A Fake Proposal Prank? Don't Cry When I Dump You

I accidentally discovered that my boyfriend's group chat with his friends had a nickname for me: the "Prank Endurance Queen." Every month, they held a vote to decide what they would do to me next. Some suggested pretending my boyfriend wanted to break up with me. Others wanted him to sleep with his girl best friend, Yvonne Mercer. Someone even put up two thousand dollars, betting on how long it would take me to cry after I found her pregnancy test report. For the past three years, I'd thought every one of those incidents had just been some terrible coincidence. Then tonight, they tricked me into coming to what I thought was my own proposal. There were roses, a ring, even a live band. Cole Lawson dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him. I had barely nodded when confetti suddenly burst into the air, and huge words flashed across the screen behind me. [CONGRATULATIONS! THIS MONTH'S PRANK WAS A SUCCESS! TIME: 47 SECONDS.] His wealthy friends nearly doubled over laughing, some of them slapping the table. Cole got to his feet and casually handed the ring to Yvonne, letting her play with it. "After all the times we've pranked you, how are you still falling for this?" Someone called out from the crowd, "Hey, future Mrs. Lawson, let's make next month's prank a big one!" I thought of Cole's profile picture in the group chat, the one that had placed the biggest bets on me for three years straight. Then I suddenly started laughing too. "Sure. Let's break up." Chapter 1 For two full seconds, the private room went quiet. Then Kyle Zimmerman collapsed over the table, laughing. "Holy shit, even Quinn knows how to prank us back now!" "Cole, I think that means you lost this round." Cole laughed with them and reached over to pinch my cheek, but I turned away before he could touch me. His hand paused in midair, and one eyebrow lifted. "You're seriously mad?" Yvonne Mercer slipped the ring onto her index finger and held it up beneath the light, turning her hand from side to side. "Not bad, you little shit. How much did this cost?" "A little over a hundred," Cole replied with a grin. Yvonne clicked her tongue and kicked him in the leg. "A hundred grand? "You've got that kind of money and never spend any of it on me, but you'll blow it on your girlfriend? Our years together meant nothing." Cole dodged her kick and shoved her lightly on the head. "Fuck off." Yvonne cursed him back with a laugh, then lowered her head and went right back to examining the ring. "I'll give you this, though. It's pretty damn sparkly." When she looked up and noticed me staring at her, she raised the ring slightly. "You don't mind if I try it on for a minute, right? This idiot used to let me wear every new watch he bought for a couple of days before he even got to wear it himself. You can't seriously mind me touching a ring." I held out my hand. "Give it back." Yvonne paused, clearly not expecting that response, but she quickly pulled off the ring and tossed it to Cole. "Fine, fine. Here. "Your girlfriend's really territorial. I touch her ring for five seconds, and she acts like I'm trying to steal her man." Cole caught the ring and frowned at me. "You know what Yvonne's like. It's not like you just met her." For a moment, I could only stare at him. Then one scene after another from the past three years began replaying in my mind. The first time, Cole disappeared for seven straight days. He didn't answer my calls or reply to a single message, and by the end of the week, I was so frantic that I nearly called the police. Then, on the seventh night, he suddenly appeared in a hotel suite, wheeling out a cake. The room was full of friends holding up their phones to record my reaction, and I later learned that the betting pool in their group chat had been titled: [HOW MANY HOURS BEFORE QUINN XAVIER PANICS AND CRIES?] The second time, they got Cole drunk and put him in bed with Yvonne. When I opened the door, Yvonne was wearing Cole's shirt. I stood there staring at him in disbelief, tears already streaming down my face, while Cole laughed so hard his shoulders shook. "It's fake. We just wanted to see if you'd get jealous." Yvonne smacked him on the back. "Look how badly you scared your girlfriend!" Then she laughed and added, "If I actually wanted you, do you really think she would've ever gotten a chance?" The third time was Yvonne's pregnancy test report. I spent the entire night awake, sick with worry, only for Cole to turn the paper over the next morning and show me the four huge