The Love Letter I Should've Thrown Away novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: What He Sold

Brady left the way he always did, the last to speak and the first to be forgiven.

He took his tray and his six friends and a slow route past the cashier, so everyone could see him go.

The Union stayed noisy and then stopped looking at us.

I turned off the recording and put the phone in my pocket.

Micah was sitting with both hands flat on the table.

"Not here," he said.

"I know."

"I'll walk you somewhere. Then I'll tell you all of it."

He led me out the side door and across the quad, past the chapel, to the back stairs of the old observatory that nobody used.

We sat on the cold stone step, with a foot of air between us.

"My senior year I lost the housing part of my scholarship," he said. "I was about to give up my dorm bed and sleep in my car in the library lot."

I turned to look at him.

"Brady noticed because he noticed everything that was useful. He saw my duffel bag packed by the door, and he said, 'Roommate. You write well. I can pay you four hundred a month.'"

"For what?"

"A paper at first. A short one for a class he didn't care about." He picked at the stone. "Then his Ethics final. Then a speech for the student senate. Then his entire thesis outline. In the end, everything he ever turned in."

"For four hundred dollars."

"A month. My mother's rent was nine hundred, and her landlord had started calling the house."

I watched a leaf blow across the courtyard.

"I told myself it was a job," he said. "It was easier than saying what it was."

← Chapter 6 · All chapters · Chapter 8 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend