I remember clearly is around ten PM.
Jake: Dude where did Autumn go
Jake: She literally vanished
Me: Looking for her
Me: Can't find her anywhere
Me: She's not answering
My stomach twists. I sit up too fast and my head spins.
Where did Autumn go? Why did she leave without telling me?
I call her. Straight to voicemail.
"Hey, it's Autumn. Leave a message or don't." Beep.
"Autumn, it's me. Where did you go last night? Are you okay? I'm worried. Call me back."
I hang up and immediately dial again. Voicemail again.
My phone rings—Madison calling.
"Finally!" she snaps. "Did Autumn say anything to you? Did she seem upset?"
"She disappeared," I tell her, rubbing my temples. "I don't know where she went. What's going on, Madison? Why do you keep asking if she knows something?"
Silence on the other end. Too long.
"Madison?"
"It's nothing," she says quickly. "I just saw her leave looking upset and wanted to make sure you didn't say something stupid to scare her off."
"I didn't say anything. We were having a good time, and then she was just... gone."
"Well, she's dramatic," Madison says dismissively. "Probably got overwhelmed being around actual popular people. You know how scholarship kids are."
Something about the way she says it makes my skin crawl. "Don't talk about her like that."
"Oh, please. Since when do you care? It was just a bet, Crew. You won, you got paid, move on."
The bet.
Oh god. The bet.
Memories slam into me like a truck. The coat room. Madison handing me cash. Laughing about how easy it was. Sarah and Jake making jokes.
"She was so desperate for attention."
Did I say that? My own voice echoes in my hungover brain, and I feel sick.
"Easiest money I ever made."
No. No, I couldn't have said that. I wouldn't—
But I did. I remember now. The alcohol made everything funny. Made me brave enough to brag. Made me forget that Autumn was real, with real feelings.
"Crew? You still there?"
"I have to go." I hang up on Madison.
My hands shake as I pull up my messages with Autumn. I read through them—weeks of conversations. Her thoughts on books. Her theories about characters. Her jokes that actually made me laugh.
When did it stop being a bet?
I started talking to her because Madison dared me to. Fifty bucks says you can't get the hoodie girl to fall for you by prom. Easy money, I thought. What's the harm?
But then Autumn was... different. She didn't giggle at everything I said like other girls. She challenged my opinions. She saw through my perfect-student act and called me out when I was being fake.
"You don't have to perform for me," she told me once during a study session. "I like you better when you're just being yourself."
No one had ever said that to me before.
Somewhere along the way, the bet stopped mattering. I kept meeting her for coffee because I wanted to, not because I had to. I asked her to prom because the idea of going with anyone else felt wrong.
But I never told Madison the bet was off. I never gave back the money. And last night, drunk and stupid, I bragged about manipulating her.
If Autumn heard that...
My stomach drops to my feet.
I call her again. Voicemail.
I text: Please talk to me. Something's wrong and I want to help.
The message shows as delivered. Not read.
By Monday morning, Autumn still hasn't responded to any of my messages.
I get to school early, waiting by her locker. When she finally appears, I almost don't recognize her.
She's buried inside the biggest hoodie I've ever seen. Her glasses cover half her face. Her shoulders curve inward like she's trying to disappear into herself.
This isn't the girl who wore a cream dress on Saturday. This isn't the girl who laughed in my arms while we danced.
This is the girl from three months ago. The invisible one. The one who hid from everyone.
What happened?
"Autumn!" I call out.
She freezes. For a second, I think she'll turn around. Instead, she walks faster, practically running down the hallway.
I chase after her. Students stare. I don't care.
"Autumn, wait! Please!"
I catch her arm and she spins around. The look on her face stops me cold.
Her eyes are red and swollen. She looks like she's been crying for days. But worse than the sadness is the emptiness. She looks at me like I'm a stranger. Like I'm nothing.
"Let go of me," she says quietly.
"Not until you tell me what's wrong. Did someone say something to you? Did Madison—"
"I said let go."
Her voice is ice. I drop her arm.
We stand in the crowded hallway, everyone watching, and I realize I have no idea what to say. How to fix this. What broke in the first place.
"Talk to me," I try again. "Please. Whatever happened, we can fix it."
