Future Me Says My Perfect Life Is a LieChapter 3

The air suddenly fell silent.

Kian stared at David with wide, disbelieving eyes. "No way, David! You've kissed someone other than Felicity?"

"I haven't!" David's face flushed red as he instantly shot it down.

"The last woman I kissed was Feli, of course. I just didn't want to talk about something so private out in the open. Besides, Feli is shy. She can't handle hearing stuff like this."

My heart sank.

David lied again. We had never kissed at all.

After that little incident, my mind kept drifting.

Moments from the past played on a loop in my head.

All the little details I'd deliberately overlooked suddenly snapped into sharp focus.

Like how I never suffered from period cramps, yet David always kept ibuprofen stashed in his desk.

Like how Brielle and I had matching thermoses on our desks. Mine held warm water, while Brielle's was filled with hot chocolate.

Or how David brought two sets of breakfast every day. Mine was plain and bland, while Brielle's had variety every single day without repeating once a week.

Back then, I'd never paid attention to any of it. I even bragged about how David was so good to me that he'd look out for my friend he couldn't stand.

Yet without me realizing it, David's affections had already shifted.

"Feli, you look pale. Are you feeling sick?" David reached out to touch my forehead.

I immediately stood up, dodging his hand. "I'm going to the restroom."

The moment I stepped out of the restroom, I bumped right into that guy who had asked the question.

"David lied back there. I saw him and Brielle sneaking a kiss on the field yesterday," he said.

That was why he'd deliberately asked a question with what seemed like an obvious answer to everyone else.

He'd held back from exposing David on the spot just to save my dignity and then waited out here specifically to warn me so I wouldn't be fooled.

My steps faltered, and I murmured a quiet thank-you.

After coming out of the restroom, I didn't go back to the private room.

I sent Kian a text saying I was leaving early, then caught a cab home.

During the ride, David sent me several messages in a row, but I didn't reply to a single one.

At 11:00 pm, there was a quiet tap at my bedroom window.

I pulled it open and saw a tiny basket holding a bag being lowered down from the floor above.

David and I were upstairs-downstairs neighbors.

Since we were kids, we'd used this method to pass things back and forth behind our parents' backs.

When the elementary school teacher assigned lines as punishment, I'd sneak them up to David.

The next morning, neat handwriting would appear right in the basket.

When I was losing my baby teeth and my parents banned sweets, I'd use this secret trick to pass the candy up out of sight, having David hold onto it for me.

It was a little secret that belonged only to the two of us.

I picked up the note inside the basket.

"I noticed you barely ate tonight. You can be mad at me, but don't go to sleep on an empty stomach."

At the end, he even drew a smiley face, mimicking my usual habit.

I opened the paper bag to find a whole roasted chicken inside. It was still piping hot.

It came from the exact place I'd tagged him in on TikTok a few days ago.

We'd agreed to go eat there together after the SAT.

After a long silence, my empty stomach got the best of me, and I opened the bag to eat.

For the sake of the bond we shared growing up together, I decided to find a chance to have an open, honest talk with him.

Little did I expect that a few days later, David would beat me to it, showing up at my front door rolling a suitcase.