Get ready for Heartbreak + a GIVEAWAY!

Happy Birthday

Sarah

Joel squeezes my hand tightly as we step out of the auditorium. Bright sun hits immediately, hurting my eyes, but I don’t care. I can’t care about anything else. It’s my twenty-first birthday and I just freaking graduated from college! I’m proud as hell of myself, and I’m excited to spend the rest of the day celebrating with the people I love most.

Joel leans over and kisses my head. “I’m insanely proud of you.”

“Thank you. I can’t wait to go celebrate.”

“Me either. I intend to spoil you today.”

“As opposed to all the other days?” I ask, laughing, but I stop abruptly when I see her again. That little blonde-haired girl. The ghost of me. “Oh my god. It’s her again.”

“Who?”

Time to find out if I’m insane.

I rip my gaze from the girl and look at Joel. “Can you see her?”

He looks at me like I’m nuts. “Yes, I can see her, you weirdo. Why?”

Phew. “Right. Sorry. I saw her earlier, and I thought I was hallucinating. She looks—”

“Just like you. Wow. She really does.”

“Right?”

The little girl tugs on the pant leg of the man standing next to her, and in a split second a whirlwind hits me.

The man and woman in front of the little girl are arguing with Mom, Dad, and Grandpa. Grandpa looks angrier than I’ve ever seen him, and I know.

Why today? Why today of all the fucking days? I thought I did the right thing burning that letter, but clearly, I burned the one warning shot. Now the war is here.

Joel looks at me, but then the man turns around, and I see the last thing I’m expecting.

Shaggy blond hair and a familiar smile. A smile that I’d recognize anywhere because I see it in the mirror every goddamn day.

My chest tightens. This can’t be happening.

He has another little girl in his arms with deep brown hair and brown eyes. She looks to be about three. Just the right age to be the baby she was pregnant with when I cut her out of my life.

“What the hell?” I mutter, squeezing Joel’s hand.

I feel like I stepped into an alternate reality.

The conversation stops when Mom and Dad see us.

Slowly, she turns around, and my breath hitches. Of course she’s here, ruining what should be one of the best days of my life.

“Vanessa,” I hiss.

Her long light brown hair swishes behind her as she looks at me, smiling an almost devious smile. It shouldn’t surprise me, but it does. This woman burned my life to the ground and shattered me, and here she is on the day of my college graduation to start another fire.