The day my water broke, I lay dying on the freezing pavement, desperately dialing my husband’s number. On the other end of the line, he was throwing a lavish birthday bash for his first love. The background was filled with loud cheers and thumping music. He said, "Avery, drop the act. This little game of yours is getting old." Then, he hung up. I died just like that, abandoned on a forgotten street corner. When I opened my eyes again, I was back in my sophomore year of high school. The handsome, arrogant boy stood before me, his face flushed as he blocked my path at the school gates, asking me to be his girlfriend. Looking at the face that I once loved to the bone—the same face that personally condemned me to hell—I let out a cold laugh. "Get lost! If I ever hear something so disgusting out of your mouth again, you'll regret it!" 1 The students of Lincoln High were secretly gossiping: Avery Davis, the ultimate "simp" who had chased Hunter Kingston for an entire year, had finally changed her tune. During morning homeroom, she didn't drop off his favorite iced coffee. During basketball practice, she wasn't waiting on the sidelines with Gatorade and a towel. Even at the library, she stopped going early to save him a seat. "She chased him for a year, and she's just giving up like that?" "She's probably just throwing a tantrum, waiting for Hunter to coax her." "I bet she moved on. I heard the star quarterback from the rival prep school is after her." Bang! Hunter irritably slammed his AP English textbook onto his desk, his face dark. "It's homeroom! If you want to gossip, get the hell out!" Just as the words left his mouth, I walked into the classroom. The noisy room instantly went dead silent. Dozens of eyes locked onto me like searchlights. I walked straight to my desk, looking straight ahead, pulled out my chair, and sat down. When I opened my backpack, there were two bottles of premium cold-brew coffee inside. The housekeeper must have packed two out of habit, forgetting that I told her last night I only needed one for myself from now on. Hunter’s best friend, Brody, poked Hunter's arm and whispered, "Avery is about to cave. I told you she couldn't last three days." Hunter's eyes shifted, turning to look at me. But I, right in front of him, shoved both bottles onto my desk partner's desk. "Here, my treat." My desk partner, Maya, looked shocked. She pointed a trembling finger at herself. "For me?" I nodded. Then I opened my textbook and started reading quietly. Maya leaned over, whispering curiously, "Avery, why are you actually studying? Didn't you usually spend homeroom staring at Hunter?" I didn't even lift my head. "I want to test back into the Honors Program next semester." I had originally gotten into this high school with the second-highest test scores in the district. But just to be placed in the same regular-track class as Hunter, I intentionally left half my placement test blank, dropping from the AP track down to the remedial level. But now, I had no reason to stay here. The thought of the man sitting behind me—the man who would become my husband in nine years, yet would leave me to die on the streets while he rolled around in his first love's bed... He caused the child carrying his bloodline to die in the cold night before ever seeing the light of this world. I could never forgive him! So, I was going to severe this toxic connection with my own hands. At noon, Maya and I lined up in the cafeteria. The cafeteria worker handed me my favorite roasted chicken and smiled. "What are you getting for Hunter today? We have that baked salmon he likes." I paused. Thinking back to my high school days, my pursuit of Hunter was pathetic and obsessive. I stuffed his locker full of love letters. I hijacked the microphone during a pep rally to confess my love to him. Because of me, even the cafeteria staff knew his favorite foods. In the past, I was the girl who would smash her head against a brick wall and refuse to turn back. Looking back now, it was nothing but a joke. I shook my head. "I'm not getting him anything." I paused, then added, "I'm never getting him anything ever again." The worker’s hand froze mid-air with the tongs. I grabbed Maya and walked away, accidentally bumping into Hunter at the end of the line. Our eyes met. He looked stunned, but I was the first to look away, brushing past him without a backward glance. Maya muttered, "Avery, what is going on with you? Why are you suddenly freezing Hunter out?" I sat down at a table, mixing dressing into my salad. "Nothing. I just realized that the way I was acting before was incredibly lame." 2 Once I stopped revolving my life around Hunter, I realized how much free time I actually had. I could chat with the girls about the latest Netflix shows and share my favorite strawberry milkshakes. I could dig out the moldy worksheets shoved in the back of my desk and fill them out one by one. During breaks, I could even go behind the bleachers to feed the stray cats. Youth without constant anxiety and obsession was actually beautiful. A few days later, the school's basketball tournament kicked off. The homeroom teacher asked the whole class to go to the gym to cheer. I remembered my past life. I had organized a cheer squad for Hunter and practiced a high-difficulty routine. Because of a botched stunt, I fell from the top of the pyramid, scraping up my arms and bloodying my knees. But when Hunter won the game, his eyes were only on his bros and the trophy. He didn't even spare a glance for me lying in the nurse's office. So this time, I faked severe cramps, got a pass, and stayed in the empty classroom to memorize SAT vocabulary. I would never do something so absurdly stupid ever again. Maya came back at halftime, out of breath. "Avery, Hunter is totally off his game today. His eyes keep drifting to the bleachers like he's looking for someone." She gave me a sly look. "Do you think he's looking for you?" "No." I calmly wrote down another vocabulary word. During this phase, Hunter practically had 'I hate Avery' tattooed on his forehead. Me not being there was giving him peace and quiet. While we were talking, the classroom door was violently pushed open. Brody practically dragged Hunter inside, yelling at me, "Avery! Don't you keep that imported athletic pain relief spray in your locker? Get it out! Hunter twisted his ankle!" I used to keep a fully stocked first-aid kit specifically for Hunter, filled with expensive topical treatments. I subconsciously glanced at Hunter's swollen ankle. In my past life, he won this game