The best choice.
Before college entrance exams, I snuck and
took the love letter the prom queen, Sarah,
wrote to my childhood friend, Josh. They never
got together. He hated me for it, forever. After
he found out I had a crush on him, he called me
jealous, manipulative, and toxic, swearing he’d
never feel the same. Then we both died in a car
crash. His dying words were that if he could do
it over, he’d beg me not to ruin things with
Sarah again.
His wish came true. I got a second chance. I
didn’t take the letter. Then, so he and Sarah
could go to the same college, Josh… skipped
the multiple–choice section on his science
exam. Totally bombed it.
When the results came out, Josh and Sarah
were officially a couple. At our graduation party,
his “romantic gesture” of sacrificing his
academic future for love was legendary. He
く
became known as the “King of Romance.” I sat
in a dimly lit corner, nursing a glass of juice,
watching the two of them surrounded by our
classmates.
My best friend, Chloe, sat beside me,
completely bewildered. “Is he insane? He threw
away his future? For this? For some uncertain
future with Sarah?”
Yep. This time around, he chose Sarah over his
future.
In the last life, I’d taken the letter, thinking I was
helping him choose his future. All I earned was
a lifetime of his resentment. When he
discovered I had feelings for him, he’d looked
at me with disgust. “Ashley,” he’d spat, “I’m not
interested in someone as jealous and
manipulative as you. Your feelings are
sickening.”
Actually, I hadn’t kept the letter. I’d returned it
<
to him the night after the exams. But when he
went to Sarah with it, she’d rejected him.
“Josh,” she’d said, “Our scores are way too
different. We won’t even be at the same
college. How is this supposed to work? Four
years of long distance? I need a boyfriend
who’s actually there, you know?”
A devastated Josh came back and glared at
- me. The next day, his parents frantically
showed up at my door, saying he wanted to
change his college applications and begging me
to talk him out of it.
I wasn’t surprised.
But when I found Josh, before I could even
speak, he sneered, “What, stealing the letter
once wasn’t enough, Ashley? You have to ruin it
again?”
Standing in the stairwell, a breeze rustling
2:51
<
100
through, it felt strangely cold despite the bright sunshine. I looked down at him,
–
he
looked like a wreck. I just said, “Josh, you’ve
been working towards this for twelve years.”
Finally, with his parents practically threatening to disown him, he backed down. He didn’t change his application. And he didn’t get together with Sarah. From that day on, I became the villain who kept them apart, the target of his resentment every time he thought about what could have been.
