Forward Without Him Movie | Caught Red-Handed: A Year Of Lies Exposed In Seconds 🔍─影片 Dailymotion

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👇Download the app to watch full HD episode for free: https://reelslink.com/marketing/QjR5eT 👇Click to Find More HD EPs https://g.shrinkrl.com/BskKO3 🍁Notice: All videos by Drama Daily TV are officially authorized. A surprise trip to New York turns into Taylor’s worst nightmare. Expecting a joyous reunion with Ethan and Lexi, she listens outside their apartment as they confess to a secret year-long romance. Worse, Ethan admits to sabotaging Taylor’s college application just to please Lexi. Standing alone with her ruined acceptance letter, Taylor realizes her entire relationship was built on lies. What happens when the victim of their scheme stops playing quiet?

Transcript

00:00:23To be continued...

00:00:30My coursework is brutal. I can't carve out the time. Can you try to be a little more mature about

00:00:34this?

00:00:37Couldn't scrape together a $40 train fare, but a $2,000 hotel suite? No problem.

00:00:42Brutal coursework, sure. Racing to spend every available minute with my best friend.

00:00:47BFF jealous? I bet you've never stayed in a plaza suite.

00:00:50When you move to New York, I'll have my boyfriend book you your own room for a night.

00:00:53Just you, all to yourself.

00:00:58Reading her smug little mean girl tone, I almost felt sick. I didn't reply.

00:01:09The day my Columbia acceptance letter arrived, I kept it a secret from everyone.

00:01:13Flew to New York to surprise my boyfriend Ethan and my best friend Lexi.

00:01:16Instead, I overheard them confess it themselves.

00:01:18To keep dating behind my back, they'd altered my application, costing me an entire gap year.

00:01:23Ethan, once Taylor gets here, can we really still be this close?

00:01:27I wish she'd never gotten to Columbia.

00:01:30Don't say that.

00:01:31Last year, to make your birthday wish come true, with the one where you wanted to date me,

00:01:35we snuck into her college application portal and clicked decline offer before decision day.

00:01:40Made her miss the deadline.

00:01:42She had to take a whole gap year because of us.

00:01:44We've been dating here in New York behind her back this entire time.

00:01:46That's already bad enough.

00:01:47When she moves to the city, I'll go back to being her boyfriend.

00:01:50Obviously.

00:01:53So we can still keep meeting like this?

00:01:55In secret?

00:01:55As long as Taylor doesn't find out.

00:01:57Right then, I was standing there.

00:01:58A complete joke.

00:01:59Ethan kept going, comforting her.

00:02:01I promised you a full year as your guy.

00:02:03Not one day less.

00:02:04Your birthday wish kicked in May 1st last year.

00:02:07It runs through May 1st this year.

00:02:09I'll give you an extra three months on top of that.

00:02:11I'm yours.

00:02:12Until the fall semester starts.

00:02:13I already told Taylor I'm staying in New York this summer.

00:02:15To do pre-med clinical volunteering at Mount Simi.

00:02:17Not going home.

00:02:18We'll stay in the city together.

00:02:20Whatever you want to do, I'm there.

00:02:49That's when we found out someone had used my account to click decline and cancel the

00:02:53deposit before the deadline.

00:02:54How is that even possible?

00:02:56The admissions rep sounded genuinely sorry.

00:02:58Your record is outstanding.

00:03:00If we'd received the confirmation, you absolutely would have been on the fall roster.

00:03:03But what the system shows us is what it shows us.

00:03:06There's nothing we can do on our end.

00:03:07Is it possible a wrong option was selected during confirmation?

00:03:10I was devastated.

00:03:11I couldn't accept it.

00:03:13And right then, Lexi FaceTimed me.

00:03:14Taylor!

00:03:15My birthday party's starting!

00:03:16Get over here!

00:03:17Ethan's already here!

00:03:18We're just waiting on you!

00:03:19I told them what happened.

00:03:20Lexi went into overdrive trying to make me feel better.

00:03:22Oh my god!

00:03:23How does that even happen?

00:03:25These things happen to everyone sometimes.

00:03:26So what are you going to do now?

00:03:27If all else fails, pick up some credits at community college and transfer next year?

00:03:31I looked at my parents' worried faces.

00:03:33I thought about four years of work.

00:03:35No.

00:03:36I'm taking a gap year and reapplying.

00:03:37There was a beat of silence on the call.

00:03:39Then Ethan's voice.

00:03:40With your record, community college would be a waste of your time.

00:03:43Focus on reapplying.

00:03:45Lexi and I will be waiting for you at Columbia.

00:03:47Ethan's right.

00:03:48Then my birthday wish this year is for our tailor to get her Columbia offer next year.

00:03:51No problem.

00:03:52Back then, I was so touched, I almost couldn't speak.

00:03:55Turns out every bit of it was something they'd planned together.

00:03:58All of it just to hide what they were doing.

00:04:00To make her real birthday wish come true.

00:04:02Dating my boyfriend.

00:04:05I knew Lexi had a boyfriend once she got to New York.

00:04:07That part didn't surprise me.

00:04:09What I didn't know was that her boyfriend and my boyfriend were the same person.

00:04:12She texted me constantly, every day, sharing little updates about this amazing guy she was seeing.

00:04:17I was home grinding through essays and AP coursework.

00:04:19Every weekend, I'd unlock my phone to a wall of unread messages for her.

00:04:22My boyfriend sat in on my sociology lecture today.

00:04:29The professor called on him randomly, and he completely blanked.

00:04:33I'm dead.

00:04:34He'd been eyeing this vintage turntable for a while, so, drum roll, I bought it for him.

00:04:39We got a hotel room last night.

00:04:41He's so hot.

00:04:44Hey, Taylor, have you and Ethan ever actually done it?

00:04:47No.

00:04:49Ethan and I had made it official on prom night.

00:04:52After that, it was straight into the chaos of application season.

00:04:55There wasn't exactly a lot of time for anything else.

00:04:57And then the whole mess with my acceptance happened.

00:04:59And that killed whatever mood was left.

00:05:00When Lexi heard Ethan and I hadn't gone all the way,

00:05:03she sent back a voice note that was practically a performance.

00:05:05No?

00:05:06No way!

00:05:13Taylor, don't you know?

00:05:14If a guy doesn't even want to sleep with you, he's not actually into you.

00:05:17Oops.

00:05:18Did I say something wrong?

00:05:19I swear I'm not trying to start anything.

00:05:22Looking back, every single one of those messages was loaded.

00:05:25I was too stressed out from applications to catch it at the time.

00:05:28I just changed the subject.

00:05:30Anyway, you move fast.

00:05:32You got a boyfriend your first week of school at some party?

00:05:34What does he look like?

00:05:35Send a pic.

00:05:36Let me see if he's good enough for you.

00:05:38One word.

00:05:39Hot.

00:05:39How hot?

00:05:41Hot enough that the second you saw his face, you'd pass out on the spot.

00:05:44But he hates photos, so no pics for you.

00:05:46And now, standing outside the apartment, watching the two of them together,

00:05:50I genuinely felt a little dizzy.

00:05:52What are you up to?

00:05:58At the hospital doing shadowing, completely slammed.

00:06:01I held down the nausea and replied,

00:06:02Take a pic of the hospital and send it to me.

00:06:06Again?

00:06:07Why does she keep bothering you?

00:06:08She's taking up time that's supposed to be mine.

00:06:10She said it like she was the real girlfriend.

00:06:12Like I was some unhinged stalker.

00:06:15Good thing I'm careful.

00:06:16I got photos of a hospital hallway from an upperclassman ahead of time.

00:06:19Covers it.

00:06:19Lexi still wasn't happy.

00:06:20She pushed a little further.

00:06:21You're that scared of her finding out?

00:06:23You could just tell her about us.

00:06:25If she really cares about you, really thinks of me as her best friend, how could she even be mad?

00:06:30Don't.

00:06:30Whatever's going on between us, she cannot find out.

00:06:32Ever.

00:06:33Lexi read his face and switched gears fast.

00:06:36Okay, okay, forget it.

00:06:37Don't go back to the dorms tonight.

00:06:40Let's do something fun.

00:06:42That desperate?

00:06:47I'll take care of it tonight.

00:06:49ER is slammed.

00:06:50Hospital has strict HIPAA requirements.

00:06:52Phone access is limited until this is over.

00:06:54Don't worry.

00:06:54Love you.

00:06:55I read every word.

00:06:56Then I texted my parents.

00:06:57Mom, Dad, I'm not going to Columbia.

00:07:00I'm accepting MIT's offer.

00:07:05They called immediately.

00:07:07Sweetie, what happened?

00:07:08What changed?

00:07:08You've been talking about Columbia for a year.

00:07:10Being in New York with Lexi and Ethan.

00:07:12Lexi and Ethan are together.

00:07:13My mom pulled a sharp breath on the other end.

00:07:15What?

00:07:16But at prom last year, Ethan was...

00:07:18She stopped herself.

00:07:19Like she just figured something out.

00:07:20Didn't finish the sentence.

00:07:21I was the one reassuring them.

00:07:23My application this year was stronger.

00:07:25I got into MIT.

00:07:26Physics at MIT is better than Columbia by a long shot anyway.

00:07:29I was willing to go to New York because I had people there.

00:07:32Turns out those two aren't worth giving up the top engineering school in the country.

00:07:35I'll talk later.

00:07:36I need to book a flight home.

00:07:37Tonight I want your barbecue.

00:07:38My dad's voice came through, anger barely under control.

00:07:41We were all fooled.

00:07:42Lexi's private high school tuition, her college tuition right now, your mother and I have

00:07:47been paying all of it.

00:07:48If this is how she's going to treat you, we are done being her ATM next semester.

00:07:52Done.

00:07:53Okay.

00:07:53Lexi and I had grown up together.

00:07:55She came from a broken home.

00:07:56Ninth grade.

00:07:57Her parents divorced and moved to separate states.

00:07:59Left her behind.

00:08:00No plan for her education.

00:08:01Nothing.

00:08:01I was the one who begged my parents to step in.

00:08:04Mom, dad, can we please help her?

00:08:06She doesn't even have money to finish high school.

00:08:08Just think of it as charity.

00:08:09When we're in college, we'll get jobs and pay you back.

00:08:11My parents didn't even hesitate.

00:08:13They said yes.

00:08:13Paid her private high school tuition.

00:08:15Let her move into the guest room.

00:08:16Covered Columbia's 80-something thousand a year in tuition and housing without blinking.

00:08:20Taylor, I will never forget what your family has done for me.

00:08:22When I graduate and land something on Wall Street, I'll pay back every cent with interest.

00:08:26Turns out this was her version of paying it back.

00:08:30I turned around and called an Uber to JFK Airport.

00:08:42Boyfriend booked the room.

00:08:43$2,000 a night.

00:08:44He wants me to put in the effort tonight.

00:08:46What do you think I should do for him?

00:08:47I thought back to a night three months before the application deadline.

00:08:50I was barely holding it together.

00:08:52I called Ethan.

00:08:54Taylor?

00:08:54Can you come home this weekend?

00:08:56Just once?

00:08:56I really need you.

00:08:57He said no without missing a beat.

00:08:59Taylor, I genuinely can't afford the train ticket right now.

00:09:01You haven't been here yet.

00:09:02You don't know how expensive New York is.

00:09:04There's always something to spend money on.

00:09:06My coursework is brutal.

00:09:07I can't carve out the time.

00:09:09Can you try to be a little more mature about this?

00:09:13Couldn't scrape together a $40 train fare.

00:09:15But a $2,000 hotel suite?

00:09:16No problem.

00:09:17Brutal coursework.

00:09:18Sure.

00:09:19Racing to spend every available minute with my best friend.

00:09:23BFF jealous?

00:09:24I bet you've never stayed in a plaza suite.

00:09:26When you move to New York, I'll have my boyfriend book you your own room for a night.

00:09:29Just you, all to yourself.

00:09:34Reading her smug little mean girl tone, I almost felt sick.

00:09:37I didn't reply.

00:09:42Lexi didn't hear back from Taylor and didn't think much of it.

00:09:45She figured Taylor was just too jealous to respond, which honestly made sense.

00:09:50Lexi had spent the last year living her best college life, using Taylor's parents' card,

00:09:54going everywhere with Taylor's boyfriend.

00:09:56And Taylor, still home, hunched over essays.

00:10:01Her main priority now was locking Ethan down for good.

00:10:04She was dying to rub all of it in Taylor's face.

00:10:07But the timing wasn't right yet.

00:10:09For one thing, Ethan still felt guilty about Taylor.

00:10:13He'd been enjoying what she'd essentially handed him.

00:10:15But Lexi could tell, in the back of his mind, Ethan still saw Taylor as the right kind of

00:10:20girl.

00:10:20The one you actually end up with.

00:10:22If she pushed him into a confrontation with Taylor now, there was a real chance Ethan would

00:10:26panic and drop her to try to fix things.

00:10:28That was not the ending she was going for.

00:10:30Her plan was to replace Taylor in his head slowly, step by step, until Ethan was the one

00:10:35who called it.

00:10:36That moment hadn't come yet.

00:10:37And for another thing, she still needed Taylor's parents to cover the rest of her tuition.

00:10:41She could not blow this up too early.

00:10:42Although, Ethan's family had money.

00:10:44Real money.

00:10:44Once she had him fully, tuition would be the least of her problems.

00:10:47She was still running through the fantasy.

00:10:51Who are you texting?

00:10:53Nobody.

00:10:54Ethan.

00:10:55For the next two months, can you stop talking to Taylor?

