When Best Friends Become Monsters

t thick, heavy with th

ship exam, our ticket to Caltec

nce kindergarten, and I had ta

brilliant minds conquering the wo

here, cramming

ith Jess

us, and every

to skip our final, c

birthday party, she

practice papers blu

tened in my stomach.

mbitious

istraction, a

duced her, a smirk on his fac

Jessi. She's.

nt. She looked at me like I w

zzed. A tex

look. Jessi says com

notorious party spo

I had to study. He

, I went for a walk, n

ocal diner, a place Jessi a

I saw her, holding c

nition, pulled me closer to

i was saying, her voice

ittle does he know, it's to make sur

er giggled. "You

own name, let alone calculus," Jessi boasted.

od ran

acting him, she was a

hared dream, mean

o do so

in my mind then, a tor

than's parents, M

em ever

ous, but at Je

forced him to study,

Caltech a

being thwarted,

eal

her car ar

ving. Ins

as deva

s parents' subtle manipu

e

as to blame fo

ve been with her, she wouldn't have

s a broken,

me the

lous.

room. A torn piece of my clot

oked with fake tears, telling a st

saulti

town, used their influe

arre

, Caltech, my f

bless them,

less cyberbullying amplified by t

eir car went off th

called it a

hattered heart, it w

driven t

ail, a ghost of th

were co

headline screaming about m

ing my life, Sarah," he whispe

r family pai

re a final,

the sheer injustice of it

, a condition I'd managed careful

tening in my chest,

ictim of a love I'd tried to save and