words scrawled across the back in marker. [PRANK SUCCESSFUL.] I cried so hard I could barely catch my breath. Cole wiped away my tears as he pulled me into his arms, laughing the whole time. "How are you this gullible?" Yvonne was crouched beside us, laughing so hard she could barely straighten up. "Girl, you seriously need to toughen up!" It wasn't until half an hour ago, when I'd accidentally picked up Cole's phone instead of mine, that I finally learned what had really been going on. Three years of group-chat history were sitting right there in front of me. [Same bet this time? Two grand says she's crying within ten minutes.] [Cole's betting on five.] [Don't underestimate the Prank Endurance Queen. She made it eleven minutes before crying over the fake car crash last time.] [I think she's getting better at handling this stuff. We should do something bigger next time.] Every moment that had hurt badly enough to keep me awake all night had been turned into a betting pool. And every single time, the person who placed the biggest bet was Cole. I picked up my bag and headed for the door. Kyle was still laughing behind me. "Come on, we know you're kidding. Cole doesn't even think you mean it." I stopped walking and looked back at him. "I'm not kidding." Once I was outside the hotel, I pulled out my phone and sent a message to my mom, who was living overseas. [Mom, I want to leave.] Her reply came almost immediately. [We'll come get you. You're coming home.] I stared at those words until my eyes began to sting. Three years ago, I'd had such a bitter falling-out with my family over Cole that we'd practically cut ties. Dad had smashed a glass in anger, while Mom had cried and asked me whether he was really worth throwing everything away for. Back then, I'd clutched Cole's hand and answered without a second of hesitation. "YES!" After that, I moved out of my parents' house and didn't even go home for Christmas. No matter how hurt or humiliated I felt over the next few years, I never dared tell them what was happening. I was afraid they would ask whether I regretted my choice. What scared me even more was having to admit that the girl who had walked away from her family without ever looking back had been wrong all along. Chapter 2 At one in the morning, I stuffed the last piece of clothing into my suitcase. Cole suddenly came home, with Yvonne right behind him. The moment she noticed the suitcase at my feet, she blinked in surprise. "Wait, you're actually leaving?" I ignored her. She pursed her lips. "Come on, it's not that serious. When we were kids, we once yanked Cole's pants off and threw him into a swimming pool, and he didn't hold a grudge. This asshole locked me in the men's room for half an hour once, and I still went out drinking with him afterward." I looked up at her. "That's between you two." Yvonne faltered, then frowned. "Fine. I'm not getting involved in your relationship drama, but there's one thing I have to say for Cole." She patted him on the shoulder. "He's an asshole and he takes his jokes too far, but if he didn't actually care about you, why would he go to all this trouble just to mess with you?" I suddenly laughed. So in their eyes, hurting someone was somehow proof that you cared. Cole planted a hand on the lid of my suitcase. "Where do you think you're going? Haven't you dragged this out long enough?" I didn't even want to look at him. "That's none of your business. Cole, we're broken up." His eyes widened in anger, and before I could react, he reached into my bag and pulled out my passport. I immediately lunged for it. "Cole!" He simply raised his arm, holding it well out of my reach. "You'll get it back when you've calmed down." Yvonne clicked her tongue from the side. "Come on, Cole. That's just pathetic. "If she wants to leave, let her. She'll probably come back on her own by tomorrow afternoon anyway. "I know her type. She's stubborn as hell, but that's all it is." I turned a cold look on her. "You know me that well?" Yvonne blinked. "We've known each other for three years. Of course I do. Don't you do the same thing every time? "First you cry, then you get mad, then you stop talking to everyone. In the end, Cole buys you a bag, says a few nice things, and everything's fine again." A chill slowly spread through me. So that was how they saw it. My dignity, my hurt, all of it was nothing more than a routine I put on to get another handbag. I pulled out my phone. "If you don't give me my passport back, I'm calling the police." Cole's expression darkened immediately. "Quinn Xavier, you're