flawlessly and never got hurt. It seemed my absence had already altered the trajectory of events. "Avery, what are you spacing out for?!" Brody shouted anxiously. I snapped back to reality, my tone ice-cold. "It expired. I threw it away." With that, I grabbed my water bottle and walked out to the water fountain, not giving him a single extra glance. Why should I care? The pain of dying on the street in my past life was ten thousand times worse than his little sprain. Why on earth should my heart ache for him? Behind me, Brody gasped in shock, while Hunter's gaze felt like a dagger, staring so intensely at my back it could have burned a hole through it. 3 Hunter took two days off for his ankle. When my mom found out, she insisted I take a pot of her homemade chicken stew over to his house. Our families were close friends, and she had watched Hunter grow up. In the eyes of the adults, checking on him was basic etiquette. Despite my repeated refusals, I couldn't win against my mom's threats, and she even had our driver make sure I walked through the Kingstons' front gates. Reluctantly, I carried the thermos into that familiar, sprawling white mansion. The setting sun cast a warm, yet incredibly irritating orange glow over the manicured lawn. I knew this place too well. In my past life, I had lived here with him for two years. Every corner was filled with my humiliation— Crying silently over his cold shoulder, yet forcing a smile to deal with his family. My chest tightened as if it were being ripped apart. I forced myself to calm down, opened the thermos, and poured the delicious stew into a dog bowl on the porch for the neighborhood stray. Such good food was wasted on him. Once the dog licked the bowl clean, I turned to leave. Just then, a deep voice called out from behind me. "Avery." Hunter hobbled out on his crutches, looking a bit ridiculous, fine sweat beading on his forehead. He gritted his teeth. "What kind of tantrum are you throwing now?" I looked back at this boy—still young, yet full of arrogance. I curled my lips into a cold smile. "I don't know what you're talking about." He blocked my path, breathing heavily, his face alarmingly pale. It was obvious those few steps had cost him a lot of effort. "Why are you ignoring me?" He stared at me intensely, trying to find a trace of my former obsession on my face. He pointed at the empty thermos. "That was for me, wasn't it? Why did you feed it to a dog? In the past, when I told you to leave me alone, you'd cry and force your way in. Now I'm actually hurt, and you don't say a single word. What exactly are you..." "Isn't this better?" I cut him off coldly. "You always thought I was annoying anyway." Hunter choked on his words, taking a long moment before snapping back. "Yeah! I don't like you clinging to me! I'm thrilled you're staying away!" He let out a mocking laugh. "Avery, you better not be playing hard to get. You know I hate that crap!" Playing hard to get? In my past life, to get his attention, I had done plenty of childish, stupid things. Even though I eventually married him, I never had his heart, and I ended up dying a miserable death. In this lifetime, I wouldn't waste another second on him. "You think way too highly of yourself. I don't have time to play games with you." I turned around, my voice completely flat. "My mom forced the driver to bring me here with that soup. Just pretend you drank it, and don't cause trouble for me." Hunter’s eyes filled with disbelief. "Did you just compare me to a dog?!" I shrugged. "If that's how you want to interpret it, be my guest." I carried the empty thermos back to the car, leaving him yelling furiously behind me. "I didn't want your garbage soup anyway!" 4 From that day on, Hunter and I never spoke again. I threw myself into my studies, determined to make it back to the Honors Program. Once I was back in AP classes, I wouldn't have to see him every day. And when it came time for college, I wouldn't purposely tank my applications to stay in the same city as him. I was going to move far away and never cross paths with him again. But catching up on the AP curriculum was tough, so my mom hired a tutor for me. Out of a pool of Ivy League prospects, I picked a guy from my school—the valedictorian of the Honors Program, Rowan Hayes. During our first meeting, I was straightforward. "I need to boost my grades as fast as possible and get back into Honors." He was just as concise. "Leave it to me." I started spending a lot of time with Rowan. I'd go to his classroom during breaks to ask about practice problems, and after school, we'd sit at a cafe near campus to study. Before long, new gossip circulated the school. They said the "epic simp" had switched targets and was now harassing the untouchable academic god. A group of Hunter's fangirls even cornered me behind the gym after school one day. "Avery, stay away from Rowan! A remedial class loser like you doesn't deserve to breathe the same air as him." The leader was a shot-put athlete, taller than me and aggressively glaring. I looked at them calmly. "Rowan is my hired tutor. I pay him, he teaches me. We have a strict employer-employee relationship." "A tutor? Isn't that just your excuse to hook up with him?" the girl sneered. "You couldn't get Hunter, so you switched targets. You're an embarrassment to girls everywhere!" "Yeah, disgusting. Don't ruin Rowan's future!" I was about to argue back when a long, slender hand suddenly grabbed my wrist and pulled me behind him. Rowan, wearing a simple white button-down, stood in front of me. His broad, athletic shoulders looked incredibly dependable. Seeing Rowan, the aggressive girls instantly dropped their act. "Rowan, don't let her trick you. She's a manipulative bitch trying to use you..." "She is my boss." Rowan interrupted them coldly, his grip on my wrist tightening. "She pays my salary. Anyone who messes with my paycheck, I mess with them." Dead silence. Rowan ignored them and pulled me away. Once we were a safe distance away, he turned around and looked me over carefully. "Did they hurt you?" I shook my head. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Good." He looked down at me, suddenly nervous. "You... you're not going to fire me over this, are you? I promise no one will bother you again." He paused, then added, "If you're not mad, I'll do your classroom chores for you. How about it, Avery?" The clean, crisp scent of cedarwood on him made me space out for a second. I thought he was pretty amusing, so I nodded.
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