How to Survive as the Cannon Fodder Boyfriend

I finally won over the campus ice queen, only to discover she was frigid in bed.

I thought she was just reserved, until I saw impossible subtitles materialize in the air between us

[LMAO, that's the male lead's exclusive territory, stop dreaming, second lead!]

[Girl, stop doubting yourself! You'd have no problem keeping up with the male lead for a week straight.]

Watching her flustered attempts to initiate intimacy, I feigned sleep, my mind reeling.

The next day, I sent the text I'd been dreading,

[My family has issues with me dating someone from out of state. We need to end this.]

I thought that would be it. Clean break.

But when she spotted me heading to a hotel with another woman downtown, something in her snapped.

She practically dragged me out.

That night, her eyes rimmed red, raw with desperation as she pleaded,

"Logan, I took the pills. I can be what you need."

"Just give me another chance, please?"

...

As I was methodically deleting every photo of me and Aurora one by one, my roommate burst in.

"Dude, Aurora's downstairs. She looks wrecked.".

I rubbed my tired eyes, my voice hoarse. "Tell her to leave.. I'm not coming down."

We were already done. Why couldn't she accept that?

My roommate studied my face, his expression shifting from annoyance to concern.

"Logan Wilder, what the hell happened? I thought things were good with you two?"

"We broke up."

The words felt foreign on my tongue.

His eyes widened. "No way. That's why she's been blowing up my phone? Did you block her?"

"Did she cheat on you?"

Before I could correct him, his phone vibrated with an incoming call. It was Aurora.

I motioned for him to decline, but he answered.

A torrent of accusations poured through the speaker.

I quickly stopped him. "It's not her fault, don't ask her..."

"Logan?" Her voice cracked through the speaker. "Please, just come down. We need to talk about this."

I immediately went silent, shaking my head at my roommate to hang up.

Hearing her pleas, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He shoved the phone into my hand.

"Whatever misunderstanding this is, sort it out."

There was no misunderstanding. She just wasn't meant for me.

On the other end, Aurora kept begging. "Wilder, please. Come down. Let's talk face to face."

I took a deep breath, voice unnervingly calm. "Aurora, I've said everything I need to say."

"When it's over, it's over. Let's not make this messier than it needs to be."

"It's not over until we both say it is!" The hysteria in her voice was sharp enough to cut.

I didn't want to waste more breath. I hung up.

My roommate took the phone back, utterly confused. "So why would you break up with Aurora?"

"Do you know how many guys would kill to be in your shoes?"

Yeah. That was Aurora Sinclair.

The unattainable crown jewel of Ivory Tower University. Valedictorian, heiress to the Sinclair fortune, with the kind of beauty that made freshmen trip over their own feet.

While other trust fund kids partied their way through college, Aurora maintained an aura of untouched elegance. It took me a full semester of strategic planning to get her to notice me, and another month before she agreed to a date.

We had one perfect year together.

Falling for her was the easiest thing I'd ever done.

Letting her go felt like tearing out a part of my soul.

One day ago marked our one-year anniversary.

The desire to finally take our relationship to the next level had been building for what felt like an eternity.

If Aurora hadn't always been so impossibly proper, I might have tried something much sooner.

Not that I'm some kind of animal. It's justshe's breathtaking, with this magnetic pull that draws everyone in.

Kissing, holding her close, feeling the curve of her waist beneath my handsit wasn't enough anymore.

With a carefully laid plan, I opened a bottle of Cabernet during our candlelit dinner that night.

After two glasses, a pleasant warmth spread through me, bolstering my courage.

A slow smirk tugged at my lips as I guided her onto my lap, my arm settling around her waist while I nuzzled the sensitive spot just below her ear.

"Baby, I have a confession to make."

Her lips curved in amusement. "What kind of confession?"

I leaned in, my breath ghosting across her skin as I whispered, "The first time I saw you, all I could think about was how badly I wanted to kiss you senseless."

A delicate blush colored her cheeks. She pinched my side playfully. "And if I looked different? Would you still have noticed me? Chased me?"