She stares at me for a long moment. Then she says the words that punch a hole through my chest:
"There's nothing to fix. We're done. Leave me alone."
She walks away. I stand there, frozen, while Madison's laugh echoes from somewhere behind me.
The rest of the day is torture. I can't focus in class. I can't eat lunch. All I can think about is Autumn's face. The way she looked at me like I was her enemy.
After school, I find Riley in the parking lot.
"Riley! Wait!"
She turns, and the fury on her face makes me take a step back.
"You have some nerve," she says coldly.
"What did I do? Please, just tell me what happened. Autumn won't talk to me and—"
"You really don't know?" Riley laughs, but it's not a happy sound. "You're either a really good actor or the most oblivious person on the planet."
"I don't understand—"
"She heard you, Crew." Riley steps closer, her voice dropping to a deadly whisper. "Saturday night. In the coat room. She heard every word. About the bet. About how easy she was to manipulate. About how desperate she was for attention. She heard you laugh about breaking her heart for two hundred dollars."
The ground disappears beneath my feet.
"No," I whisper. "No, she couldn't have—"
"She did. And you know what the worst part is? She actually thought you liked her. She actually believed someone could see past the hoodie and the glasses and want her for who she is." Riley's eyes are bright with angry tears. "You destroyed her. And for what? Beer money?"
"It wasn't like that—"
"Yes, it was." Riley turns away. "Stay away from her, Crew. You've done enough damage."
She walks away, leaving me standing alone in the parking lot.
I get in my car and sit there for twenty minutes, not moving. My phone buzzes. Another text from Madison.
Madison: Heard Autumn knows about the bet. Whatever. She can't prove anything and honestly who cares what a scholarship nobody thinks? You coming to my party Friday?
I stare at the message. Then I block Madison's number.
I drive home in silence. My dad's car is in the driveway—which is weird because he's usually at the office until midnight.
Inside, he's sitting at the kitchen table with a drink. He looks up when I walk in.
"How was school?"
"Fine," I lie.
"Your mother called. She's staying in Paris another month. Business."
Of course she is. Mom's always somewhere else. Dad's always working. And I'm always performing the role of perfect son for a family that's never actually together.
"Great," I say flatly.
Dad studies me. "Something wrong?"
I almost laugh. Everything's wrong. I hurt someone who trusted me. I betrayed someone who saw the real me and liked me anyway. I destroyed something genuine because I was too stupid and cowardly to stand up to Madison.
"Nothing's wrong," I tell my dad. "I'm just tired."
I go upstairs to my room—the room that's been decorated by professional interior designers to look like a magazine spread. Nothing in here is real. Not the awards on the shelves. Not the photos of family vacations we never actually enjoyed. Not the smile I wear every day at school.
Autumn was the only real thing in my fake life.
And I destroyed her.
I pull out my phone and look at our message history one more time. Her last text to me was Friday before prom:
Autumn: Thanks for asking me. I know it's weird, but I'm really happy right now.
I destroyed that happiness. I took someone who was finally coming out of her shell and shoved her back inside.
For two hundred dollars.
I'm not hungry that night. Or the next. Or the one after that. I go through the motions—school, practice, homework—but nothing feels right. Food tastes like dust. Sleep won't come. Everywhere I look, I see Autumn's face.
The face she made when I called her beautiful at prom.
The face she made Monday morning when she told me we were done.
By Friday, I'm a wreck. I've lost weight. My coach asks if I'm sick. My teachers notice I'm not paying attention. Jake asks if I want to hang out this weekend.
I say no to everything.
That night, I'm lying in bed staring at the ceiling when my phone buzzes. A message from an unknown number.
I open it.
It's a photo. The photo from prom. Autumn and me, dancing, her looking up at me with so much trust and hope in her eyes.
Below the photo, one line of text:
This is who you destroyed. Was it worth it?
My hands shake. I don't know who sent it. Riley, maybe. Or someone else who knows what happened.
I stare at Autumn's face in that photo—the girl who believed in fairy tales, who thought someone could actually want her, who gave me her trust and got betrayal in return.
And I finally understand what I've done.
I didn't just hurt Autumn.
I destroyed the only real thing I ever had.