00:10:57I want you completely to myself.

00:10:59That worshipful, clingy thing she did worked on him every time.

00:11:02He didn't mind giving her that.

00:11:03It was a small ask.

00:11:04She only had two months of being his anyway, officially.

00:11:07After that, he and Taylor had all the tea in the word.

00:11:09The volunteer program here is really demanding.

00:11:11There are strict rules around phone use.

00:11:13I'll be hard to reach for a while, slow to respond.

00:11:15Don't worry.

00:11:16I'll pick you up from the airport on move-in day.

00:11:20You're the best.

00:11:21I got that text, sitting at my kitchen table, eating barbecue.

00:11:25This little...

00:11:26He's still lying to you?

00:11:27Right now?

00:11:28Block him.

00:11:29Block both of them.

00:11:30So disgusting.

00:11:31Done.

00:11:32All blocked.

00:11:33Those two are never touching my life again.

00:11:36Time moved fast.

00:11:37Before long, it was move-in day.

00:11:41The last messages were from the day the results came out.

00:11:44Him telling her not to contact him over the summer.

00:11:48Ethan, I'm finally coming to York to find you.

00:11:50He'd told her not to reach out, fine.

00:11:52But she'd actually gone the whole summer without sending a single text.

00:11:57Still, today was the day she was flying in.

00:11:59He let it go and started typing.

00:12:03Babe, are you at the airport yet?

00:12:05I'll come get you.

00:12:09He'd been blocked.

00:12:10He figured he'd misread it.

00:12:12What was going on?

00:12:19He called her straight to voicemail.

00:12:22The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

00:12:27That line, too.

00:12:29Blocked.

00:12:43Boyfriend booked the room.

00:12:44$2,000 a night.

00:12:46He wants me to put in the effort tonight.

00:12:47What do you think I should do for him?

00:12:48I thought back to a night three months before the application deadline.

00:12:51I was barely holding it together.

00:12:53I called Ethan.

00:12:55Taylor?

00:13:00Taylor, I genuinely can't afford the train ticket right now.

00:13:02You haven't been here yet.

00:13:03You don't know how expensive New York is.

00:13:05There's always something to spend money on.

00:13:07My coursework is brutal.

00:13:09I can't carve out the time.

00:13:10Can you try to be a little more mature about this?

00:13:14Couldn't scrape together a $40 train fare.

00:13:16But a $2,000 hotel suite?

00:13:18No problem.

00:13:18Brutal coursework.

00:13:19Sure.

00:13:20Racing to spend every available minute with my best friend.

00:13:24BFF Jealous?

00:13:24I bet you've never stayed in a plaza suite.

00:13:27When you move to New York, I'll have my boyfriend book you your own room for a night.

00:13:30Just you, all to yourself.

00:13:35Reading her smug little mean girl tone, I almost felt sick.

00:13:38I didn't reply.

00:13:46The day my Columbia acceptance letter arrived, I kept it a secret from everyone.

00:13:50Flew to New York to surprise my boyfriend Ethan and my best friend Lexi.

00:13:53Instead, I overheard them confess it themselves.

00:13:55To keep dating behind my back, they'd altered my application, costing me an entire gap year.

00:14:00Ethan, once Taylor gets here, can we really still be this close?

00:14:04I wish she'd never gotten to Columbia.

00:14:07Don't say that.

00:14:08Last year, to make your birthday wish come true, with the one where you wanted to date me,

00:14:12we snuck into her college application portal and clicked decline offer before decision day.

00:14:17Made her miss the deadline.

00:14:19She had to take a whole gap year because of us.

00:14:20We've been dating here in New York behind her back this entire time.

00:14:23That's already bad enough.

00:14:24When she moves to the city, I'll go back to being her boyfriend.

00:14:27Obviously.

00:14:29So we can still keep meeting like this?

00:14:31In secret?

00:14:32As long as Taylor doesn't find out.

00:14:33Right then, I was standing there.

00:14:35A complete joke.

00:14:36Ethan kept going, comforting her.

00:14:38I promised you a full year as your guy.

00:14:40Not one day less.

00:14:41Your birthday wish kicked in May 1st last year.

00:14:44It runs through May 1st this year.

00:14:45I'll give you an extra three months on top of that.

00:14:47I'm yours.

00:14:48Until the fall semester starts.

00:14:50I already told Taylor I'm staying in New York this summer.

00:14:52To do pre-med clinical volunteering at Mount Simi.

00:14:54Not going home.

00:14:55We'll stay in the city together.

00:14:57Whatever you want to do, I'm there.

00:15:26That's when we found out someone had used my account to click decline and cancel the

00:15:30deposit before the deadline.

00:15:31How is that even possible?

00:15:33The admissions rep sounded genuinely sorry.

00:15:35Your record is outstanding.

00:15:36If we'd received the confirmation, you absolutely would have been on the fall roster.

00:15:40But what the system shows us is what it shows us.

00:15:43There's nothing we can do on our end.

00:15:44Is it possible a wrong option was selected during confirmation?

00:15:47I was devastated.

00:15:48I couldn't accept it.

00:15:49And right then, Lexi FaceTimed me.

00:15:51Taylor!

00:15:51My birthday party's starting!

00:15:53Get over here!

00:15:53Ethan's already here!

00:15:54We're just waiting on you!

00:15:55I told them what happened.

00:15:56Lexi went into overdrive trying to make me feel better.

00:15:59Oh my god!

00:16:00How does that even happen?

00:16:01These things happen to everyone sometimes.

00:16:03So what are you gonna do now?

00:16:04If all else fails, pick up some credits at community college and transfer next year?

00:16:08I looked at my parents' worried faces.

00:16:10I thought about four years of work.

00:16:11No.

00:16:12I'm taking a gap year and reapplying.

00:16:14There was a beat of silence on the call.

00:16:16Then Ethan's voice.

00:16:17With your record, community college would be a waste of your time.

00:16:20Focus on reapplying.

00:16:21Lexi and I will be waiting for you at Columbia.

00:16:24Ethan's right.

00:16:24Then my birthday wish this year is for our tailor to get her Columbia offer next year.

00:16:28No problem.

00:16:29Back then, I was so touched, I almost couldn't speak.

00:16:32Turns out every bit of it was something they'd planned together.

00:16:35All of it just to hide what they were doing.

00:16:37To make her real birthday wish come true.

00:16:39Dating my boyfriend.

00:16:41I knew Lexi had a boyfriend once she got to New York.

00:16:44That part didn't surprise me.

00:16:45What I didn't know was that her boyfriend and my boyfriend were the same person.

00:16:49She texted me constantly, every day, sharing little updates about this amazing guy she was seeing.

00:16:54I was home grinding through essays and AP coursework.

00:16:56Every weekend, I'd unlock my phone to a wall of unread messages for her.

00:16:58My boyfriend sat in on my sociology lecture today.

00:17:06The professor called on him randomly, and he completely blanked.

00:17:10I'm dead.

00:17:11He'd been eyeing this vintage turntable for a while, so, drum roll, I bought it for him.

00:17:16We got a hotel room last night.

00:17:17He's so hot.

00:17:21Hey, Taylor, have you and Ethan ever actually done it?

00:17:24No.

00:17:25Ethan and I had made it official on prom night.

00:17:29After that, it was straight into the chaos of application season.

00:17:31There wasn't exactly a lot of time for anything else, and then the whole mess with my acceptance happened.

00:17:35And that killed whatever mood was left.

00:17:37When Lexi heard Ethan and I hadn't gone all the way, she sent back a voice note that was practically

00:17:41a performance.

00:17:42No?

00:17:43No way!

00:17:49Taylor, don't you know?

00:17:51If a guy doesn't even want to sleep with you, he's not actually into you.

00:17:54Oops.

00:17:54Did I say something wrong?

00:17:56I swear I'm not trying to start anything.

00:17:59Looking back, every single one of those messages was loaded.

00:18:02I was too stressed out from applications to catch it at the time.

00:18:05I just changed the subject.

00:18:07Anyway, you move fast.

00:18:08You got a boyfriend your first week of school at some party?

00:18:11What does he look like?

00:18:12Send a pic.

00:18:13Let me see if he's good enough for you.

00:18:15One word.

00:18:15Hot.

00:18:16How hot?

00:18:17Hot enough that the second you saw his face, you'd pass out on the spot.

00:18:20But he hates photos, so no pics for you.

00:18:23And now, standing outside the apartment, watching the two of them together, I genuinely felt a little dizzy.

00:18:28What are you up to?

00:18:35At the hospital doing shadowing, completely slammed.

00:18:37I held down the nausea and replied,

00:18:39Take a pic of the hospital and send it to me.

00:18:43Again?

00:18:44Why does she keep bothering you?

00:18:45She's taking up time that's supposed to be mine.

00:18:47She said it like she was the real girlfriend.

00:18:49Like I was some unhinged stalker.

00:18:52Good thing I'm careful.

00:18:53I got photos of a hospital hallway from an upperclassman ahead of time.

00:18:55Covers it.

00:18:56Lexi still wasn't happy.

00:18:57She pushed a little further.

00:18:58You're that scared of her finding out?

00:18:59You could just tell her about us?

00:19:02If she really cares about you, really thinks of me as her best friend, how could she even be mad?

00:19:06Don't.

00:19:07Whatever's going on between us, she cannot find out.

00:19:09Ever.

00:19:10Lexi read his face and switched gears fast.

00:19:12Okay, okay, forget it.

00:19:14Don't go back to the dorms tonight.

00:19:17Let's do something fun.

00:19:19That desperate?

00:19:23I'll take care of it tonight.

00:19:26ER is slammed.

00:19:27Hospital has strict HIPAA requirements.

00:19:29Phone access is limited until this is over.

00:19:31Don't worry.

00:19:31Love you.

00:19:32I read every word.

00:19:33Then I texted my parents.

00:19:34Mom, Dad, I'm not going to Columbia.

00:19:36I'm accepting MIT's offer.

00:19:42They called immediately.

00:19:43Sweetie, what happened?

00:19:44What changed?

00:19:45You've been talking about Columbia for a year.

00:19:47Being in New York with Lexi and Ethan?

00:19:48Lexi and Ethan are together.

00:19:50My mom pulled a sharp breath on the other end.

00:19:52What?

00:19:52But at prom last year, Ethan was...

00:19:55She stopped herself.

00:19:56Like she just figured something out.

00:19:57Didn't finish the sentence.

00:19:58I was the one reassuring them.

00:19:59My application this year was stronger.

00:20:01I got into MIT.

00:20:03Physics at MIT is better than Columbia by a long shot anyway.

00:20:05I was willing to go to New York because I had people there.

00:20:08Turns out those two aren't worth giving up the top engineering school in the country.

00:20:12I'll talk later.

00:20:13I need to book a flight home.

00:20:14Tonight I want your barbecue.

00:20:15My dad's voice came through, anger barely under control.

00:20:17We were all fooled.

00:20:19Lexi's private high school tuition, her college tuition right now.

00:20:23Your mother and I have been paying all of it.

00:20:24If this is how she's going to treat you, we are done being her ATM next semester.

00:20:28Done.

00:20:29Okay.

00:20:30Lexi and I had grown up together.

00:20:31She came from a broken home.

00:20:33Ninth grade.

00:20:34Her parents divorced and moved to separate states.

00:20:36Left her behind.

00:20:37No plan for her education.

00:20:38Nothing.

00:20:38I was the one who begged my parents to step in.

00:20:41Mom, Dad, can we please help her?

00:20:42She doesn't even have money to finish high school.

00:20:44Just think of it as charity.

00:20:46When we're in college, we'll get jobs and pay you back.

00:20:47My parents didn't even hesitate.

00:20:49They said yes.

00:20:50Paid her private high school tuition.

00:20:52Let her move into the guest room.

00:20:53Covered Columbia's 80-something thousand a year in tuition and housing without blinking.

00:20:57Taylor, I will never forget what your family has done for me.

00:20:59When I graduate and land something on Wall Street, I'll pay back every cent with interest.

00:21:03Turns out this was her version of paying it back.

00:21:07I turned around and called an Uber to JFK Airport.

00:21:19Boyfriend booked the room.

00:21:20$2,000 a night.

00:21:21He wants me to put in the effort tonight.

00:21:23What do you think I should do for him?

00:21:24I thought back to a night three months before the application deadline.

00:21:27I was barely holding it together.

00:21:29I called Ethan.

00:21:31Taylor?

00:21:31Can you come home this weekend?

00:21:32Just once?

00:21:33I really need you.

00:21:34He said no without missing a beat.

00:21:36Taylor, I genuinely can't afford the train ticket right now.

00:21:38You haven't been here yet.

00:21:39You don't know how expensive New York is.

00:21:41There's always something to spend money on.

00:21:43My coursework is brutal.

00:21:44I can't carve out the time.

00:21:45Can you try to be a little more mature about this?

00:21:49Couldn't scrape together a $40 train fare.

00:21:51But a $2,000 hotel suite?

00:21:53No problem.

00:21:54Brutal coursework.

00:21:55Sure.

00:21:56Racing to spend every available minute with my best friend.

00:21:59BFF Jealous?

00:22:00I bet you've never stayed in a plaza suite.

00:22:02When you move to New York, I'll have my boyfriend book you your own room for a night.

00:22:06Just you.

00:22:06All to yourself.

00:22:10Reading her smug little mean girl tone, I almost felt sick.

00:22:14I didn't reply.

00:22:19Lexi didn't hear back from Taylor and didn't think much of it.

00:22:22She figured Taylor was just too jealous to respond, which honestly made sense.