threatening me with the cops now?" I stared straight at him. "Don't you love watching me panic? "Then let's see who's panicking when the police get here." His jaw tightened. A second later, he threw my passport onto the table. I bent down, picked it up, and slipped it back into my bag. That was when Yvonne muttered casually, "It's just a relationship. Do you really have to act like you're so precious? "Those pictures of you before weren't even..." My head snapped up. "What pictures?" Yvonne cut herself off at once. Cole's expression changed too. After a moment of silence, he said, "The ones you sent me before." Cold crept through my entire body. We'd been together for three years, and yes, I had sent him a few intimate photos. Nothing explicit enough that I would be terrified of anyone ever seeing them, but they were still private. No third person had any right to see them. "Why has she seen them?" Yvonne answered first. "You mean the ones on Cole's phone? Yeah, I saw a couple. "Come on. I've got all the same parts you do. It's not like I was dying to look." She waved a hand as though it were nothing. "We used to compete over who had more embarrassing stuff on their phone. I've gone through Cole's camera roll a million times. "Your pictures were mixed in with everything else. Of course I saw them." My hands and feet went cold. "Those were private." Cole rubbed between his brows. "She didn't see them on purpose." And in that moment, I finally understood. The worst part was never that they didn't understand boundaries. It was that every time they crossed one, they always had a reason why I shouldn't make a big deal out of it. They were best friends. It was only a joke. Everyone did things like this. So no matter how uncomfortable or hurt I was, somehow I always ended up being the one who was overreacting. I held out my hand to Cole. "Give me your phone. I'm deleting the pictures." He stared at me for several seconds before finally handing it over. I immediately found every one of them and deleted them all. Yvonne clicked her tongue beside me. "Seriously? Like anyone even cares." I didn't respond. I grabbed the handle of my suitcase and headed for the door. Just as I passed Cole, he spoke behind me. "Quinn Xavier, if you walk out that door tonight, don't expect me to come after you." I never broke stride. "Fine by me." The door slowly closed behind me. A second later, I heard something inside smash violently against the floor. Chapter 3 At ten that morning, I went to the private club Cole frequented to pick up my laptop. I'd left in such a hurry the night before that my laptop was left in his car. Kyle had told me he'd already dropped the laptop off at the club and that I could come get it myself. When I arrived, Yvonne was sitting cross-legged on the couch, playing cards with Kyle. The moment she saw me, she tossed her hand onto the table. "Well, look who's back. The Prank Endurance Queen returns. I thought you were actually leaving." I ignored her. "I'm here for my laptop." Kyle pointed at a glass of sparkling water on the table. "Same rule as always. Drink it first, then you can take it." I turned around to leave, but Cole came out from the back room. "Quinn!" Yvonne immediately started teasing him. "Seriously, Cole? You still haven't managed to smooth things over?" She grabbed the glass, took a long drink herself, then filled it again and shoved it toward me. "See? It's not poisoned. Finish this, and we can all put last night behind us." I stared at the glass without reaching for it. "What did you put in it this time?" Yvonne burst out laughing. "Well, damn. You finally learned." Kyle already had his phone out. Yvonne slapped her thigh excitedly. "Quick, start the timer! I've got eight minutes before she starts looking for her meds." The faint smell of seafood hit me, and all the color drained from my face. "Is there shrimp in this?" That only made Yvonne laugh harder. "Just a little shrimp paste around the rim. Didn't you say last time that you could tell even from the smell? I wanted to see if that was actually true. "Cole's betting you'll last five minutes." My whole body went cold. "Yvonne, I have a severe shellfish allergy." She answered as though that made no difference at all. "I know. Cole has your emergency injector, doesn't he? "If you actually start feeling sick, he'll give it to you." My chest was already beginning to tighten. I hurriedly searched through my bag, but the backup injector I always carried was gone. When I looked up again, Cole was holding it between his fingers. I