I Was His Bet, I Become Their Surprise Chapter 09
Tristan’s whole face changed.
“Nolan, are you seriously taking a game this seriously?”
“Sabrina and I were together for eleven months. Stay out of it.”
“Eleven months?”
Nolan didn’t blink.
“Eleven months, and you still put her
up as a bet?”
Tristan had nothing to say to that.
No one around them dared to speak.
But the way they looked at him already said everything.
Tristan gritted his teeth and turned to me.
“Sabrina, fine, I’ll admit I took it too far tonight.”
“But I never actually intended to break up with you.”
“It was a game between friends. Does it really have to end like this?”
I rubbed the red mark he’d left on my wrist and felt the last
of my anger drain into something emptier.
Even now, he still didn’t think he’d done anything wrong.
He only believed that I was being unreasonable.
If I were still the 220–pound girl in that photo, he wouldn’t
have bothered explaining.
He might even have complained that my crying was ruining the mood.
“Weren’t you the one who lost me to Nolan?”
My voice was steady.
“I’m just honoring the bet. Why are you so upset about it?”
A few people laughed before they could stop themselves.
Tristan’s composure cracked.
“That was only a joke!”
“But I took it seriously.”
I held his gaze.
“Tristan. We’re done.”
I turned and walked toward the door.
Nolan followed me.
Behind us, a chair scraped across the floor.
Tristan tried to follow, but Sienna grabbed him.
“Tristan, don’t go after her.”
Her eyes were slightly red.
“You’ve already humiliated yourself in front of everyone. How
much worse do you want to make this?”
Tristan wrenched free.
“This has nothing to do with you.”
Sienna stumbled back. The color left her face.
Nobody said a word.
Moments earlier, everyone had assumed there was something
romantic between them.
Sienna had been acting like she had a claim on him all night.
What he’d just said might as well have been a slap.
I didn’t stop walking.
The murmuring started again the moment I was out the door.
“Think Tristan actually regrets it?”
“Dude, wouldn’t you?”
The door to the lounge slowly closed, trapping those voices inside.
“Good question. They were practically glued together five minutes ago.”
The door to the private room slowly closed, trapping those voices inside.
The composure I’d held together all night finally started to crack.
A whole year. Over 110 pounds.
Countless meals that left me starving. Countless nights I
could barely stand.
I’d pictured meeting Tristan a thousand different ways.
Not one of them ended like this.
“Give me your hand.”
Nolan’s voice cut through.
I blinked.
“What?”
He looked at my wrist.
A red ring had already formed where Tristan had grabbed me.
Nolan frowned slightly.
“There’s a pharmacy nearby.”
“It’s fine. It’ll fade.”
I hid my hand behind my back.
He didn’t push it. He just pressed the elevator button.
The elevator doors opened, revealing several young women inside.
Their eyes lit up when they saw Nolan.
But when they noticed me standing next to him, they all went quiet.
One of them kept sneaking glances.
We were barely out the door when I heard her whisper to her friend.
“Those two look so good together.”
I pretended not to hear her.
Nolan didn’t react either.
But when we reached the entrance, I noticed that the tips of
his ears had turned red again.
The night air helped.
“Thank you for tonight.”
“You don’t need to thank me.”
He paused. Then…
“Do you really not remember me?”
I froze for a moment.
“Have we met before?”
“We were classmates in third grade.”
“I was the quiet kid. The boys in our class used to corner me
in the stairwell.”
I remembered it then, running over, chasing them off,
slapping a Band–Aid into his palm.
I transferred schools after that. The memory went with it.
But he hadn’t forgotten.
“So you joined the game because you recognized me?”
“Yes.”
Nolan looked at me, and the tips of his ears turned even redder.
“I just wanted an excuse to see you again.”
“I didn’t think they’d take it this far.”
I was heading toward it when Tristan’s voice hit me from the venue entrance.
A taxi pulled up to the curb.
I was heading toward it when Tristan’s voice hit me from the hotel entrance.
“Sabrina!”
He ran outside with his car keys still in his hand.
“I’ll drive you home.”
I ignored him and opened the car door.
But Tristan stepped in front of the car.
“Let’s talk.”
“I swear I didn’t know you’d lost weight.”
He stared at my face, and his tone softened.
“If I’d known you looked like this, none of tonight would’ve happened.”
I went still.
His words confirmed exactly what I had expected. hurting me.
He did not regr
He only regretted not seeing my face sooner.
I was about to speak when Nolan walked over to my side.
“She doesn’t want to talk to you.”
Tristan sneered.
“And you know that?”
“Of course I do.”
Nolan put his hand on the car door frame above my head
and nodded for me to get in.
Then he looked back at Tristan.
“Because as of tonight, she’s with me.”