I cupped her face, my thumb tracing the beauty mark beside her eye. "Not a chance."

In an instant, Aurora pushed me back, her teeth sinking into my neck in mock punishment.

I gasped dramatically, playing along. "Baby, ow! Okay, I'm sorry!"

The bite softened into a series of gentle kisses, her tongue soothing the mark.

When she looked up, there was a flicker of genuine hurt in her eyes. "So it is really just about my face."

"If you met someone more beautiful, you'd forget about me?"

Every survival instinct screamed to deny it, "Never. It's you. Only you."

While the sweet words left my lips, my hand slipped beneath the hem of her shirt, exploring the warm skin of her back.

My voice dropped to a husky murmur. "Baby, I want to see all of you..."

She stilled my hand, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "See what?"

I didn't answer with words. Instead, I lifted her onto the edge of the dining table, my palm sliding slowly up the smooth skin of her thigh.

"Baby, you're so beautiful."I breathed

Her breath hitched. A slender hand pressed down on mine, her voice soft but firm. "Logan, don't tease me."

I guided her bare foot against my stomach. "Then maybe you should be the one teasing me, baby?"

Aurora's gaze dropped to the very obvious evidence of my arousal, her expression a mixture of shyness and curiosity, but she didn't pull away.

Frustration and desire warred within me. I tugged her skirt down, ready to lift her from the table.

Suddenly, her long legs wrapped around my waist, locking me in place. Her voice was a low, confident whisper against my ear,

"Logan, too late to run now."

Aurora's sudden boldness and eager curiosity left me reeling.

Only when my scalp began to tingle from her grip did I gently coax her to release me. She pulled back with a final, teasing lick of her lips before I lifted her into my arms and carried her to the bed.

My entire body was alight, a raw, aching need coursing through me.

Aurora seemed just as eager, but her eyes were glassy with unshed tears as she begged for gentleness. "Logan, please be gentle. I'm scared."

"Baby, just relax." I murmured, my hands moving with practiced patience.

But no matter how I kissed or touched her, she remained tense and unresponsive, a sharp gasp of pain escaping her lips.

Seeing the genuine distress on her face, my heart clenched. "Baby, maybe we should stop. We can try another time."

She shook her head, her arms tightening around my neck. "Isn't this normal for the first time? Just... don't stop. I can take it."

Then she crushed her lips to mine in a desperate kiss, scattering all my thoughtsand my resolve .

I tried to focus, to push forward, but suddenly, lines of text flickered at the edge of my vision,

[OMG DYING! The Female Lead is having a full-blown existential crisis over here!]

[The second lead is the real joke! All that buildup for a case of epic blue balls.]

[That's the Male Lead's exclusive territory, pre-installed with his imprint! Give it up, second lead!]

[Girl, stop the internalized blame! You're a rare treasure! You'd be have no problem keeping up with the ML for a week straight!]

...

In that moment, I understood. This world wasn't just a world, it was the setting for a clich campus romance novel.

Aurora was the privileged, pure-hearted female lead. Silas North, the son of her family's housekeeper, was the brooding, secretly pining male lead.

He'd loved her from the shadows for years, following her to the same university, too consumed by his own perceived unworthiness to ever confess.

Their story was supposed to ignite after a fateful, accidental night together.

Aurora would get a taste of his... prowess, and the ensuing push-and-pull would eventually lead to their happy ending.

And me? I was the cannon fodder.

The second male lead designed to bully Silas, earn his rival Aurora's pity, and ultimately make her realize who her heart truly belonged to.

Her body, her soulthey were coded to respond only to Silas. I was just a temporary, flawed imprint, a mistake in her storyline destined to be overwritten.

It sounded like madness. But Aurora's physical reactionor lack thereofwas all the proof I needed.

Her very physiology was loyal to the male lead.

Watching her now, flustered and determined to try again, I closed my eyes and feigned sleep.

Whoever wants to be the tool can have the job. A woman who isn't mine? Not worth it.