00:22:27Lexi had spent the last year living her best college life, using Taylor's parents' card,

00:22:31going everywhere with Taylor's boyfriend.

00:22:33And Taylor?

00:22:34Still home, hunched over essays.

00:22:37Her main priority now was locking Ethan down for good.

00:22:41She was dying to rub all of it in Taylor's face.

00:22:44But the timing wasn't right yet.

00:22:46For one thing, Ethan still felt guilty about Taylor.

00:22:49He'd been enjoying what she'd essentially handed him.

00:22:52But Lexi could tell, in the back of his mind, Ethan still saw Taylor as the right kind of girl.

00:22:57The one you actually end up with.

00:22:59If she pushed him into a confrontation with Taylor now, there was a real chance Ethan would panic

00:23:03and drop her to try to fix things.

00:23:05That was not the ending she was going for.

00:23:07Her plan was to replace Taylor in his head slowly, step by step, until Ethan was the one who called

00:23:12it.

00:23:12That moment hadn't come yet.

00:23:14And for another thing, she still needed Taylor's parents to cover the rest of her tuition.

00:23:17She could not blow this up too early.

00:23:19Although, Ethan's family had money.

00:23:21Real money.

00:23:21Once she had him fully, tuition would be the least of her problems.

00:23:24She was still running through the fantasy.

00:23:28Who are you texting?

00:23:30Nobody.

00:23:31Ethan.

00:23:32For the next two months, can you stop talking to Taylor?

00:23:34I want you completely to myself.

00:23:36That worshipful, clingy thing she did worked on him every time.

00:23:39He didn't mind giving her that.

00:23:40It was a small ask.

00:23:41She only had two months of being his anyway, officially.

00:23:43After that, he and Taylor had all the tea in the word.

00:23:45The volunteer program here is really demanding.

00:23:47There are strict rules around phone use.

00:23:49I'll be hard to reach for a while, slow to respond.

00:23:52Don't worry.

00:23:53I'll pick you up from the airport on move-in day.

00:23:56You're the best.

00:23:58I got that text, sitting at my kitchen table, eating barbecue.

00:24:02This little...

00:24:02He's still lying to you?

00:24:03Right now?

00:24:04Block him.

00:24:05Block both of them.

00:24:06So disgusting.

00:24:07Done.

00:24:08All blocked.

00:24:10Those two are never touching my life again.

00:24:13Time moved fast.

00:24:14Before long, it was move-in day.

00:24:18The last messages were from the day the results came out.

00:24:21Him telling her not to contact him over the summer.

00:24:24Ethan, I'm finally coming to York to find you.

00:24:26He'd told her not to reach out, fine.

00:24:29But she'd actually gone the whole summer without sending a single text.

00:24:33Still, today was the day she was flying in.

00:24:36He let it go and started typing.

00:24:39Babe, are you at the airport yet?

00:24:41I'll come get you.

00:24:46He'd been blocked.

00:24:47He figured he'd misread it.

00:24:49What was going on?

00:24:56He called her straight to voicemail.

00:24:59The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

00:25:04That line, too.

00:25:06Blocked.

00:25:20Boyfriend booked the room.

00:25:21$2,000 a night.

00:25:22He wants me to put in the effort tonight.

00:25:24What do you think I should do for him?

00:25:25I thought back to a night three months before the application deadline.

00:25:28I was barely holding it together.

00:25:30I called Ethan.

00:25:32Taylor?

00:25:32Can you come home this weekend?

00:25:34Just once?

00:25:34I really need you.

00:25:35He said no without missing a beat.

00:25:37Taylor, I genuinely can't afford the train ticket right now.

00:25:39You haven't been here yet.

00:25:40You don't know how expensive New York is.

00:25:42There's always something to spend money on.

00:25:44My coursework is brutal.

00:25:45I can't carve out the time.

00:25:47Can you try to be a little more mature about this?

00:25:50Couldn't scrape together a $40 train fare.

00:25:53But a $2,000 hotel suite?

00:25:54No problem.

00:25:55Brutal coursework.

00:25:56Sure.

00:25:57Racing to spend every available minute with my best friend.

00:26:00BFF jealous?

00:26:01I bet you've never stayed in a plaza suite.

00:26:03When you move to New York, I'll have my boyfriend book you your own room for a night.

00:26:07Just you.

00:26:07All to yourself.

00:26:11Reading her smug little mean girl tone, I almost felt sick.

00:26:15I didn't reply.

00:26:22The day my Columbia acceptance letter arrived, I kept it a secret from everyone.

00:26:26Flew to New York to surprise my boyfriend Ethan and my best friend Lexi.

00:26:30Instead, I overheard them confess it themselves.

00:26:32To keep dating behind my back.

00:26:33They'd altered my application, costing me an entire gap year.

00:26:37Ethan, once Taylor gets here, can we really still be this close?

00:26:40I wish she'd never gotten to Columbia.

00:26:44Don't say that.

00:26:45Last year, to make your birthday wish come true, with the one where you wanted to date

00:26:48me, we snuck into her college application portal and clicked decline offer before decision

00:26:52day.

00:26:54Made her miss the deadline.

00:26:55She had to take a whole gap year because of us.

00:26:57We've been dating here in New York behind her back this entire time.

00:26:59That's already bad enough.

00:27:00When she moves to the city, I'll go back to being her boyfriend.

00:27:04Obviously.

00:27:06So we can still keep meeting like this?

00:27:08In secret?

00:27:09As long as Taylor doesn't find out.

00:27:10Right then, I was standing there.

00:27:12A complete joke.

00:27:13Ethan kept going, comforting her.

00:27:15I promised you a full year as your guy.

00:27:17Not one day less.

00:27:18Your birthday wish kicked in May 1st last year.

00:27:21It runs through May 1st this year.

00:27:22I'll give you an extra three months on top of that.

00:27:24I'm yours.

00:27:25Until the fall semester starts.

00:27:26I already told Taylor I'm staying in New York this summer.

00:27:28To do pre-med clinical volunteering at Mount Simi.

00:27:31Not going home.

00:27:32We'll stay in the city together.

00:27:33Whatever you want to do, I'm there.

00:27:43I thought back to last May 1st.

00:27:45That was Lexi's birthday.

00:27:46It was also the day I found out I was locked out of my dream school for good.

00:27:50I'd stared at my student portal showing offer declined and couldn't believe it.

00:27:53My SAT scores and GPA were the highest out of the three of us.

00:27:55Both of them had gotten into Columbia without a problem.

00:27:58Only me, somehow, impossibly had lost my spot.

00:28:00My parents panicked and called the admissions office.

00:28:03That's when we found out someone had used my account to click decline and cancel the deposit before the deadline.

00:28:08How is that even possible?

00:28:09The admissions rep sounded genuinely sorry.

00:28:12Your record is outstanding.

00:28:13If we'd received the confirmation, you absolutely would have been on the fall roster.

00:28:16But what the system shows us is what it shows us.

00:28:19There's nothing we can do on our end.

00:28:21Is it possible a wrong option was selected during confirmation?

00:28:24I was devastated.

00:28:25I couldn't accept it.

00:28:26And right then, Lexi FaceTimed me.

00:28:28Taylor!

00:28:28My birthday party's starting!

00:28:29Get over here!

00:28:30Ethan's already here!

00:28:31We're just waiting on you!

00:28:32I told them what happened.

00:28:33Lexi went into overdrive trying to make me feel better.

00:28:36Oh my god!

00:28:36How does that even happen?

00:28:38These things happen to everyone sometimes.

00:28:40So what are you gonna do now?

00:28:41If all else fails, pick up some credits at community college and transfer next year?

00:28:44I looked at my parents' worried faces.

00:28:46I thought about four years of work.

00:28:48No, I'm taking a gap year and reapplying.

00:28:51There was a beat of silence on the call.

00:28:52Then Ethan's voice.

00:28:54With your record, community college would be a waste of your time.

00:28:56Focus on reapplying.

00:28:58Lexi and I will be waiting for you at Columbia.

00:29:00Ethan's right.

00:29:01Then my birthday wish this year is for our tailor to get her Columbia offer next year.

00:29:05No problem.

00:29:05Back then, I was so touched, I almost couldn't speak.

00:29:09Turns out every bit of it was something they'd planned together.

00:29:12All of it just to hide what they were doing.

00:29:13To make her real birthday wish come true.

00:29:15Dating my boyfriend.

00:29:18I knew Lexi had a boyfriend once she got to New York.

00:29:21That part didn't surprise me.

00:29:22What I didn't know was that her boyfriend and my boyfriend were the same person.

00:29:26She texted me constantly, every day, sharing little updates about this amazing guy she was seeing.

00:29:30I was home grinding through essays and AP coursework.

00:29:32Every weekend, I'd unlock my phone to a wall of unread messages for her.

00:29:35My boyfriend sat in on my sociology lecture today.

00:29:43The professor called on him randomly, and he completely blanked.

00:29:46He'd been eyeing this vintage turntable for a while, so, drum roll, I bought it for him.

00:29:53We got a hotel room last night.

00:29:54He's so hot.

00:29:57Hey Taylor, have you and Ethan ever actually done it?

00:30:00No.

00:30:02Ethan and I had made it official on prom night.

00:30:05After that, it was straight into the chaos of application season.

00:30:08There wasn't exactly a lot of time for anything else, and then the whole mess with my acceptance happened, and

00:30:12that killed whatever mood was left.

00:30:14When Lexi heard Ethan and I hadn't gone all the way, she sent back a voice note that was practically

00:30:18a performance.

00:30:19No?

00:30:20No way!

00:30:26Taylor, don't you know?

00:30:27If a guy doesn't even want to sleep with you, he's not actually into you.

00:30:30Oops.

00:30:31Did I say something wrong?

00:30:32I swear I'm not trying to start anything.

00:30:35Looking back, every single one of those messages was loaded.

00:30:39I was too stressed out from applications to catch it at the time.

00:30:42I just changed the subject.

00:30:43Anyway, you move fast.

00:30:45You got a boyfriend your first week of school at some party?

00:30:48What does he look like?

00:30:49Send a pic.

00:30:50Let me see if he's good enough for you.

00:30:51One word.

00:30:52Hot.

00:30:53How hot?

00:30:54Hot enough that the second you saw his face, you'd pass out on the spot.

00:30:57But he hates photos, so no pics for you.

00:31:00And now, standing outside the apartment, watching the two of them together, I genuinely felt a little dizzy.

00:31:05What are you up to?

00:31:11At the hospital doing shadowing, completely slammed.

00:31:14I held down the nausea and replied.

00:31:16Take a pic of the hospital and send it to me.

00:31:20Again?

00:31:20Why does she keep bothering you?

00:31:22She's taking up time that's supposed to be mine.

00:31:24She said it like she was the real girlfriend.

00:31:25Like I was some unhinged stalker.

00:31:28Good thing I'm careful.

00:31:29I got photos of a hospital hallway from an upperclassman ahead of time.

00:31:32Covers it.

00:31:32Lexi still wasn't happy.

00:31:34She pushed a little further.

00:31:35You're that scared of her finding out?

00:31:36You could just tell her about us.

00:31:39If she really cares about you, really thinks of me as her best friend, how could she even be mad?

00:31:43Don't.

00:31:44Whatever's going on between us, she cannot find out.

00:31:46Ever.

00:31:46Lexi read his face and switched gears fast.

00:31:49Okay, okay, forget it.

00:31:50Don't go back to the dorms tonight.

00:31:53Let's do something fun.

00:31:56That desperate?

00:32:00I'll take care of it tonight.

00:32:03ER is slammed.

00:32:04Hospital has strict HIPAA requirements.

00:32:05Phone access is limited until this is over.

00:32:07Don't worry.

00:32:08Love you.

00:32:08I read every word.

00:32:09Then I texted my parents.

00:32:11Mom, Dad, I'm not going to Columbia.

00:32:13I'm accepting MIT's offer.

00:32:19They called immediately.

00:32:20Sweetie, what happened?

00:32:21What changed?

00:32:22You've been talking about Columbia for a year.

00:32:23Being in New York with Lexi and Ethan.

00:32:25Lexi and Ethan are together.

00:32:27My mom pulled a sharp breath on the other end.

00:32:29What?

00:32:29But at prom last year, Ethan was...

00:32:31She stopped herself.

00:32:32Like she just figured something out.

00:32:34Didn't finish the sentence.

00:32:35I was the one reassuring them.

00:32:36My application this year was stronger.

00:32:38I got into MIT.

00:32:39Physics at MIT is better than Columbia by a long shot anyway.

00:32:42I was willing to go to New York because I had people there.

00:32:45Turns out those two aren't worth giving up the top engineering school in the country.

00:32:48I'll talk later.

00:32:49I need to book a flight home.

00:32:51Tonight I want your barbecue.

00:32:52My dad's voice came through, anger barely under control.

00:32:54We were all fooled.

00:32:56Lexi's private high school tuition.

00:32:58Her college tuition right now.

00:32:59Your mother and I have been paying all of it.

00:33:01If this is how she's going to treat you, we are done being her ATM next semester.

00:33:05Done.

00:33:06Okay.

00:33:07Lexi and I had grown up together.

00:33:08She came from a broken home.

00:33:09Ninth grade, her parents divorced and moved to separate states.

00:33:13Left her behind.

00:33:13No plan for her education.

00:33:15Nothing.

00:33:15I was the one who begged my parents to step in.

00:33:17Mom, Dad, can we please help her?

00:33:19She doesn't even have money to finish high school.

00:33:21Just think of it as charity.

