The Backup Girl's Revenge Goodbye, Toxic Crush

For four years, Chloe Brooks has been the girl Ethan Harrison calls whenever he fights with Veronica. He says Chloe is the only one who understands him, then blocks her the moment he and Veronica make up, with a single cold line about Veronica getting jealous. Chloe keeps answering, keeps believing that one day he will finally see her.

The night before graduation, Ethan calls: it is over between him and Veronica, and he wants them to be together. He asks Chloe to bring a box of condoms to his hotel room. She goes, palms sweating, and knocks. The door opens, and Veronica steps out laughing. It was a test, a game the two of them played to make Chloe give up once and for all.

But Chloe does not cry. She raises the plastic bag and asks for fifty dollars in delivery fees, then walks away from them both. What she feels in the elevator is not sadness, but four years of fury finally arriving.