DUMPED BY MY GIRLFRIEND, CHOSEN BY A SUPERSTAR

Chapter 4

Chloe’s jaw dropped, her entire face lighting up with pure shock. "Oh my god... Julian! Are you serious?!"

When Julian nodded with an arrogant smirk, Chloe lost all control. She became completely ecstatic with excitement, literally bouncing up and down like a thrilled child. "No way! No way! You're actually serious?!"

"Completely serious, babe," Julian chuckled, thoroughly enjoying her reaction.

Bouncing with joy, Chloe threw her arms right back around his neck, pulling him down into another kiss right in front of Ethan.

**************************

Meanwhile, across campus, in the examination room of the Aethelgard Campus Hospital.

Cynthia Rose sat on the edge of the examination bed, letting out a heavy sigh of relief. Her personal physician, Dr. Sarah, had arrived just a few minutes prior, flanked by Cynthia's anxious assistant, Claire

.

"I can't believe I let that random guy freak me out," Cynthia said. "It has already been ten minutes, and look at me. I'm still perfectly alive."

Dr. Sarah adjusted her stethoscope, looking perplexed. "Alright, Cynthia, what is this all about? Claire called me frantically saying it was a life-or-death emergency."

Cynthia lightly touched her neck. "My throat has been incredibly sore for a few days, and this strange student I ran into at the entrance insisted that it wasn't a normal cold. He told me I was going to die if I didn't get a scan within ten minutes. He laid so much emphasis on it that I actually panicked."

Dr. Sarah patted her shoulder comfortingly. "Well, let's take a look. Lie down on the bed for me, tilt your head back, and just say 'ah'."

Cynthia complied, lying flat on the examination table and opening her mouth wide. Dr. Sarah turned on a medical penlight, peering deep into Cynthia's mouth. Within seconds, the doctor's smile completely vanished. Her brow furrowed into a tight, horrified frown.

"Hold up. Wait a minute," Dr. Sarah quickly reached into her tray, grabbing a pair of long, medical forceps. "Cynthia, keep your mouth perfectly still. Do not swallow," Dr. Sarah ordered, her voice laced with panic. She carefully guided the long metal forceps deep into Cynthia’s throat. Cynthia winced as the tool reached the back of her throat. Suddenly, Dr. Sarah clamped the forceps onto something hard and pulled it out.

"Oh my God!" Dr. Sarah screamed when she pulled it out, releasing her grip on the forceps.

A large insect fell on the floor, writhing aggressively. It was a thick, exotic parasite, nearly two inches long, which had been burrowing inside her throat lining, moving up and down and causing the severe pain she thought was a sore throat.

Cynthia sat upright on the bed, caught sight of the twitching creature, and let out a scream. One of her bodyguards immediately stepped forward, raising his boot and crushing the insect with a sickening crunch.

Dr. Sarah was breathing heavily, clutching her chest as she looked at Cynthia with wide, terrified eyes. "Oh my God, Cynthia... you are so incredibly lucky. Do you have any idea what that was? That is a rare tropical neurotoxic parasite. This specific insect is native only to the deep, high-humidity rainforests of the Congo Basin."

Cynthia’s eyes widened as she cut in. "The Congo? Wait, I just went there last month for an international modeling shoot. We did a whole wilderness catalog set near the forest line."

Dr. Sarah nodded grimly, everything clicking into place. "That completely explains it. You must have accidentally ingested an egg or the larvae while you were there.

If it had stayed in your throat for another five minutes, it would have bored directly into your main artery and released its lethal toxin straight into your bloodstream. Once that poison hits your system, it acts with terrifying speed. Within the first sixty seconds of those final five minutes, the neurotoxin would have completely paralyzed the muscles around your vocal cords. You wouldn't have been able to scream, cry out, or make a single sound for help. You would have been completely mute.”

Cynthia listened realizing just how bad the situation had been as her doctor continued explaining. 

“Right after that, the paralysis spreads straight to your lungs and your diaphragm. It stops your body's ability to draw in air. Your lungs completely lock up, which means you would have suffocated while wide awake, unable to take a single breath. Within five minutes, your heart would have simply stopped from a total lack of oxygen. You would have choked on your own blood, and there is absolutely no way to detect it without a scan."

The room fell into a stunned silence. Cynthia’s mind flashed back to the guy in the gray t-shirt. He had seen it. Without a single medical tool, he had known exactly what it was.

"He was right," Cynthia whispered. She looked up at her assistant. "Claire, I need to find that guy right now.”

***************************

Ethan swallowed the agonizing lump in his throat. He looked at her directly, trying to find a single shred of the girl he used to know. "Chloe... is this really what you want? Is this really who you want?"

Chloe looked at him, her expression shifting into a look of incredulous disbelief, as if he had just asked the absolute stupidest question on earth. She scoffed loudly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Are you seriously asking me that?" Chloe laughed mockingly, her eyes raking over his dumpster-style outfit. "Ethan, let's look at the cold, hard facts. Julian is legit. He has a real future, real status, real prestige, and real money. He just got me a front-row ticket to meet my idol, Cynthia Rose, tonight! He even arranged a massive welcome party for her at his family's estate. And you? You show up looking like a total hobo, bringing me a cheap knockoff watch. You are nothing but a hopeless poverty case, a poor townie. This is a complete no-brainer. The answer is completely obvious. Of course Julian is the one I want!"

Ethan stood completely stunned at the irony of the situation. She has absolutely no idea, he thought to himself. She has no clue that I am the sole reason Cynthia Rose even transferred to this university in the first place.

The sadness in his chest rapidly gave way to irritation. He looked her dead in the eye. "You wouldn't know legit if it beat you in your plastic ass."

Chloe's jaw dropped in sheer outrage, her face flushing bright red. "Excuse me?!"

 Ethan calmly bent down and picked up the pink diamond watch from the ground. He dusted it off carefully and looked right at them. "And this watch is not a cheap knockoff." Without another word, he slid the multi-million-dollar masterpiece safely back into his bag.

Both Julian and Chole stared at him for a second, then burst into a loud laugh. Shaking his head Julian said "Wow, you're so funny. I almost want to keep you around to keep making me laugh"

But the amusement instantly vanished from Julian's face. 

 Julian aggressively pushed Ethan roughly out of his way. As he passed, he kicked the beautiful bouquet of red roses, scattering the petals across. Chloe stepped up right into Ethan’s space, raising her hand to lightly pat his cheek. "I'm sorry, Ethan," she whispered with a pitying, cruel smile. "We're just simply not on the same social level."

She turned on her heel to join Julian, making sure her sharp heel came directly down on the box of imported Swiss chocolates on the floor, flattening the expensive sweets.

As  Ethan watched their retreating figures, the heartbreak in his chest slowly hardened, turning into an icy resolve. "Yes," Ethan muttered quietly to the empty hallway. "You're entirely right. We are definitely not on the same level."

He looked down at the concrete. Amidst the crushed chocolates and ruined roses lay a small piece of paper face down—the old summer photograph of him and Chloe that had slipped out of his bag. Ethan bent down, picked it up, and looked at her smiling face one last time. Without a single word, he ripped the photograph clean down the middle and dumped the pieces into the nearby trash can.