00:33:22When we're in college, we'll get jobs and pay you back.

00:33:24My parents didn't even hesitate.

00:33:26They said yes.

00:33:27Paid her private high school tuition.

00:33:28Let her move into the guest room.

00:33:30Covered Columbia's 80-something thousand a year in tuition and housing without blinking.

00:33:33Taylor, I will never forget what your family has done for me.

00:33:36When I graduate and land something on Wall Street, I'll pay back every cent with interest.

00:33:40Turns out this was her version of paying it back.

00:33:44I turned around and called an Uber to JFK Airport.

00:33:56Boyfriend booked the room.

00:33:57Two thousand dollars a night.

00:33:58He wants me to put in the effort tonight.

00:33:59What do you think I should do for him?

00:34:01I thought back to a night three months before the application deadline.

00:34:04I was barely holding it together.

00:34:06I called Ethan.

00:34:07Taylor?

00:34:08Can you come home this weekend?

00:34:09Just once?

00:34:10I really need you.

00:34:11He said no without missing a beat.

00:34:12Taylor, I genuinely can't afford the train ticket right now.

00:34:15You haven't been here yet.

00:34:16You don't know how expensive New York is.

00:34:17There's always something to spend money on.

00:34:19My coursework is brutal.

00:34:21I can't carve out the time.

00:34:22Can you try to be a little more mature about this?

00:34:26Couldn't scrape together a $40 train fare.

00:34:28But a $2,000 hotel suite?

00:34:30No problem.

00:34:31Brutal coursework.

00:34:32Sure.

00:34:32Racing to spend every available minute with my best friend.

00:34:36BFF jealous?

00:34:37I bet you've never stayed in a plaza suite.

00:34:39When you move to New York, I'll have my boyfriend book you your own room for a night.

00:34:42Just you.

00:34:43All to yourself.

00:34:47Reading her smug little mean girl tone, I almost felt sick.

00:34:50I didn't reply.

00:34:56Lexi didn't hear back from Taylor and didn't think much of it.

00:34:59She figured Taylor was just too jealous to respond, which honestly made sense.

00:35:03Lexi had spent the last year living her best college life using Taylor's parents' card,

00:35:08going everywhere with Taylor's boyfriend.

00:35:10And Taylor?

00:35:11Still home, hunched over essays.

00:35:14Her main priority now was locking Ethan down for good.

00:35:18She was dying to rub all of it in Taylor's face.

00:35:20But the timing wasn't right yet.

00:35:23For one thing, Ethan still felt guilty about Taylor.

00:35:26He'd been enjoying what she'd essentially handed him.

00:35:29But Lexi could tell, in the back of his mind,

00:35:32Ethan still saw Taylor as the right kind of girl.

00:35:34The one you actually end up with.

00:35:36If she pushed him into a confrontation with Taylor now,

00:35:38there was a real chance Ethan would panic and drop her to try to fix things.

00:35:42That was not the ending she was going for.

00:35:44Her plan was to replace Taylor in his head slowly, step by step,

00:35:47until Ethan was the one who called it.

00:35:49That moment hadn't come yet.

00:35:50And for another thing, she still needed Taylor's parents to cover the rest of her tuition.

00:35:54She could not blow this up too early.

00:35:56Although Ethan's family had money.

00:35:57Real money.

00:35:58Once she had him fully, tuition would be the least of her problems.

00:36:01She was still running through the fantasy.

00:36:04Who are you texting?

00:36:07Nobody.

00:36:07Ethan.

00:36:08For the next two months, can you stop talking to Taylor?

00:36:11I want you completely to myself.

00:36:13That worshipful, clingy thing she did worked on him every time.

00:36:15He didn't mind giving her that.

00:36:16It was a small ask.

00:36:18She only had two months of being his anyway, officially.

00:36:20After that, he and Taylor had all the time to be in the word.

00:36:22The volunteer program here is really demanding.

00:36:24There are strict rules around phone use.

00:36:26I'll be hard to reach for a while, slow to respond.

00:36:29Don't worry.

00:36:29I'll pick you up from the airport on move-in day.

00:36:33You're the best.

00:36:34I got that text sitting at my kitchen table eating barbecue.

00:36:38This little...

00:36:39He's still lying to you?

00:36:40Right now?

00:36:41Block him.

00:36:42Block both of them.

00:36:43So disgusting.

00:36:44Done.

00:36:45All blocked.

00:36:46Those two are never touching my life again.

00:36:49Time moved fast.

00:36:51Before long, it was move-in day.

00:36:55The last messages were from the day the results came out.

00:36:58Him telling her not to contact him over the summer.

00:37:01Ethan, I'm finally coming to New York to find you.

00:37:03He'd told her not to reach out, fine.

00:37:05But she'd actually gone the whole summer without sending a single text.

00:37:10Still, today was the day she was flying in.

00:37:13He let it go and started typing.

00:37:16Babe, are you at the airport yet?

00:37:18I'll come get you.

00:37:22He'd been blocked.

00:37:24He figured he'd misread it.

00:37:26What was going on?

00:37:32He called her straight to voicemail.

00:37:36The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

00:37:41That line, too.

00:37:42Blocked.

00:37:57Boyfriend booked the room.

00:37:58$2,000 a night.

00:37:59He wants me to put in the effort tonight.

00:38:01What do you think I should do for him?

00:38:02I thought back to a night three months before the application deadline.

00:38:05I was barely holding it together.

00:38:06I called Ethan.

00:38:08Taylor?

00:38:09Can you come home this weekend?

00:38:10Just once?

00:38:11I really need you.

00:38:12He said no without missing a beat.

00:38:14Taylor, I genuinely can't afford the train ticket right now.

00:38:16You haven't been here yet.

00:38:17You don't know how expensive New York is.

00:38:18There's always something to spend money on.

00:38:20My coursework is brutal.

00:38:22I can't carve out the time.

00:38:23Can you try to be a little more mature about this?

00:38:27Couldn't scrape together a $40 train fare.

00:38:29But a $2,000 hotel suite?

00:38:31No problem.

00:38:32Brutal coursework.

00:38:33Sure.

00:38:33Racing to spend every available minute with my best friend.

00:38:37BFF jealous?

00:38:38I bet you've never stayed in a plaza suite.

00:38:40When you move to New York, I'll have my boyfriend book you your own room for a night.

00:38:43Just you.

00:38:44All to yourself.

00:38:48Reading her smug little mean girl tone, I almost felt sick.

00:38:51I didn't reply.

00:38:59The day my Columbia acceptance letter arrived, I kept it a secret from everyone.

00:39:03Flew to New York to surprise my boyfriend Ethan and my best friend Lexi.

00:39:06Instead, I overheard them confess it themselves to keep dating behind my back.

00:39:10They'd altered my application, costing me an entire gap year.

00:39:13Ethan, once Taylor gets here, can we really still be this close?

00:39:17I wish she'd never gotten to Columbia.

00:39:20Don't say that.

00:39:21Last year, to make your birthday wish come true,

00:39:24with the one where you wanted to date me,

00:39:25we snuck into her college application portal and clicked decline offer before decision day.

00:39:31Made her miss the deadline.

00:39:32She had to take a whole gap year because of us.

00:39:34We've been dating here in New York behind her back this entire time.

00:39:36That's already bad enough.

00:39:37When she moves to the city, I'll go back to being her boyfriend.

00:39:40Obviously.

00:39:43So we can still keep meeting like this, in secret?

00:39:45As long as Taylor doesn't find out.

00:39:47Right then, I was standing there, a complete joke.

00:39:50Ethan kept going, comforting her.

00:39:51I promised you a full year as your guy, not one day less.

00:39:55Your birthday wish kicked in May 1st last year.

00:39:57It runs through May 1st this year.

00:39:59I'll give you an extra three months on top of that.

00:40:01I'm yours, until the fall semester starts.

00:40:03I already told Taylor I'm staying in New York this summer,

00:40:05to do pre-med clinical volunteering at Mount Sinai, not going home.

00:40:08We'll stay in the city together.

00:40:10Whatever you want to do, I'm there.

00:40:20I thought back to last May 1st.

00:40:22That was Lexi's birthday.

00:40:23It was also the day I found out I was locked out of my dream school for good.

00:40:26I'd stared at my student portal showing offer declined and couldn't believe it.

00:40:29My SAT scores and GPA were the highest out of the three of us.

00:40:32Both of them had gotten into Columbia without a problem.

00:40:34Only me, somehow, impossibly had lost my spot.

00:40:37My parents panicked and called the admissions office.

00:40:39That's when we found out someone had used my account to click decline

00:40:42and cancel the deposit before the deadline.

00:40:45How is that even possible?

00:40:46The admissions rep sounded genuinely sorry.

00:40:48Your record is outstanding.

00:40:50If we'd received the confirmation, you absolutely would have been on the fall roster.

00:40:53But what the system shows us is what it shows us.

00:40:56There's nothing we can do on our end.

00:40:58Is it possible a wrong option was selected during confirmation?

00:41:00I was devastated.

00:41:02I couldn't accept it.

00:41:02And right then, Lexi FaceTimed me.

00:41:04Taylor!

00:41:05My birthday party's starting!

00:41:06Get over here!

00:41:07Ethan's already here!

00:41:08We're just waiting on you!

00:41:09I told them what happened.

00:41:10Lexi went into overdrive trying to make me feel better.

00:41:12Oh my god!

00:41:13How does that even happen?

00:41:15These things happen to everyone sometimes.

00:41:16So what are you gonna do now?

00:41:18If all else fails, pick up some credits at community college and transfer next year?

00:41:21I looked at my parents' worried faces.

00:41:23I thought about four years of work.

00:41:25No.

00:41:26I'm taking a gap year and reapplying.

00:41:27There was a beat of silence on the call.

00:41:29Then Ethan's voice.

00:41:30With your record, community college would be a waste of your time.

00:41:33Focus on reapplying.

00:41:35Lexi and I will be waiting for you at Columbia.

00:41:37Ethan's right.

00:41:38Then my birthday wish this year is for our tailor to get her Columbia offer next year.

00:41:41No problem.

00:41:42Back then, I was so touched, I almost couldn't speak.

00:41:46Turns out every bit of it was something they'd planned together.

00:41:48All of it just to hide what they were doing.

00:41:50To make her real birthday wish come true.

00:41:52Dating my boyfriend.

00:41:55I knew Lexi had a boyfriend once she got to New York.

00:41:57That part didn't surprise me.

00:41:59What I didn't know was that her boyfriend and my boyfriend were the same person.

00:42:02She texted me constantly, every day, sharing little updates about this amazing guy she was seeing.

00:42:07I was home grinding through essays and AP coursework.

00:42:09Every weekend, I'd unlock my phone to a wall of unread messages from her.

00:42:12My boyfriend sat in on my sociology lecture today.

00:42:19The professor called on him randomly, and he completely blanked.

00:42:23I'm dead.

00:42:24He'd been eyeing this vintage turntable for a while, so, drumroll, I bought it for him.

00:42:29We got a hotel room last night.

00:42:31He's so hot.

00:42:34Hey Taylor, have you and Ethan ever actually done it?

00:42:37No.

00:42:39Ethan and I had made it official on prom night.

00:42:42After that, it was straight into the chaos of application season.

00:42:45There wasn't exactly a lot of time for anything else.

00:42:47And then the whole mess with my acceptance happened.

00:42:49And that killed whatever mood was left.

00:42:50When Lexi heard Ethan and I hadn't gone all the way,

00:42:53she sent back a voice note that was practically a performance.

00:42:55No?

00:42:56No way!

00:43:03Taylor, don't you know?

00:43:04If a guy doesn't even want to sleep with you, he's not actually into you.

00:43:07Oops.

00:43:08Did I say something wrong?

00:43:09I swear I'm not trying to start anything.

00:43:12Looking back, every single one of those messages was loaded.

00:43:15I was too stressed out from applications to catch it at the time.

00:43:18I just changed the subject.

00:43:20Anyway, you move fast.

00:43:22You got a boyfriend your first week of school at some party?

00:43:24What does he look like?

00:43:25Send a pic.

00:43:26Let me see if he's good enough for you.

00:43:28One word.

00:43:29Hot.

00:43:29How hot?

00:43:31Hot enough that the second you saw his face, you'd pass out on the spot.

00:43:34But he hates photos, so no pics for you.

00:43:36And now, standing outside the apartment, watching the two of them together,

00:43:40I genuinely felt a little dizzy.

00:43:42What are you up to?

00:43:48At the hospital doing shadowing, completely slammed.

00:43:51I held down the nausea and replied.

00:43:53Take a pic of the hospital and send it to me.

00:43:56Again?

00:43:57Why does she keep bothering you?

00:43:58She's taking up time that's supposed to be mine.

00:44:00She said it like she was the real girlfriend.

00:44:02Like I was some unhinged stalker.

00:44:05Good thing I'm careful.

00:44:06I got photos of a hospital hallway from an upperclassman ahead of time.

00:44:09Covers it.

00:44:09Lexi still wasn't happy.

00:44:10She pushed a little further.

00:44:11You're that scared of her finding out?

00:44:13You could just tell her about us?

00:44:16If she really cares about you, really thinks of me as her best friend,

00:44:18how could she even be mad?

00:44:20Don't.

00:44:20Whatever's going on between us, she cannot find out.

00:44:23Ever.

00:44:23Lexi read his face and switched gears fast.

00:44:26Okay, okay, forget it.

00:44:27Don't go back to the dorms tonight.

00:44:30Let's do something fun.

00:44:33That desperate?

00:44:37I'll take care of it tonight.

