I Cared For Him Twenty Years, Only For His Love Letters To Belong To Another Girl Chapter 02

I Cared For Him Twenty Years, Only For His Love Letters To Belong To Another Girl Chapter 02

The day we picked partners for the cross-country run, Thorne stared straight at me.

“Do you want to team up with Laurel?” the coach asked.

He nodded without a moment’s hesitation.

Everyone else rotated carrying their partner on their back. Teaming with Thorne meant I’d be carrying him for the entire course.

That’s how it always was in my last life. But this time I hadn’t helped him at all. He shouldn’t even know who I was.

My heart lurched. I met his gaze—so full of certainty, like I was supposed to be his—and it hit me all at once. He’d been reborn too.

“Coach, I already have a partner.”

It was Graham Ellis, the second-ranked student in our grade. The only guy who’d never bullied me in my last life.

Thorne’s expression froze. He hadn’t expected me to refuse. His gaze slid over to Graham, cold and sharp.

The coach tried to pair him with someone else, but Thorne just stood there with his head down, not saying a word. Like a wounded animal.

That was exactly the look that had fooled me before.

Thorne wouldn’t cooperate, so the coach stuck us together.

He climbed onto my back with practiced ease and spoke in that gravelly voice of his—the first words he’d said to me since we came back.

“Why didn’t you pick me?”

I shot back, “Then why didn’t you pick Vivian?”

Isn’t she the one you left a hundred love letters and all your money to? Why not her?

He gripped the collar of my shirt tightly. “She’d only slow me down.”

So that’s what this was about. I felt sick.

“Laurel,” he said my name. “Let’s just go back to how things were.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I dumped him off my back.

“Go back to what? Wasting twenty years of my life waiting on you?”

He just frowned, like he honestly didn’t get it. “Was that not okay?”

It felt like someone was slowly tearing my heart apart.

“No, