Return Of The Crypto Billionaire

Well yes. Get out of here Loser. Your time is up. Go join your people on the streets."

Christopher heard the taunts behind him as he walked slowly away from the crowd who were staring at him in disgust.

This was supposed to be a happy night, but now he had been hit by two blows in one…well, three if you include his dismissal from the school.

The music from Emily Rodriguez's birthday party drifted through the Virell Academy grounds

Lights wrapped around every tree in the courtyard, catering staff moved through the crowd with silver trays, and the DJ they had flown in from the city had the kind of setup that cost more than most people's yearly rent.

Christopher Hayes stood at the edge of it all, watching.

He had spent three weeks putting together the small wrapped parcel in his hand. Three weeks of skipped lunches and careful saving, stretching his scholarship stipend down to its last thread. It was not much… well, he knew that.

She said she liked simple things.

She had said a lot of things in two months.

He moved through the crowd toward her, his girlfriend... at least that was what he thought, which, as it turned out, was a very different thing.

He spotted her near the center of the courtyard. She was glowing with happiness and beauty

Tyler Brooks was already beside her.

Chris noticed him and felt a tightening in his chest

Tyler was tall, broad-shouldered and effortlessly handsome

He controlled everyone in the school…including teachers, and always got away with everything because his father was the biggest donor to the school and also the head of the scholarship board of Virell Academy.

He was the bully everyone knew, yet no one dared to challenge him, and one of his regular victims at Virell was Christopher.

He had his head dipped toward Emily, saying something that made her laugh, and his hand rested on her waist with the casual confidence

Chris kept walking.

He reached her and touched her arm lightly.

"Hey. Happy birthday."

Emily turned

"Chris," She saiid, as though she was surprised

"You came."

"Of course I came." He smiled and held out the parcel.

"I wanted to give you this. In front of everyone, like I said."

That was when Tyler's laughter cut across everything.

It started with him, then rolled immediately through his group, all of them falling into the performance of people who had done this many times before.

"What is that, Chris?" Tyler said, stepping forward

"Do you possibly think you could entice a damsel like Emily with that wretched little gift of yours? Get away from there before I break a bone." He threatened Chris

He shoved Christopher as he said it.

Chris stumbled a step and straightened.

He was angry. But beneath the anger was something else… confidence. Because Tyler didn't know.

For all his money and his watch and his hand at Emily's back, Tyler did not know that he was standing here as Emily Rodriguez's boyfriend, and he was about to find out.

"Look, Tyler." Chris kept his voice level.

"I am in no mood for your stupid games today. I just want to do something nice for my girlfriend. You don't have to be an asshole every single day," Chris said, grinning.

The word landed heavily.

.

Tyler went very still. The laughter around him died immediately

"Your girlfriend?" Tyler repeated it slowly

His eyes moved to Emily, then back to Chris, and a dangerous smile spread across his face.

"Don't let me ever hear those words coming out of your mouth again. I will bury you alive if you say that again."

"Oh." Chris tilted his head.

"So you are jealous." He saw the phones already appearing at the edges of his vision, recording, and he told himself it didn't matter. The truth was the truth and Emily was about to confirm it.

"Well, just so you know, Emily is my girlfriend."

He stretched the parcel toward her again.

Tyler's hand came down on his wrist instantly, knocking it aside. The small parcel tumbled to the polished courtyard floor between them.

"Emily", Tyler's voice had dropped.

"What is this loser saying?"

Emily looked at Tyler and gave a soft smile

"Don't worry, babe," she said.

"Forget about this guy."

The word 'babe' hit Christopher.

He turned and looked at her fully, searching to see if she was playing

The girl who had texted him past midnight. Who had kissed him behind the staircase three days ago. That girl was not on this face.

The Emily in front of him had her arm looped through Tyler's now

"I don't know what he is talking about, Tyler." She brushed invisible dust from Tyler's sleeve.

"I think he got confused somewhere."

The laughter started low from somewhere behind Chris. Then it spread through the crowd.

Chris felt the heat crawl up the back of his neck.

"Confused?" The word came out thin.

"Emily, what are you…"

"She said she doesn't know you, scholarship boy." Tyler stepped forward, closing the distance

"Now are you going to pick up your little gift from the floor, or should I have someone sweep it into the bin with the rest of the trash?"

The parcel lay on the floor between them. Chris looked at it for a long moment. Then he bent and picked it up.

"Two months, Emily," Chris murmured, his voice was unsteady

"I am not confused."

"Oh my God." She laughed

"Are you seriously doing this right now? At my party?" She looked around at the crowd

"Tyler, I think he actually believed it."

"Believed what, babe?" Tyler fed her the line perfectly.

"That we were …" She waved her hand, not finishing, because she was already laughing again and her friends joined in.

Chris stood very still.

He understood now. Fully and finally. The texts that always came when no one else was around. The way she had changed the subject every time he mentioned doing something together in public.

He had not been her secret boyfriend. He had been her joke. Her case study. Something she and her friends had dissected in group chats he would never see… the scholarship orphan who thought a girl like Emily Rodriguez could actually choose him.

"Alright." Tyler rolled his neck and stepped directly into Chris's space, dropping his voice just low enough that the crowd had to lean in to catch it.

"I think we have heard enough from the charity case."

"Walk away, Hayes. While you still can." He grinned mockingly

Chris did not move.

"Or what, Tyler?" His voice came out low and even.

"You will have your father make a call? That is all you know how to do anyways."

Tyler's smile disappeared.

For three seconds. Every phone in the courtyard was up now, red recording lights blinking in the string-light dark, and the two of them stood in the center of it… the rich boy and the orphan, and the whole school watching to see who would blink.