00:44:39ER is slammed.

00:44:40Hospital has strict HIPAA requirements.

00:44:42Phone access is limited until this is over.

00:44:44Don't worry.

00:44:45Love you.

00:44:45I read every word.

00:44:46Then I texted my parents.

00:44:47Mom, Dad, I'm not going to Columbia.

00:44:50I'm accepting MIT's offer.

00:44:55They called immediately.

00:44:57Sweetie, what happened?

00:44:58What changed?

00:44:58You've been talking about Columbia for a year.

00:45:00Being in New York with Lexi and Ethan.

00:45:02Lexi and Ethan are together.

00:45:03My mom pulled a sharp breath on the other end.

00:45:05What?

00:45:06But at prom last year, Ethan was...

00:45:08She stopped herself.

00:45:09Like she just figured something out.

00:45:11Didn't finish the sentence.

00:45:11I was the one reassuring them.

00:45:13My application this year was stronger.

00:45:15I got into MIT.

00:45:16Physics at MIT is better than Columbia by a long shot anyway.

00:45:19I was willing to go to New York because I had people there.

00:45:22Turns out those two aren't worth giving up the top engineering school in the country.

00:45:25I'll talk later.

00:45:26I need to book a flight home.

00:45:27Tonight I want your barbecue.

00:45:29My dad's voice came through, anger barely under control.

00:45:31We were all fooled.

00:45:32Lexi's private high school tuition.

00:45:34Her college tuition right now.

00:45:36Your mother and I have been paying all of it.

00:45:38If this is how she's going to treat you, we are done being her ATM next semester.

00:45:42Done.

00:45:43Okay.

00:45:43Lexi and I had grown up together.

00:45:45She came from a broken home.

00:45:46Ninth grade, her parents divorced and moved to separate states.

00:45:49Left her behind.

00:45:50No plan for her education.

00:45:51Nothing.

00:45:52I was the one who begged my parents to step in.

00:45:54Mom, Dad, can we please help her?

00:45:56She doesn't even have money to finish high school.

00:45:58Just think of it as charity.

00:45:59When we're in college, we'll get jobs and pay you back.

00:46:01My parents didn't even hesitate.

00:46:03They said yes.

00:46:03Paid her private high school tuition.

00:46:05Let her move into the guest room.

00:46:06Covered Columbia's 80-something thousand a year in tuition and housing without blinking.

00:46:10Taylor, I will never forget what your family has done for me.

00:46:12When I graduate and land something on Wall Street, I'll pay back every cent with interest.

00:46:16Turns out this was her version of paying it back.

00:46:20I turned around and called an Uber to JFK Airport.

00:46:32Boyfriend booked the room.

00:46:33Two thousand dollars a night.

00:46:35He wants me to put in the effort tonight.

00:46:36What do you think I should do for him?

00:46:37I thought back to a night three months before the application deadline.

00:46:40I was barely holding it together.

00:46:42I called Ethan.

00:46:44Taylor?

00:46:45Can you come home this weekend?

00:46:46Just once?

00:46:46I really need you.

00:46:47He said no without missing a beat.

00:46:49Taylor, I genuinely can't afford the train ticket right now.

00:46:51You haven't been here yet.

00:46:52You don't know how expensive New York is.

00:46:54There's always something to spend money on.

00:46:56My coursework is brutal.

00:46:57I can't carve out the time.

00:46:59Can you try to be a little more mature about this?

00:47:03Couldn't scrape together a $40 train fare.

00:47:05But a $2,000 hotel suite?

00:47:07No problem.

00:47:07Brutal coursework.

00:47:08Sure.

00:47:09Racing to spend every available minute with my best friend.

00:47:13BFF jealous?

00:47:14I bet you've never stayed in a plaza suite.

00:47:16When you move to New York, I'll have my boyfriend book you your own room for a night.

00:47:19Just you.

00:47:20All to yourself.

00:47:24Reading her smug little mean girl tone, I almost felt sick.

00:47:27I didn't reply.

00:47:32Lexi didn't hear back from Taylor and didn't think much of it.

00:47:35She figured Taylor was just too jealous to respond, which honestly made sense.

00:47:40Lexi had spent the last year living her best college life using Taylor's parents' card,

00:47:45going everywhere with Taylor's boyfriend.

00:47:47And Taylor?

00:47:48Still home, hunched over essays.

00:47:51Her main priority now was locking Ethan down for good.

00:47:54She was dying to rub all of it in Taylor's face.

00:47:57But the timing wasn't right yet.

00:47:59For one thing, Ethan still felt guilty about Taylor.

00:48:03He'd been enjoying what she'd essentially handed him.

00:48:05But Lexi could tell.

00:48:07In the back of his mind, Ethan still saw Taylor as the right kind of girl.

00:48:11The one you actually end up with.

00:48:12If she pushed him into a confrontation with Taylor now,

00:48:15there was a real chance Ethan would panic and drop her to try to fix things.

00:48:18That was not the ending she was going for.

00:48:20Her plan was to replace Taylor in his head slowly, step by step,

00:48:24until Ethan was the one who called it.

00:48:26That moment hadn't come yet.

00:48:27And for another thing, she still needed Taylor's parents to cover the rest of her tuition.

00:48:31She could not blow this up too early.

00:48:32Although Ethan's family had money.

00:48:34Real money.

00:48:35Once she had him fully, tuition would be the least of her problems.

00:48:37She was still running through the fantasy.

00:48:41Who are you texting?

00:48:43Nobody.

00:48:44Ethan.

00:48:45For the next two months, can you stop talking to Taylor?

00:48:47I want you completely to myself.

00:48:49That worshipful, clingy thing she did worked on him every time.

00:48:52He didn't mind giving her that.

00:48:53It was a small ask.

00:48:54She only had two months of being his anyway, officially.

00:48:57After that, he and Taylor had all the time in the word.

00:48:59The volunteer program here is really demanding.

00:49:01There are strict rules around phone use.

00:49:03I'll be hard to reach for a while, slow to respond.

00:49:05Don't worry.

00:49:06I'll pick you up from the airport on move-in day.

00:49:10You're the best.

00:49:11I got that text sitting at my kitchen table eating barbecue.

00:49:15This little...

00:49:16He's still lying to you?

00:49:17Right now?

00:49:18Block him.

00:49:19Block both of them.

00:49:20So disgusting.

00:49:21Done.

00:49:22All blocked.

00:49:23Those two are never touching my life again.

00:49:26Time moved fast.

00:49:28Before long, it was move-in day.

00:49:31The last messages were from the day the results came out.

00:49:35Him telling her not to contact him over the summer.

00:49:38Ethan, I'm finally coming to New York to find you.

00:49:40He'd told her not to reach out.

00:49:41Fine.

00:49:42But she'd actually gone the whole summer without sending a single text.

00:49:47Still, today was the day she was flying in.

00:49:49He let it go and started typing.

00:49:53Babe, are you at the airport yet?

00:49:55I'll come get you.

00:49:59He'd been blocked.

00:50:00He figured he'd misread it.

00:50:02What was going on?

00:50:09He called her straight to voicemail.

00:50:13The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

00:50:18That line, too.

00:50:19Blocked.

00:50:33Boyfriend booked the room.

00:50:35$2,000 a night.

00:50:36He wants me to put in the effort tonight.

00:50:37What do you think I should do for him?

00:50:39I thought back to a night three months before the application deadline.

00:50:41I was barely holding it together.

00:50:43I called Ethan.

00:50:45Taylor?

00:50:46Can you come home this weekend?

00:50:47Just once?

00:50:48I really need you.

00:50:49He said no without missing a beat.

00:50:50Taylor, I genuinely can't afford the train ticket right now.

00:50:52You haven't been here yet.

00:50:53You don't know how expensive New York is.

00:50:55There's always something to spend money on.

00:50:57My coursework is brutal.

00:50:59I can't carve out the time.

00:51:00Can you try to be a little more mature about this?

00:51:04Couldn't scrape together a $40 train fare.

00:51:06But a $2,000 hotel suite?

00:51:08No problem.

00:51:09Brutal coursework.

00:51:10Sure.

00:51:10Racing to spend every available minute with my best friend.

00:51:14BFF Jealous?

00:51:15I bet you've never stayed in a plaza suite.

00:51:17When you move to New York, I'll have my boyfriend book you your own room for a night.

00:51:20Just you.

00:51:21All to yourself.

00:51:25Reading her smug little mean girl tone, I almost felt sick.

00:51:28I didn't reply.

00:51:36The day my Columbia acceptance letter arrived, I kept it a secret from everyone.

00:51:40Flew to New York to surprise my boyfriend Ethan and my best friend Lexi.

00:51:43Instead, I overheard them confess it themselves.

00:51:45To keep dating behind my back.

00:51:46They'd altered my application, costing me an entire gap year.

00:51:50Ethan, once Taylor gets here, can we really still be this close?

00:51:53I wish she'd never gotten to Columbia.

00:51:57Don't say that.

00:51:58Last year, to make your birthday wish come true, with the one where you wanted to date me,

00:52:02we snuck into her college application portal and clicked decline offer before decision day.

00:52:07Made her miss the deadline.

00:52:09She had to take a whole gap year because of us.

00:52:11We've been dating here in New York behind her back this entire time.

00:52:13That's already bad enough.

00:52:14When she moves to the city, I'll go back to being her boyfriend.

00:52:17Obviously.

00:52:19So we can still keep meeting like this?

00:52:21In secret?

00:52:22As long as Taylor doesn't find out.

00:52:23Right then, I was standing there.

00:52:25A complete joke.

00:52:26Ethan kept going, comforting her.

00:52:28I promised you a full year as your guy.

00:52:30Not one day less.

00:52:31Your birthday wish kicked in May 1st last year.

00:52:34It runs through May 1st this year.

00:52:35I'll give you an extra three months on top of that.

00:52:37I'm yours.

00:52:38Until the fall semester starts.

00:52:40I already told Taylor I'm staying in New York this summer.

00:52:42To do pre-med clinical volunteering at Mount Sinai.

00:52:44Not going home.

00:52:45We'll stay in the city together.

00:52:47Whatever you want to do, I'm there.

00:52:56I thought back to last May 1st.

00:52:58That was Lexi's birthday.

00:53:00It was also the day I found out I was locked out of my dream school for good.

00:53:03I'd stared at my student portal showing offer declined and couldn't believe it.

00:53:06My SAT scores and GPA were the highest out of the three of us.

00:53:09Both of them had gotten into Columbia without a problem.

00:53:11Only me, somehow, impossibly had lost my spot.

00:53:14My parents panicked and called the admissions office.

00:53:16That's when we found out someone had used my account to click decline and cancel the

00:53:20deposit before the deadline.

00:53:21How is that even possible?

00:53:23The admissions rep sounded genuinely sorry.

00:53:25Your record is outstanding.

00:53:27If we'd received the confirmation, you absolutely would have been on the fall roster.

00:53:30But what the system shows us is what it shows us.

00:53:33There's nothing we can do on our end.

00:53:34Is it possible a wrong option was selected during confirmation?

00:53:37I was devastated.

00:53:38I couldn't accept it.

00:53:39And right then, Lexi FaceTimed me.

00:53:41Taylor!

00:53:42My birthday party's starting!

00:53:43Get over here!

00:53:43Ethan's already here!

00:53:44We're just waiting on you!

00:53:45I told them what happened.

00:53:47Lexi went into overdrive trying to make me feel better.

00:53:49Oh my god!

00:53:50How does that even happen?

00:53:51These things happen to everyone sometimes.

00:53:53So what are you gonna do now?

00:53:54If all else fails, pick up some credits at community college and transfer next year?

00:53:58I looked at my parents' worried faces.

00:54:00I thought about four years of work.

00:54:02No.

00:54:02I'm taking a gap year and reapplying.

00:54:04There was a beat of silence on the call, then Ethan's voice.

00:54:06With your record, community college would be a waste of your time.

00:54:10Focus on reapplying.

00:54:12Lexi and I will be waiting for you at Columbia.

00:54:14Ethan's right.

00:54:15Then my birthday wish this year is for our tailor to get her Columbia offer next year.

00:54:18No problem.

00:54:19Back then, I was so touched, I almost couldn't speak.

00:54:22Turns out every bit of it was something they'd planned together.

00:54:25All of it just to hide what they were doing.

00:54:27To make her real birthday wish come true.

00:54:29Dating my boyfriend.

00:54:31I knew Lexi had a boyfriend once she got to New York.

00:54:34That part didn't surprise me.

00:54:35What I didn't know was that her boyfriend and my boyfriend were the same person.

00:54:39She texted me constantly, every day, sharing little updates about this amazing guy she was seeing.

00:54:44I was home grinding through essays and AP coursework.

00:54:46Every weekend, I'd unlock my phone to a wall of unread messages from her.

00:54:49My boyfriend sat in on my sociology lecture today.

00:54:56The professor called on him randomly, and he completely blanked.

00:55:00I'm dead.

00:55:01He'd been eyeing this vintage turntable for a while, so, drumroll, I bought it for him.

00:55:06We got a hotel room last night.

00:55:07He's so hot.

00:55:11Hey Taylor, have you and Ethan ever actually done it?

00:55:13No.

00:55:15Ethan and I had made it official on prom night.

00:55:19After that, it was straight into the chaos of application season.

00:55:21There wasn't exactly a lot of time for anything else.

00:55:23And then the whole mess with my acceptance happened.

00:55:25And that killed whatever mood was left.

00:55:27When Lexi heard Ethan and I hadn't gone all the way,

00:55:29she sent back a voice note that was practically a performance.

