The Ex & The Next​

During a video call with my boyfriend, his roommates started shouting, wanting to get a look at me.

I was giving them a shy, polite smile when suddenly, the phone was snatched away.

A magnetic voice, laced with a laugh, cut through the noise.

"C'mon, don't be selfish. Let the guys get a look at the lucky lady."

In the next second, I was staring at the face of my ex-boyfriend—the one whose breakup with me had been a spectacular train wreck.

The smile slowly vanished from his face. After a long moment, his lips twisted into a smirk.

"Fuck."

1

The moment he leaned over, the star on the silver chain at his collarbone flashed past the camera. My breath caught the instant I recognized his face.

A bead of sweat trickled down Jace Crawford's sharp jawline, disappearing into the open collar of his basketball jersey. He stared at the screen, his pupils dilating in shock.

"...Fuck."

The phone was thrown, the screen going black for a second before being hastily picked up again. My boyfriend, Liam, held it, his voice laced with annoyance.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Jace paused, then let out a short, sharp laugh. "Your taste isn't that great."

Liam, who was usually the gentlest person I knew, actually got angry. "My girlfriend is wonderful," he said coldly. "Don't talk nonsense."

"Yeah, man, what's wrong with your eyes? She's gorgeous!" one of his roommates chimed in. "Way hotter than the campus queen of the language department."

"I'd eat ramen for three years for a girlfriend like that!"

"Get lost, I'd eat it for ten—"

As his roommates erupted in boisterous chatter, Jace fell silent.

Liam brought the phone closer. "Sorry about that, Stella. He probably just lost his basketball game and is in a bad mood."

A voice ground out from the background, laced with frustration. "I won! By twenty points!"

Liam’s expression didn't change. "Then he's just having a brain fart. Stella, I'll pick you up for dinner tonight."

...

After the call ended, I lay back on my bed, the bright summer sun piercing my eyelids. I threw an arm over my eyes.

It had been three years since I’d last seen Jace.

I couldn’t believe he was still wearing that star necklace I gave him. It was so cheap. I remember the price tag: $20 for the matching set. My own was long gone, tossed away somewhere I couldn't even remember.

He looked the same, yet completely different. It was the same face, but maturity had sharpened its edges, like a gemstone cut and polished, revealing an untamable arrogance in his eyes that he couldn't hide.

My mind drifted back three years, before we'd even graduated high school.

Jace, dressed in that same basketball jersey, had stood beneath my window, his eyes red as he begged me.

"I'll listen to whatever you say from now on. You don't like me hanging out with her? I'll never see her again. We were supposed to go to the same college—"

His voice grew hoarse, a glint of moisture in his eyes under the night sky. "Just don't break up with me. I'll agree to anything, okay?"

He looked so pathetic, on the verge of dropping to his knees.

But I just stared at him, my face a mask, and said softly, "Jace, I changed my application. I'm not going to Tristan University anymore."

2

My relationship with Jace began like a classic story: the new girl winning out over the childhood friend. It ended with the new girl losing to her.

I transferred to his high school in my junior year and immediately shot to the top of the class rankings. The teachers had a habit of pairing a high-achieving girl with a slacking boy, hoping for some academic osmosis. So, I was seated next to Jace.

He had zero interest in school, but he had a huge interest in me. He’d pull my hair or snatch my pen and hold it just out of my reach, a wicked grin on his face. "You're so short, Stella."

He passed me a note in class. I opened it to find a little stick-figure drawing of me. I was about to curse him for being so childish when the teacher spotted it, held it up for the entire class to see, and sent us both out into the hallway.

I was a model student. I'd never been punished for anything. Humiliated, I shoved him, my eyes burning with tears. "Jace, are you insane?!"

He knew it was his fault and said nothing. A few moments later, the note with the drawing, now folded into a tiny paper star, was secretly pressed into my hand.

I looked at the star, and a laugh escaped through my tears.

Our relationship slowly thawed. I would force him to listen as I explained homework problems until he understood, and I checked his assignments to make sure he wasn't just copying the answers. In return, he’d wait for me every day to walk to and from school together. We'd browse the little trinket shop near the school gates, and on a whim, I bought a pair of star necklaces and gave one to him.

...

Jace was a big deal at school—handsome, rich, the star of the basketball team. The number of girls who had crushes on him was endless.

One of them cornered me and asked if I liked him.

A mix of teenage pride and an inexplicable annoyance made me blurt out, "I would never like someone with worse grades than me."

The girl’s eyes shifted to a point behind me.

I whipped my head around and saw Jace standing there. I had no idea how long he’d been listening.

He walked past me without a word.

After that, he stopped talking to me. He didn't wait for me after school. We sat at the same desk every day in perfect, suffocating silence. I wanted to explain, but he never gave me the chance.

A year later, he stunned everyone by matching my score on the finals, tying for first place in our class.

That evening, he stopped me after school. "Stella," he said, his voice serious, "my grades aren't worse than yours anymore. Can you like me now?"

The memories from that time are hazy now. I only remember that the jacaranda trees on campus were in full bloom, a sea of purple. As the wind lifted the petals into the air, the light in the boy’s eyes was brighter than a supernova, a radiance that traveled across ligh...