rushed toward him. "Give it to me!" He pushed me back and glanced down at the timer. "Twenty more seconds." My breathing was getting faster and shallower. "Cole, I really can't breathe..." He was still smiling. "Didn't the doctor say you'd have some warning before it got really serious?" I lunged for the injector again just as Yvonne stepped between us. I shoved her out of the way. She stumbled backward into the edge of the table, knocking a glass to the floor. It shattered with a sharp crack, and one of the pieces sliced across the back of her hand. Yvonne's face went white. "Fuck! My hand!" The smile vanished from Cole's face instantly. He shoved me aside without thinking, and my lower back slammed into the coffee table hard enough to make my vision go black for a second. Yvonne stared down at the blood welling from the cut, sucking in sharp breaths through her teeth. "No, this is actually deep. Fuck, it hurts." The room erupted into chaos. Someone grabbed tissues. Someone else started digging through the first-aid kit, while another person called around to ask which hospital was closest. I was on my knees only a few feet away, my throat tightening as though an invisible hand had closed around it. Every breath sent pain through my chest. All I could do was crawl toward Cole. My fingers finally caught the hem of his pants, and tears spilled down my face before I could stop them. "My medicine..." Cole finally realized something was wrong and immediately crouched beside me. "It's really this bad?" By then, I couldn't answer him. The last thing I felt before everything faded was the emergency injector finally pressing into my thigh. When I woke again, I was lying in the ER while a nurse changed my IV bag. "If you'd gotten here much later, this could have been very dangerous," she said. "With an allergy this severe, why would anyone think this was something to joke about?" I tried to answer, but my throat hurt too much to make a sound. A moment later, my phone buzzed. Yvonne had posted an update. The back of her hand had needed a few stitches, and in the photo, Cole was standing beside her, picking up her medication. Her caption read: [What a fucking day.] The comments underneath were already piling up. [Quinn did that?] [Endurance Queen's got quite the temper today.] [Maybe no more shrimp next time. That one almost went really wrong.] The words on the screen slowly blurred together as pressure built in my chest again. I'd nearly died from an allergic reaction right in front of them. Yvonne had gotten one cut on her hand, and everyone had rushed to her side without a second thought. Cole included. So that was how little my life mattered to him. Apparently, even a cut on Yvonne's hand was worth more. My tears fell onto the screen one after another. I lifted a hand to wipe them away, but no matter how many times I tried, I couldn't clear them fast enough. Chapter 4 That afternoon, a photo appeared in the group chat. It had been taken in the hallway of the club, where dozens of printed pages were scattered across the floor. One glance was enough to make my head buzz. Every single page was one of the private photos I'd once sent Cole. Kyle was the one who had posted the picture. [Wow. Quinn looks so innocent, but who knew she had this side to her?] A few seconds later, Yvonne sent another message. [Shit. Wrong group.] My hands shook as I typed. [You distributed private photos of me without my consent. That's illegal.] Yvonne immediately sent a voice message. "Quinn Xavier, I seriously cannot deal with you. "We used to send pictures of Cole in the shower all over the group chat, and even he never made a fuss about it. "They're a few pictures of you in pajamas. Do you really have to turn this into such a big deal?" When I got to the end of the voice note, a laugh escaped me. [If you think it's no big deal, then let's have the police explain whether it is.] Her reply came almost instantly. [Fine, fine. You're educated, you know the law. You're seriously impossible.] [When you and Cole get married, are the rest of us going to need your written permission before we hang out with him?] I stared at that message for a long time, then called the police. I had barely hung up when Cole called. "You seriously called the cops? Yvonne just got stitches in her hand, and you still have to blow this up today?" I gripped my phone so tightly that my knuckles turned white. "She spread my private photos around, and somehow I'm the one causing trouble?" His voice sharpened. "We already picked up the pictures. What else do you