00:55:32No?

00:55:33No way!

00:55:40Taylor, don't you know?

00:55:41If a guy doesn't even want to sleep with you, he's not actually into you.

00:55:44Oops.

00:55:44Did I say something wrong?

00:55:46I swear I'm not trying to start anything.

00:55:49Looking back, every single one of those messages was loaded.

00:55:52I was too stressed out from applications to catch it at the time.

00:55:55I just changed the subject.

00:55:57Anyway, you move fast.

00:55:58You got a boyfriend your first week of school at some party?

00:56:01What does he look like?

00:56:02Send a pic.

00:56:03Let me see if he's good enough for you.

00:56:05One word.

00:56:06Hot.

00:56:06How hot?

00:56:07Hot enough that the second you saw his face, you'd pass out on the spot.

00:56:10But he hates photos, so no pics for you.

00:56:13And now, standing outside the apartment, watching the two of them together,

00:56:17I genuinely felt a little dizzy.

00:56:19What are you up to?

00:56:25At the hospital doing shadowing, completely slammed.

00:56:27I held down the nausea and replied.

00:56:29Take a pic of the hospital and send it to me.

00:56:33Again?

00:56:34Why does she keep bothering you?

00:56:35She's taking up time that's supposed to be mine.

00:56:37She said it like she was the real girlfriend.

00:56:39Like I was some unhinged stalker.

00:56:42Good thing I'm careful.

00:56:43I got photos of a hospital hallway from an upperclassman ahead of time.

00:56:45Covers it.

00:56:46Lexi still wasn't happy.

00:56:47She pushed a little further.

00:56:48You're that scared of her finding out?

00:56:49You could just tell her about us.

00:56:52If she really cares about you, really thinks of me as her best friend,

00:56:55how could she even be mad?

00:56:56Don't.

00:56:57Whatever's going on between us, she cannot find out.

00:56:59Ever.

00:57:00Lexi read his face and switched gears fast.

00:57:02Okay, okay, forget it.

00:57:04Don't go back to the dorms tonight.

00:57:07Let's do something fun.

00:57:09That desperate?

00:57:13I'll take care of it tonight.

00:57:16ER is slammed.

00:57:17Hospital has strict HIPAA requirements.

00:57:19Phone access is limited until this is over.

00:57:21Don't worry.

00:57:21Love you.

00:57:22I read every word.

00:57:23Then I texted my parents.

00:57:24Mom, Dad, I'm not going to Columbia.

00:57:26I'm accepting MIT's offer.

00:57:32They called immediately.

00:57:33Sweetie, what happened?

00:57:34What changed?

00:57:35You've been talking about Columbia for a year.

00:57:37Being in New York with Lexi and Ethan.

00:57:38Lexi and Ethan are together.

00:57:40My mom pulled a sharp breath on the other end.

00:57:42What?

00:57:43But at prom last year, Ethan was...

00:57:45She stopped herself.

00:57:46Like she just figured something out.

00:57:47Didn't finish the sentence.

00:57:48I was the one reassuring them.

00:57:49My application this year was stronger.

00:57:51I got into MIT.

00:57:53Physics at MIT is better than Columbia by a long shot anyway.

00:57:55I was willing to go to New York because I had people there.

00:57:58Turns out those two aren't worth giving up the top engineering school in the country.

00:58:02I'll talk later.

00:58:03I need to book a flight home.

00:58:04Tonight I want your barbecue.

00:58:05My dad's voice came through, anger barely under control.

00:58:08We were all fooled.

00:58:09Lexi's private high school tuition.

00:58:11Her college tuition right now.

00:58:13Your mother and I have been paying all of it.

00:58:15If this is how she's going to treat you, we are done being her ATM next semester.

00:58:18Done.

00:58:19Okay.

00:58:20Lexi and I had grown up together.

00:58:21She came from a broken home.

00:58:23Ninth grade, her parents divorced and moved to separate states.

00:58:26Left her behind.

00:58:27No plan for her education.

00:58:28Nothing.

00:58:28I was the one who begged my parents to step in.

00:58:31Mom, Dad, can we please help her?

00:58:32She doesn't even have money to finish high school.

00:58:35Just think of it as charity.

00:58:36When we're in college, we'll get jobs and pay you back.

00:58:38My parents didn't even hesitate.

00:58:39They said yes.

00:58:40Paid her private high school tuition.

00:58:42Let her move into the guest room.

00:58:43Covered Columbia's 80-something thousand a year in tuition and housing without blinking.

00:58:47Taylor, I will never forget what your family has done for me.

00:58:49When I graduate and land something on Wall Street, I'll pay back every cent with interest.

00:58:53Turns out this was her version of paying it back.

00:58:57I turned around and called an Uber to JFK Airport.

00:59:09Boyfriend booked the room.

00:59:10$2,000 a night.

00:59:11He wants me to put in the effort tonight.

00:59:13What do you think I should do for him?

00:59:14I thought back to a night three months before the application deadline.

00:59:17I was barely holding it together.

00:59:19I called Ethan.

00:59:21Taylor?

00:59:21Can you come home this weekend?

00:59:22Just once?

00:59:23I really need you.

00:59:24He said no without missing a beat.

00:59:26Taylor, I genuinely can't afford the train ticket right now.

00:59:28You haven't been here yet.

00:59:29You don't know how expensive New York is.

00:59:31There's always something to spend money on.

00:59:33My coursework is brutal.

00:59:34I can't carve out the time.

00:59:35Can you try to be a little more mature about this?

00:59:39Couldn't scrape together a $40 train fare.

00:59:42But a $2,000 hotel suite?

00:59:43No problem.

00:59:44Brutal coursework.

00:59:45Sure.

00:59:46Racing to spend every available minute with my best friend.

00:59:49BFF jealous?

00:59:50I bet you've never stayed in a plaza suite.

00:59:52When you move to New York, I'll have my boyfriend book you your own room for a night.

00:59:56Just you.

00:59:56All to yourself.

01:00:00Reading her smug little mean girl tone, I almost felt sick.

01:00:04I didn't reply.

01:00:09Lexi didn't hear back from Taylor and didn't think much of it.

01:00:12She figured Taylor was just too jealous to respond, which honestly made sense.

01:00:17Lexi had spent the last year living her best college life using Taylor's parents' card,

01:00:21going everywhere with Taylor's boyfriend.

01:00:23And Taylor?

01:00:24Still home, hunched over essays.

01:00:28Her main priority now was locking Ethan down for good.

01:00:31She was dying to rub all of it in Taylor's face.

01:00:34But the timing wasn't right yet.

01:00:36For one thing, Ethan still felt guilty about Taylor.

01:00:39He'd been enjoying what she'd essentially handed him.

01:00:42But Lexi could tell, in the back of his mind,

01:00:45Ethan still saw Taylor as the right kind of girl.

01:00:47The one you actually end up with.

01:00:49If she pushed him into a confrontation with Taylor now,

01:00:52there was a real chance Ethan would panic and drop her to try to fix things.

01:00:55That was not the ending she was going for.

01:00:57Her plan was to replace Taylor in his head slowly, step by step,

01:01:01until Ethan was the one who called it.

01:01:03That moment hadn't come yet.

01:01:04And for another thing, she still needed Taylor's parents to cover the rest of her tuition.

01:01:08She could not blow this up too early.

01:01:09Although Ethan's family had money.

01:01:11Real money.

01:01:11Once she had him fully, tuition would be the least of her problems.

01:01:14She was still running through the fantasy.

01:01:18Who are you texting?

01:01:20Nobody.

01:01:21Ethan.

01:01:22For the next two months, can you stop talking to Taylor?

01:01:24I want you completely to myself.

01:01:26That worshipful, clingy thing she did worked on him every time.

01:01:29He didn't mind giving her that.

01:01:30It was a small ask.

01:01:31She only had two months of being his anyway, officially.

01:01:33After that, he and Taylor had all the time to be in the word.

01:01:35The volunteer program here is really demanding.

01:01:37There are strict rules around phone use.

01:01:39I'll be hard to reach for a while, slow to respond.

01:01:42Don't worry.

01:01:43I'll pick you up from the airport on move-in day.

01:01:46You're the best.

01:01:48I got that text sitting at my kitchen table eating barbecue.

01:01:52This little...

01:01:52He's still lying to you?

01:01:54Right now?

01:01:54Block him.

01:01:55Block both of them.

01:01:56So disgusting.

01:01:58Done.

01:01:58All blocked.

01:02:00Those two are never touching my life again.

01:02:03Time moved fast.

01:02:04Before long, it was move-in day.

01:02:08The last messages were from the day the results came out.

01:02:11Him telling her not to contact him over the summer.

01:02:14Ethan, I'm finally coming to New York to find you.

01:02:17He'd told her not to reach out.

01:02:18Fine.

01:02:19But she'd actually gone the whole summer without sending a single text.

01:02:23Still, today was the day she was flying in.

01:02:26He let it go and started typing.

01:02:30Babe, are you at the airport yet?

01:02:31I'll come get you.

01:02:36He'd been blocked.

01:02:37He figured he'd misread it.

01:02:39What was going on?

01:02:46He called her straight to voicemail.

01:02:49The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

01:02:54That line, too.

01:02:56Blocked.

01:03:10Boyfriend booked the room.

01:03:11$2,000 a night.

01:03:12He wants me to put in the effort tonight.

01:03:14What do you think I should do for him?

01:03:15I thought back to a night three months before the application deadline.

01:03:18I was barely holding it together.

01:03:20I called Ethan.

01:03:22Taylor?

01:03:22Can you come home this weekend?

01:03:24Just once?

01:03:24I really need you.

01:03:25He said no without missing a beat.

01:03:27Taylor, I genuinely can't afford the train ticket right now.

01:03:29You haven't been here yet.

01:03:30You don't know how expensive New York is.

01:03:32There's always something to spend money on.

01:03:34My coursework is brutal.

01:03:35I can't carve out the time.

01:03:37Can you try to be a little more mature about this?

01:03:41Couldn't scrape together a $40 train fare.

01:03:43But a $2,000 hotel suite?

01:03:44No problem.

01:03:45Brutal coursework.

01:03:46Sure.

01:03:47Racing to spend every available minute with my best friend.

01:03:50BFF jealous?

01:03:52I bet you've never stayed in a plaza suite.

01:03:54When you move to New York, I'll have my boyfriend book you your own room for a night.

01:03:57Just you.

01:03:58All to yourself.

01:04:02Reading her smug little mean girl tone, I almost felt sick.

01:04:05I didn't reply.

01:04:13The day my Columbia acceptance letter arrived, I kept it a secret from everyone.

01:04:16Flew to New York to surprise my boyfriend Ethan and my best friend Lexi.

01:04:20Instead, I overheard them confess it themselves.

01:04:22To keep dating behind my back, they'd altered my application, costing me an entire gap year.

01:04:27Ethan, once Taylor gets here, can we really still be this close?

01:04:30I wish she'd never gotten to Columbia.

01:04:34Don't say that.

01:04:35Last year, to make your birthday wish come true,

01:04:37with the one where you wanted to date me,

01:04:39we snuck into her college application portal and clicked decline offer before decision day.

01:04:44Made her miss the deadline.

01:04:45She had to take a whole gap year because of us.

01:04:47We've been dating here in New York behind her back this entire time.

01:04:50That's already bad enough.

01:04:50When she moves to the city, I'll go back to being her boyfriend.

01:04:54Obviously.

01:04:56So we can still keep meeting like this?

01:04:58In secret?

01:04:59As long as Taylor doesn't find out.

01:05:00Right then, I was standing there.

01:05:02A complete joke.

01:05:03Ethan kept going, comforting her.

01:05:05I promised you a full year as your guy.

01:05:07Not one day less.

01:05:08Your birthday wish kicked in May 1st last year.

01:05:11It runs through May 1st this year.

01:05:12I'll give you an extra three months on top of that.

01:05:14I'm yours.

01:05:15Until the fall semester starts.

01:05:16I already told Taylor I'm staying in New York this summer

01:05:18to do pre-med clinical volunteering at Mount Simi, not going home.

01:05:22We'll stay in the city together.

01:05:23Whatever you want to do, I'm there.

01:05:33I thought back to last May 1st.

01:05:35That was Lexi's birthday.

01:05:36It was also the day I found out I was locked out of my dream school for good.

01:05:40I'd stared at my student portal showing offer declined and couldn't believe it.

01:05:43My SAT scores and GPA were the highest out of the three of us.

01:05:45Both of them had gotten into Columbia without a problem.

01:05:48Only me, somehow, impossibly had lost my spot.

01:05:50My parents panicked and called the admissions office.

01:05:53That's when we found out someone had used my account to click decline

01:05:56and cancel the deposit before the deadline.

01:05:58How is that even possible?

01:05:59The admissions rep sounded genuinely sorry.

01:06:02Your record is outstanding.

01:06:03If we'd received the confirmation, you absolutely would have been on the fall roster.

01:06:06But what the system shows us is what it shows us.

01:06:09There's nothing we can do on our end.

01:06:11Is it possible a wrong option was selected during confirmation?

01:06:14I was devastated.

01:06:15I couldn't accept it.

01:06:16And right then, Lexi FaceTimed me.

01:06:18Taylor, my birthday party's starting.

01:06:19Get over here.

01:06:20Ethan's already here.

01:06:21We're just waiting on you.

01:06:22I told them what happened.

01:06:23Lexi went into overdrive trying to make me feel better.

01:06:26Oh my god.

01:06:27How does that even happen?

01:06:28These things happen to everyone sometime.

