Reborn to Watch My Best Friend Fall

1: 1

My best friend and I took our college arts admissions auditions, and we placed first and second in the whole state.

We'd promised each other we'd go to the National Film Academy together.

But the very day applications closed, I came across a trending post.

【My girlfriend placed second in the state arts exam. How do I talk her out of the National Film Academy so she'll drop out and go work with me?】

【Her mom's divorced and remarried, and her stepdad doesn't care about her. If she gets into a big-name school like that, there's no way her mom lets us stay together.】

The comments were all ripping into him for wrecking her future, calling him scum.

Only one comment jumped out at me.

【That's easy. If her arts scores are that good, she's definitely got a good body. Find a chance to take her to a club, knock her up first, and you can marry her sooner, can't you?】

The original poster liked it and replied: 【Taking her to a club tonight and getting her blackout drunk. Thanks, man.】

My fists clenched, and a cold went through my whole body.

Right then, my best friend messaged me.

"Going out clubbing with my boyfriend all night. Don't tell my mom, okay?"

I stared at the location she'd just dropped on her phone screen, and one word at a time, I deleted everything I'd been about to warn her about.

Because in my last life I stopped my best friend from going to that club, and I ended up crossing her punk boyfriend,

who beat me into a cripple and tore up my college acceptance letter.

My whole life was ruined. I fought the case for three years, and at the last moment I begged my best friend to testify.

But to shield the punk, she gave false testimony.

"You broke your own leg, and now you want to frame my boyfriend? Have some shame!"

In the end I was spat on, and I died carrying my rage and the injustice with me.

Thinking of all that, I sent my best friend a single line back.

"Don't worry. Have fun tonight."

1

The phone screen went dark, and my blank face stared back out of it.

In the living room the TV was still running the news, and the arts exam results looped on the local channel.

First in the state, Rowena Fox. My name.

Second in the state, Alice Gilbert. My best friend.

I'd thought we'd have the same bright, shining future.

But tonight, our paths began to split.

"Rowena, what do you think of this dress? Does the new bodycon look good on me?"

Alice's messages came one after another.

"We finally graduated high school. I want to try a whole new style."

"If I wear this to the bar tonight, do you think Henry Simmons won't be able to take his eyes off me?"

Even through the screen, I could almost feel Alice's excitement and her daydreaming.

And I narrowed my eyes, staring at that location she'd sent, and didn't answer.

That location was the biggest private bar in New York City.

In my last life, when I got there by cab,

Alice was already in a bodycon dress and sky-high heels, about to walk in.

Frantic, I stopped her, and I showed her the post on my phone.

"Don't go in! He's waiting there to set you up!"

"Look, isn't this poster your punk boyfriend, Henry?"

"His girlfriend placed second in the state arts exam, and even her family situation matches exactly. Isn't that you?"

"The second you walk in there, tonight becomes an ambush."

"He's got a whole group waiting for you. They're going to get you drunk, maybe even get you pregnant tonight……"

Alice went pale with fear, shrinking back, not daring to go in.

"Rowena, thank God you came."

She hugged my arm tight.

"I'll go home with you. Let's go, quick."

After that, Alice stayed on her guard, and she refused to see the punk the whole summer.

But somehow he still found out that I was the one who stopped Alice that night.

The very day I got my college acceptance letter,

he came storming over with a whole crew and surrounded me.

"None of your damn business!"

"Rowena Fox, you little bitch, this is all your fault for butting in and ruining what I had going."

"Then you can pay me back with yourself!"

Henry meant to force himself on me, but I was fierce, and I fought with everything I had.

In the end they beat me into a cripple.

When the police arrived, I was lying in a dead-end alley, my whole body a bloody mess.

I didn't die. I kept my life.

Four steel pins in my leg, and even the doctor sighed and said, "Prepare yourselves. She may never leave a wheelchair for the rest of her life."

My mom cried until she nearly fainted, kneeling on the floor to beg the doctor.

"Please, you have to fix my daughter's leg! She just got her acceptance letter from the National Film Academy. She's a dancer. Her leg can't be broken like this."

And how could a cripple ever dance?

I hated it. I couldn't accept it.

I fought to press charges, and the punk sent someone to take the fall for him.

I hired a lawyer and spent every cent of my family's savings.

I fought the case with everything I had for three years, and finally I was about to win, one step away, needing only a single eyewitness, Alice.

But she nailed me to the pillar of shame with one sentence.

She gave false testimony.

"My boyfriend never touched her. She got drunk and fell on her own."

"That day she was the one trying to seduce my boyfriend, which is why she asked him to meet her in that dead-end alley."

And she added "She's always been jealous of me. If she hadn't pulled something in the arts exam, I'd have placed first ages ago. How could I ever have come in second?"

In that instant I finally understood.

It turned out the most terrifying thing in this world isn't a villain being openly, brazenly evil,

it's the person you thought you'd trust with your life turning around and driving the knife into your heart.

At one in the morning, my phone rang.

Alice had sent a voice message, the background full of loud music and clinking glass.

"Rowena, I've had so much to drink. My head's spinning."

I didn't reply.

Two o'clock, another voice message.

Alice's voice carried a note of panic. "Rowena, Henry wants to take me upstairs to the hotel. I'm a little scared. Can you come be with me?"

I still didn't respond.

Half an hour later, Alice suddenly sent me a video.

"Bestie, is the woman in this video your mom?"

"I'm not seeing things! Your mom's here too."

"A man just took her into a hotel room. I'm scared something's going to happen to her. Hurry up and come check!"