want?" My anger finally broke through. "People still saw them!" He answered without thinking. "So what if they did?" Silence fell on both ends of the call. Tears slipped down my face before I could stop them. I'd always believed that even if the whole world treated me like a joke, Cole would at least protect me when it truly mattered. Apparently, he wouldn't. I hung up. Half an hour later, he sent me an address. [The hard drive with your photos is at the studio on the west side of town. If you want everything deleted, come do it yourself.] By the time I arrived, it was already dark. Yvonne sat on the edge of a table, one hand wrapped in thick gauze as she impatiently swung her legs. Cole looked at me and spoke in a low voice. "Apologize to Yvonne first. She's hurt because of you." For a second, I genuinely thought I'd misheard him. "Cole, I almost died today." Something uncomfortable flickered across his face, but he quickly looked away. "You're fine now, aren't you?" Yvonne frowned from beside him. "Forget it. I don't need her to compensate me for my hand. I'm just pissed that she called the police." She looked at me as though her logic should have been obvious. "Aiden shoved me into a pool once, and when I got out, I kicked him right back in. Nobody called the cops." I couldn't help laughing. "So you spread my private photos, and I'm just supposed to let that slide?" Yvonne dragged a hand through her hair in frustration. "I already told you, it was a joke. "Why do you have to turn everything into something so serious?" Before I could answer, footsteps sounded from deeper inside the studio. Three men wearing caps emerged from the shadows, and I instinctively took a step back. Cole moved in front of the door. "Don't be scared. They're just here to teach you a lesson." Then he looked at the three men. "Ten minutes. Scare her until she admits she's wrong. Don't actually hurt her." Cold spread through my body. "Cole, have you lost your mind?" He took my phone from my hand without answering. The three men began closing in, and one of them grabbed my wrist. Whatever tiny bit of hope I'd still been holding onto vanished. As I struggled, I kicked over a nearby light stand. Glass shattered across the floor. Yvonne couldn't move out of the way in time. Her injured hand came down against a sharp piece of glass, and she screamed. "Fuck! Cole!" Cole's expression changed instantly. He rushed to her, bent down, and picked her up. Panic finally took over. "Cole! Don't leave!" He paused. Yvonne swore through the pain. "What the fuck are you standing there for? Take me to the hospital!" Cole glanced back at me, then at the men. "Stick to the plan. Let her go after ten minutes." With that, he carried Yvonne out. The studio door slammed shut behind them, and the room suddenly went quiet. The man closest to me reached back and locked the door. "Cole's gone. Why bother pretending anymore?" Cold sweat broke out across my back. "Whatever he paid you, I'll double it." They only laughed. One of them suddenly yanked at my coat, and the sound of fabric tearing made my mind go blank. I tried desperately to back away, but someone clamped a hand around my wrist. "Let go of me!" I managed to kick one of them, only to be struck hard across the face. My ears rang as I fell to the floor. They pinned my arms and legs while tearing at my clothes. I stared desperately toward the door, barely able to breathe. Cole, didn't you say this was only a joke? Mom, Dad, I'm sorry. I don't think I'm going to make it home. Just as despair overwhelmed me and I was about to bite down on my tongue, a deafening crash came from outside. "Quinn!" I never even saw who had come in. My consciousness disappeared completely. Meanwhile, Yvonne had just finished having her hand treated and was still swearing from the pain. "Am I cursed today or what? "First she shoved me, and then I got cut by glass again." Cole sat beside her, distracted. He checked the time. Forty minutes had already passed. He called the person in charge of the studio, but even after more than ten attempts, no one answered. For some reason, unease began building inside him. Just as he could no longer sit still and was about to head back to the studio, the hospital television interrupted its regular programming with breaking news. "At approximately 9:40 tonight, a fire broke out at an abandoned photography studio on the west side of town. The fire is still spreading..." The screen switched to live footage, flames lighting up half the night sky. Cole's phone slipped from his hand and hit the floor.