01:06:30So what are you going to do now?

01:06:31If all else fails, pick up some credits at community college and transfer next year?

01:06:34I looked at my parents' worried faces.

01:06:36I thought about four years of work.

01:06:38No, I'm taking a gap year and reapplying.

01:06:41There was a beat of silence on the call.

01:06:42Then Ethan's voice.

01:06:44With your record, community college would be a waste of your time.

01:06:46Focus on reapplying.

01:06:48Lexi and I will be waiting for you at Columbia.

01:06:50Ethan's right.

01:06:51Then my birthday wish this year is for our tailor to get her Columbia offer next year.

01:06:55No problem.

01:06:56Back then, I was so touched, I almost couldn't speak.

01:06:59Turns out every bit of it was something they'd planned together.

01:07:02All of it just to hide what they were doing.

01:07:03To make her real birthday wish come true.

01:07:05Dating my boyfriend.

01:07:08I knew Lexi had a boyfriend once she got to New York.

01:07:11That part didn't surprise me.

01:07:12What I didn't know was that her boyfriend and my boyfriend were the same person.

01:07:16She texted me constantly, every day, sharing little updates about this amazing guy she was seeing.

01:07:20I was home grinding through essays and AP coursework.

01:07:22Every weekend, I'd unlock my phone to a wall of unread messages from her.

01:07:25My boyfriend sat in on my sociology lecture today.

01:07:33The professor called on him randomly, and he completely blanked.

01:07:37I'm dead.

01:07:38He'd been eyeing this vintage turntable for a while, so, drumroll, I bought it for him.

01:07:43We got a hotel room last night.

01:07:44He's so hot.

01:07:47Hey, Taylor, have you and Ethan ever actually done it?

01:07:50No.

01:07:52Ethan and I had made it official on prom night.

01:07:55After that, it was straight into the chaos of application season.

01:07:58There wasn't exactly a lot of time for anything else, and then the whole mess with my acceptance happened.

01:08:02And that killed whatever mood was left.

01:08:04When Lexi heard Ethan and I hadn't gone all the way, she sent back a voice note that was practically

01:08:08a performance.

01:08:09No?

01:08:10No way!

01:08:11No way!

01:08:16Taylor, don't you know, if a guy doesn't even want to sleep with you, he's not actually into you.

01:08:21Oops, did I say something wrong?

01:08:23I swear I'm not trying to start anything.

01:08:25Looking back, every single one of those messages was loaded.

01:08:29I was too stressed out from applications to catch it at the time.

01:08:32I just changed the subject.

01:08:33Anyway, you move fast.

01:08:35You got a boyfriend your first week of school at some party?

01:08:38What does he look like?

01:08:39Send a pic.

01:08:40Let me see if he's good enough for you.

01:08:41One word.

01:08:42Hot.

01:08:43How hot?

01:08:44Hot enough that the second you saw his face, you'd pass out on the spot.

01:08:47But he hates photos, so no pics for you.

01:08:50And now, standing outside the apartment, watching the two of them together, I genuinely felt a little dizzy.

01:08:55What are you up to?

01:09:01At the hospital doing shadowing, completely slammed.

01:09:04I held down the nausea and replied,

01:09:06Take a pic of the hospital and send it to me.

01:09:10Again?

01:09:10Why does she keep bothering you?

01:09:12She's taking up time that's supposed to be mine.

01:09:14She said it like she was the real girlfriend.

01:09:15Like I was some unhinged stalker.

01:09:19Good thing I'm careful.

01:09:20I got photos of a hospital hallway from an upperclassman ahead of time.

01:09:22Covers it.

01:09:22Lexi still wasn't happy.

01:09:24She pushed a little further.

01:09:25You're that scared of her finding out?

01:09:26You could just tell her about us?

01:09:29If she really cares about you, really thinks of me as her best friend,

01:09:32how could she even be mad?

01:09:33Don't.

01:09:34Whatever's going on between us, she cannot find out.

01:09:36Ever.

01:09:36Lexi read his face and switched gears fast.

01:09:39Okay, okay, forget it.

01:09:40Don't go back to the dorms tonight.

01:09:43Let's do something fun.

01:09:46That desperate?

01:09:50I'll take care of it tonight.

01:09:53ER is slammed.

01:09:54Hospital has strict HIPAA requirements.

01:09:56Phone access is limited until this is over.

01:09:57Don't worry.

01:09:58Love you.

01:09:58I read every word.

01:09:59Then I texted my parents.

01:10:01Mom, Dad, I'm not going to Columbia.

01:10:03I'm accepting MIT's offer.

01:10:09They called immediately.

01:10:10Sweetie, what happened?

01:10:11What changed?

01:10:12You've been talking about Columbia for a year.

01:10:14Being in New York with Lexi and Ethan.

01:10:15Lexi and Ethan are together.

01:10:17My mom pulled a sharp breath on the other end.

01:10:19What?

01:10:19But at prom last year, Ethan was...

01:10:21She stopped herself.

01:10:23Like she just figured something out.

01:10:24Didn't finish the sentence.

01:10:25I was the one reassuring them.

01:10:26My application this year was stronger.

01:10:28I got into MIT.

01:10:30Physics at MIT is better than Columbia by a long shot anyway.

01:10:32I was willing to go to New York because I had people there.

01:10:35Turns out those two aren't worth giving up the top engineering school in the country.

01:10:38I'll talk later.

01:10:40I need to book a flight home.

01:10:41Tonight I want your barbecue.

01:10:42My dad's voice came through, anger barely under control.

01:10:44We were all fooled.

01:10:46Lexi's private high school tuition.

01:10:48Her college tuition right now.

01:10:49Your mother and I have been paying all of it.

01:10:51If this is how she's going to treat you, we are done being her ATM next semester.

01:10:55Done.

01:10:56Okay.

01:10:57Lexi and I had grown up together.

01:10:58She came from a broken home.

01:10:59Ninth grade, her parents divorced and moved to separate states.

01:11:03Left her behind.

01:11:03No plan for her education.

01:11:05Nothing.

01:11:05I was the one who begged my parents to step in.

01:11:07Mom, dad, can we please help her?

01:11:09She doesn't even have money to finish high school.

01:11:11Just think of it as charity.

01:11:12When we're in college, we'll get jobs and pay you back.

01:11:14My parents didn't even hesitate.

01:11:16They said yes.

01:11:17Paid her private high school tuition.

01:11:19Let her move into the guest room.

01:11:20Covered Columbia's 80-something thousand a year in tuition and housing without blinking.

01:11:23Taylor, I will never forget what your family has done for me.

01:11:26When I graduate and land something on Wall Street, I'll pay back every cent with interest.

01:11:30Turns out this was her version of paying it back.

01:11:34I turned around and called an Uber to JFK Airport.

01:11:46Boyfriend booked the room.

01:11:47Two thousand dollars a night.

01:11:48He wants me to put in the effort tonight.

01:11:50What do you think I should do for him?

01:11:51I thought back to a night three months before the application deadline.

01:11:54I was barely holding it together.

01:11:55I called Ethan.

01:11:57Taylor?

01:11:58Can you come home this weekend?

01:11:59Just once?

01:12:00I really need you.

01:12:01He said no without missing a beat.

01:12:03Taylor, I genuinely can't afford the train ticket right now.

01:12:05You haven't been here yet.

01:12:06You don't know how expensive New York is.

01:12:07There's always something to spend money on.

01:12:09My coursework is brutal.

01:12:11I can't carve out the time.

01:12:12Can you try to be a little more mature about this?

01:12:16Couldn't scrape together a $40 train fare.

01:12:18But a $2,000 hotel suite?

01:12:20No problem.

01:12:21Brutal coursework.

01:12:22Sure.

01:12:23Racing to spend every available minute with my best friend.

01:12:26BFF jealous?

01:12:27I bet you've never stayed in a plaza suite.

01:12:29When you move to New York, I'll have my boyfriend book you your own room for a night.

01:12:32Just you.

01:12:33All to yourself.

01:12:37Reading her smug little mean girl tone, I almost felt sick.

01:12:40I didn't reply.

01:12:46Lexi didn't hear back from Taylor and didn't think much of it.

01:12:48She figured Taylor was just too jealous to respond, which honestly made sense.

01:12:53Lexi had spent the last year living her best college life using Taylor's parents' card, going everywhere with Taylor's boyfriend.

01:13:00And Taylor, still home, hunched over essays.

01:13:04Her main priority now was locking Ethan down for good.

01:13:08She was dying to rub all of it in Taylor's face.

01:13:11But the timing wasn't right yet.

01:13:12For one thing, Ethan still felt guilty about Taylor.

01:13:16He'd been enjoying what she'd essentially handed him.

01:13:19But Lexi could tell, in the back of his mind, Ethan still saw Taylor as the right kind of girl.

01:13:24The one you actually end up with.

01:13:26If she pushed him into a confrontation with Taylor now, there was a real chance Ethan would panic and drop

01:13:31her to try to fix things.

01:13:32That was not the ending she was going for.

01:13:34Her plan was to replace Taylor in his head slowly, step by step, until Ethan was the one who called

01:13:39it.

01:13:39That moment hadn't come yet.

01:13:40And for another thing, she still needed Taylor's parents to cover the rest of her tuition.

01:13:44She could not blow this up too early.

01:13:46Although, Ethan's family had money.

01:13:47Real money.

01:13:48Once she had him fully, tuition would be the least of her problems.

01:13:51She was still running through the fantasy.

01:13:54Who are you texting?

01:13:57Nobody.

01:13:57Ethan.

01:13:58For the next two months, can you stop talking to Taylor?

01:14:01I want you completely to myself.

01:14:03That worshipful, clingy thing she did worked on him every time.

01:14:05He didn't mind giving her that.

01:14:07It was a small ask.

01:14:08She only had two months of being his anyway, officially.

01:14:10After that, he and Taylor had all the tea in the word.

01:14:12The volunteer program here is really demanding.

01:14:14There are strict rules around phone use.

01:14:16I'll be hard to reach for a while, slow to respond.

01:14:19Don't worry.

01:14:20I'll pick you up from the airport on move-in day.

01:14:23You're the best.

01:14:25I got that text, sitting at my kitchen table, eating barbecue.

01:14:28This little...

01:14:29He's still lying to you?

01:14:30Right now?

01:14:31Block him.

01:14:32Block both of them.

01:14:33So disgusting.

01:14:34Done.

01:14:35All blocked.

01:14:36Those two are never touching my life again.

01:14:40Time moved fast.

01:14:41Before long, it was move-in day.

01:14:45The last messages were from the day the results came out.

01:14:48Him telling her not to contact him over the summer.

01:14:51Ethan, I'm finally coming to New York to find you.

01:14:53He'd told her not to reach out, fine.

01:14:56But she'd actually gone the whole summer without sending a single text.

01:15:00Still, today was the day she was flying in.

01:15:03He let it go and started typing.

01:15:06Babe, are you at the airport yet?

01:15:08I'll come get you.

01:15:12He'd been blocked.

01:15:13He figured he'd misread it.

01:15:16What was going on?

01:15:22He called her straight to voicemail.

01:15:26The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

01:15:31That line, too.

01:15:33Blocked.

01:15:35Blocked.

01:15:47Boyfriend booked the room.

01:15:48$2,000 a night.

01:15:49He wants me to put in the effort tonight.

01:15:51What do you think I should do for him?

01:15:52I thought back to a night three months before the application deadline.

01:15:55I was barely holding it together.

01:15:57I called Ethan.

01:15:59Taylor?

01:15:59Can you come home this weekend?

01:16:00Just once?

01:16:01I really need you.

01:16:02He said no without missing a beat.

01:16:04Taylor, I genuinely can't afford the train ticket right now.

01:16:06You haven't been here yet.

01:16:07You don't know how expensive New York is.

01:16:08There's always something to spend money on.

01:16:10My coursework is brutal.

01:16:12I can't carve out the time.

01:16:13Can you try to be a little more mature about this?

01:16:17Couldn't scrape together a $40 train fare.

01:16:19But a $2,000 hotel suite?

01:16:21No problem.

01:16:22Brutal coursework.

01:16:23Sure.

01:16:23Racing to spend every available minute with my best friend.

01:16:27BFF jealous?

01:16:28I bet you've never stayed in a plaza suite.

01:16:30When you move to New York, I'll have my boyfriend book you your own room for a night.

01:16:34Just you.

01:16:34All to yourself.

01:16:38Reading her smug little mean girl tone, I almost felt sick.

01:16:42I didn't reply.

01:16:49The day my Columbia acceptance letter arrived, I kept it a secret from everyone.

01:16:53Flew to New York to surprise my boyfriend Ethan and my best friend Lexi.

01:16:57Instead, I overheard them confess it themselves.

01:16:59To keep dating behind my back, they'd altered my application, costing me an entire gap year.

01:17:03Ethan, once Taylor gets here, can we really still be this close?

01:17:07I wish she'd never gotten to Columbia.

01:17:10Don't say that.

01:17:12Last year, to make your birthday wish come true, with the one where you wanted to date me,

01:17:15we snuck into her college application portal and clicked decline offer before decision day.

01:17:21Made her miss the deadline.

01:17:22She had to take a whole gap year because of us.

01:17:24We've been dating here in New York behind her back this entire time.

01:17:26That's already bad enough.

01:17:27When she moves to the city, I'll go back to being her boyfriend.

01:17:31Obviously.

01:17:33So we can still keep meeting like this?

01:17:35In secret?

01:17:35As long as Taylor doesn't find out.

01:17:37Right then, I was standing there.

