They Said She Was Strong So They Never Had To Choose Her novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Who Knows Who Best
At our shared birthday and graduation party, the three boys who swore to choose me first all write my name as the one to leave behind, so at 11:58 I accept a scholarship eighteen hundred miles away, then find out I'm not even a guest on their trip: I'm the emergency contact.
At our graduation party, the five of us who grew up on the same street sat down to play a game called Who Knows Who Best.
Kenzie Dorsett asked the first question.
"If one of us got stranded somewhere in the middle of the night, who would you go save first?"
The three boys bent over their cards.
Ford, Tanner and Clay.
Everybody on our street had called them my future husbands since we were nine.
They flipped their cards over at the same time.
Kenzie. Kenzie. Kenzie.
Somebody at the next table whistled.
"Look at that. Not even a pause."
Kenzie's cheeks went pink.
"It's because I'm the biggest scaredy-cat," she said. "Greer's so capable. She'd never need anyone to rescue her."
The boys nodded like that settled it.
I smiled and drank my soda.
When I was sixteen, I got stranded on the ridge in a storm.
These three found me in the pouring rain at two in the morning.
Tanner carried me down. Clay held the umbrella over my head. Ford held my hand the whole way.
At the bottom, all three of them said the same thing.
"No matter what happens, we'll always choose you first."
Apparently it washed off in the rain.
"Your turn, Greer," Kenzie said, and slid the deck to me.
I drew a card and read it out.
"If only four of the five of us could go to the same college, who would you leave behind?"
The private room went quiet.
Kenzie bit her lip and flipped her card first.
She had written her own name.
"Aww," said someone behind us.
Then the boys turned theirs over.
Greer. Greer. Greer.
Three cards, three handwritings, one name.
Tanner laughed first, too loud.
"It's a game. You're not taking it seriously, are you?"
Clay pushed his glasses up.
"Kenzie's heart isn't great. It wouldn't be right to send her off to a strange city alone."
Ford reached over and ruffled my hair, the way he always did.
"Besides, you're going to the school right here in town. Even if one of us stayed behind, you'd be home every night. It's not like we're leaving you."
I looked at the three cards with my name on them.
Then I laughed too.
None of them knew the school down the road had never been on my list.
Tonight was the graduation party.
It was also my eighteenth birthday.
Kenzie's was three days later.
In April she'd said two parties back to back would be too much for everyone, and asked if we could just do one.
I'd said sure.
The cake Tanner ordered said HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENZIE in pink frosting.
Clay brought one paper crown.
Ford brought pink roses, Kenzie's favorite.
I had made a crown myself, gold card stock, glitter, the works.
I'd left it on the gift table before anyone got there.
Kenzie was wearing it.
At the end of the night, Ford found me by the coat rack and set a velvet box in my hand.
"Happy eighteenth."
Inside was a silver bracelet with a four-leaf clover charm.
I knew the design.
Kenzie had the same bracelet on her wrist all night, except hers had a ring of tiny diamonds around the clover.
"The three of us picked out Kenzie's together," Ford said. "I liked it, so I grabbed one for you while I was there."
While he was there.
I closed the lid.
"Thanks."
He leaned on the wall beside me, easy and warm.
"Don't take the game to heart. Kenzie's insecure. If nobody picked her she'd have cried the whole night."
"So you all picked me instead."
He laughed, a little helpless.
"Come on. You've never cared about stuff like this."
Because I don't cry, I'm the one who can be left.
Because I don't make a scene, nobody has to think about me.
"You're right," I said.
His shoulders came down.
"Send me your license number tomorrow. I'm doing the paperwork for the Rockies trip. Kenzie wants graduation photos up there, and you're the best photographer we've got."
"Okay."
He ruffled my hair again and went back to the others.
At home I sat on my bed with my laptop.
There was an email I had read about forty times since March.
Full scholarship. The university in Flagstaff, Arizona.
A place in the summer research program at the observatory, starting July sixth.
The offer expired at midnight tonight.
It was 11:52.
My phone buzzed.
The group chat had a new photo.
Kenzie in front of the cake in my gold crown, Tanner holding it steady on her head, Clay lighting the candles, Ford holding her milkshake.
Tanner's caption said: Congrats to tonight's champion mind reader.
I set the phone face down.
At 11:58 I clicked Accept.
The page turned green.
I didn't cry.
It didn't hurt the way I'd thought it would.
It felt like setting down something heavy I'd been carrying so long I'd forgotten it had weight.
Then I opened the trip itinerary Ford had shared that afternoon.
I hadn't looked at it properly yet.
There was a cabin at the top of a mountain pass, a cute one, with a hot tub on the deck.
I scrolled to the booking confirmation.
Guests: Kenzie Dorsett. Tanner Holcomb. Clay Dillingham. Ford Gale.
Four names.
I kept scrolling, all the way to the last page.
There I was.
Greer Pennock.
Emergency contact.
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