01:17:39A complete joke.

01:17:40Ethan kept going, comforting her.

01:17:42I promised you a full year as your guy.

01:17:43Not one day less.

01:17:45Your birthday wish kicked in May 1st last year.

01:17:47It runs through May 1st this year.

01:17:49I'll give you an extra three months on top of that.

01:17:51I'm yours.

01:17:52Until the fall semester starts.

01:17:53I already told Taylor I'm staying in New York this summer.

01:17:55To do pre-med clinical volunteering at Mount Simi.

01:17:57Not going home.

01:17:59We'll stay in the city together.

01:18:00Whatever you want to do, I'm there.

01:18:10I thought back to last May 1st.

01:18:12That was Lexi's birthday.

01:18:13It was also the day I found out I was locked out of my dream school for good.

01:18:16I'd stared at my student portal showing offer declined and couldn't believe it.

01:18:19My SAT scores and GPA were the highest out of the three of us.

01:18:22Both of them had gotten into Columbia without a problem.

01:18:24Only me, somehow, impossibly had lost my spot.

01:18:27My parents panicked and called the admissions office.

01:18:30That's when we found out someone had used my account to click decline and cancel the deposit before the deadline.

01:18:35How is that even possible?

01:18:36The admissions rep sounded genuinely sorry.

01:18:38Your record is outstanding.

01:18:40If we'd received the confirmation, you absolutely would have been on the fall roster.

01:18:43But what the system shows us is what it shows us.

01:18:46There's nothing we can do on our end.

01:18:48Is it possible a wrong option was selected during confirmation?

01:18:50I was devastated.

01:18:52I couldn't accept it.

01:18:53And right then, Lexi FaceTimed me.

01:18:54Taylor!

01:18:55My birthday party's starting!

01:18:56Get over here!

01:18:57Ethan's already here!

01:18:58We're just waiting on you!

01:18:59I told them what happened.

01:19:00Lexi went into overdrive trying to make me feel better.

01:19:02Oh my god!

01:19:03How does that even happen?

01:19:05These things happen to everyone sometimes.

01:19:07So what are you gonna do now?

01:19:08If all else fails, pick up some credits at community college and transfer next year?

01:19:11I looked at my parents' worried faces.

01:19:13I thought about four years of work.

01:19:15No.

01:19:16I'm taking a gap year and reapplying.

01:19:17There was a beat of silence on the call, then Ethan's voice.

01:19:20With your record, community college would be a waste of your time.

01:19:23Focus on reapplying.

01:19:25Lexi and I will be waiting for you at Columbia.

01:19:27Ethan's right.

01:19:28Then my birthday wish this year is for our tailor to get her Columbia offer next year.

01:19:32No problem.

01:19:32Back then, I was so touched, I almost couldn't speak.

01:19:36Turns out every bit of it was something they'd planned together.

01:19:38All of it just to hide what they were doing.

01:19:40To make her real birthday wish come true.

01:19:42Dating my boyfriend.

01:19:45I knew Lexi had a boyfriend once she got to New York.

01:19:47That part didn't surprise me.

01:19:49What I didn't know was that her boyfriend and my boyfriend were the same person.

01:19:53She texted me constantly, every day, sharing little updates about this amazing guy she was seeing.

01:19:57I was home grinding through essays and AP coursework.

01:19:59Every weekend, I'd unlock my phone to a wall of unread messages from her.

01:20:02My boyfriend sat in on my sociology lecture today.

01:20:09The professor called on him randomly, and he completely blanked.

01:20:13I'm dead.

01:20:14He'd been eyeing this vintage turntable for a while, so, drumroll, I bought it for him.

01:20:19We got a hotel room last night.

01:20:21He's so hot.

01:20:24Hey, Taylor, have you and Ethan ever actually done it?

01:20:27No.

01:20:29Ethan and I had made it official on prom night.

01:20:32After that, it was straight into the chaos of application season.

01:20:35There wasn't exactly a lot of time for anything else.

01:20:37And then the whole mess with my acceptance happened.

01:20:39And that killed whatever mood was left.

01:20:40When Lexi heard Ethan and I hadn't gone all the way,

01:20:43she sent back a voice note that was practically a performance.

01:20:46No?

01:20:46No way!

01:20:47No way!

01:20:53Taylor, don't you know, if a guy doesn't even want to sleep with you, he's not actually into you.

01:20:57Oops, did I say something wrong?

01:20:59I swear I'm not trying to start anything.

01:21:02Looking back, every single one of those messages was loaded.

01:21:05I was too stressed out from applications to catch it at the time.

01:21:09I just changed the subject.

01:21:10Anyway, you move fast.

01:21:12You got a boyfriend your first week of school at some party?

01:21:14What does he look like?

01:21:16Send a pic.

01:21:16Let me see if he's good enough for you.

01:21:18One word.

01:21:19Hot.

01:21:20How hot?

01:21:21Hot enough that the second you saw his face, you'd pass out on the spot.

01:21:24But he hates photos, so no pics for you.

01:21:27And now, standing outside the apartment, watching the two of them together,

01:21:30I genuinely felt a little dizzy.

01:21:32What are you up to?

01:21:38At the hospital doing shadowing, completely slammed.

01:21:41I held down the nausea and replied,

01:21:43Take a pic of the hospital and send it to me.

01:21:46Again?

01:21:47Why does she keep bothering you?

01:21:48She's taking up time that's supposed to be mine.

01:21:50She said it like she was the real girlfriend.

01:21:52Like I was some unhinged stalker.

01:21:55Good thing I'm careful.

01:21:56I got photos of a hospital hallway from an upperclassman ahead of time.

01:21:59Covers it.

01:21:59Lexi still wasn't happy.

01:22:00She pushed a little further.

01:22:01You're that scared of her finding out?

01:22:03You could just tell her about us?

01:22:06If she really cares about you, really thinks of me as her best friend,

01:22:09how could she even be mad?

01:22:10Don't.

01:22:10Whatever's going on between us, she cannot find out.

01:22:13Ever.

01:22:13Lexi read his face and switched gears fast.

01:22:16Okay, okay, forget it.

01:22:17Don't go back to the dorms tonight.

01:22:20Let's do something fun.

01:22:23That desperate?

01:22:27I'll take care of it tonight.

01:22:29ER is slammed.

01:22:31Hospital has strict HIPAA requirements.

01:22:32Phone access is limited until this is over.

01:22:34Don't worry.

01:22:35Love you.

01:22:35I read every word.

01:22:36Then I texted my parents.

01:22:38Mom, Dad, I'm not going to Columbia.

01:22:40I'm accepting MIT's offer.

01:22:45They called immediately.

01:22:47Sweetie, what happened?

01:22:48What changed?

01:22:49You've been talking about Columbia for a year.

01:22:50Being in New York with Lexi and Ethan.

01:22:52Lexi and Ethan are together.

01:22:53My mom pulled a sharp breath on the other end.

01:22:55What?

01:22:56But at prom last year, Ethan was...

01:22:58She stopped herself.

01:22:59Like she just figured something out.

01:23:01Didn't finish the sentence.

01:23:02I was the one reassuring them.

01:23:03My application this year was stronger.

01:23:05I got into MIT.

01:23:06Physics at MIT is better than Columbia by a long shot anyway.

01:23:09I was willing to go to New York because I had people there.

01:23:12Turns out those two aren't worth giving up the top engineering school in the country.

01:23:15I'll talk later.

01:23:16I need to book a flight home.

01:23:18Tonight I want your barbecue.

01:23:19My dad's voice came through, anger barely under control.

01:23:21We were all fooled.

01:23:22Lexi's private high school tuition.

01:23:24Her college tuition right now.

01:23:26Your mother and I have been paying all of it.

01:23:28If this is how she's going to treat you, we are done being her ATM next semester.

01:23:32Done.

01:23:33Okay.

01:23:33Lexi and I had grown up together.

01:23:35She came from a broken home.

01:23:36Ninth grade.

01:23:37Her parents divorced and moved to separate states.

01:23:39Left her behind.

01:23:40No plan for her education.

01:23:41Nothing.

01:23:42I was the one who begged my parents to step in.

01:23:44Mom, dad, can we please help her?

01:23:46She doesn't even have money to finish high school.

01:23:48Just think of it as charity.

01:23:49When we're in college, we'll get jobs and pay you back.

01:23:51My parents didn't even hesitate.

01:23:53They said yes.

01:23:54Paid her private high school tuition.

01:23:55Let her move into the guest room.

01:23:57Covered Columbia's 80-something thousand a year in tuition and housing without blinking.

01:24:00Taylor, I will never forget what your family has done for me.

01:24:02When I graduate and land something on Wall Street, I'll pay back every cent with interest.

01:24:06Turns out this was her version of paying it back.

01:24:10I turned around and called an Uber to JFK Airport.

01:24:22Boyfriend booked the room.

01:24:24$2,000 a night.

01:24:25He wants me to put in the effort tonight.

01:24:26What do you think I should do for him?

01:24:27I thought back to a night three months before the application deadline.

01:24:30I was barely holding it together.

01:24:32I called Ethan.

01:24:34Taylor?

01:24:35Can you come home this weekend?

01:24:36Just once?

01:24:36I really need you.

01:24:38He said no without missing a beat.

01:24:39Taylor, I genuinely can't afford the train ticket right now.

01:24:41You haven't been here yet.

01:24:42You don't know how expensive New York is.

01:24:44There's always something to spend money on.

01:24:46My coursework is brutal.

01:24:47I can't carve out the time.

01:24:49Can you try to be a little more mature about this?

01:24:53Couldn't scrape together a $40 train fare.

01:24:55But a $2,000 hotel suite?

01:24:57No problem.

01:24:57Brutal coursework.

01:24:58Sure.

01:24:59Racing to spend every available minute with my best friend.

01:25:03BFF jealous?

01:25:04I bet you've never stayed in a plaza suite.

01:25:06When you move to New York, I'll have my boyfriend book you your own room for a night.

01:25:09Just you.

01:25:10All to yourself.

01:25:14Reading her smug little mean girl tone, I almost felt sick.

01:25:17I didn't reply.

01:25:22Lexi didn't hear back from Taylor and didn't think much of it.

01:25:25She figured Taylor was just too jealous to respond, which honestly made sense.

01:25:30Lexi had spent the last year living her best college life, using Taylor's parents' card,

01:25:35going everywhere with Taylor's boyfriend.

01:25:37And Taylor, still home, hunched over essays.

01:25:41Her main priority now was locking Ethan down for good.

01:25:44She was dying to rub all of it in Taylor's face.

01:25:47But the timing wasn't right yet.

01:25:49For one thing, Ethan still felt guilty about Taylor.

01:25:53He'd been enjoying what she'd essentially handed him.

01:25:55But Lexi could tell, in the back of his mind, Ethan still saw Taylor as the right kind of girl.

01:26:01The one you actually end up with.

01:26:02If she pushed him into a confrontation with Taylor now, there was a real chance Ethan would panic and drop

01:26:07her to try to fix things.

01:26:09That was not the ending she was going for.

01:26:11Her plan was to replace Taylor in his head slowly, step by step, until Ethan was the one who called

01:26:16it.

01:26:16That moment hadn't come yet.

01:26:17And for another thing, she still needed Taylor's parents to cover the rest of her tuition.

01:26:21She could not blow this up too early.

01:26:22Although, Ethan's family had money.

01:26:24Real money.

01:26:25Once she had him fully, tuition would be the least of her problems.

01:26:28She was still running through the fantasy.

01:26:31Who are you texting?

01:26:33Nobody.

01:26:34Ethan.

01:26:35For the next two months, can you stop talking to Taylor?

01:26:38I want you completely to myself.

01:26:39That worshipful, clingy thing she did worked on him every time.

01:26:42He didn't mind giving her that.

01:26:43It was a small ask.

01:26:45She only had two months of being his anyway, officially.

01:26:47After that, he and Taylor had all the tea in the word.

01:26:49The volunteer program here is really demanding.

01:26:51There are strict rules around phone use.

01:26:53I'll be hard to reach for a while, slow to respond.

01:26:56Don't worry.

01:26:57I'll pick you up from the airport on move-in day.

01:27:00You're the best.

01:27:01I got that text sitting at my kitchen table eating barbecue.

01:27:05This little...

01:27:06He's still lying to you?

01:27:07Right now?

01:27:08Block him.

01:27:09Block both of them.

01:27:10So disgusting.

01:27:11Done.

01:27:12All blocked.

01:27:13Those two are never touching my life again.

01:27:16Time moved fast.

01:27:18Before long, it was move-in day.

01:27:21The last messages were from the day the results came out.

01:27:24Him telling her not to contact him over the summer.

01:27:28Ethan, I'm finally coming to York to find you.

01:27:30He'd told her not to reach out, fine.

01:27:32But she'd actually gone the whole summer without sending a single text.

01:27:37Still, today was the day she was flying in.

01:27:40He let it go and started typing.

01:27:43Babe, are you at the airport yet?

01:27:45I'll come get you.

01:27:49He'd been blocked.

01:27:50He figured he'd misread it.

01:27:53What was going on?

01:27:59He called her straight to voicemail.

01:28:02The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

01:28:08That line, too.

01:28:09Blocked.

01:28:11The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

01:28:14The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

01:28:15The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

01:28:16The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

01:28:18The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

01:28:19The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

01:28:20The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

01:28:21The number you are trying to reach is unavailable.

01:28:21The number you are trying to reach out.

Forward Without Him Movie | Caught Red-Handed: A Year Of Lies Exposed In Seconds 🔍

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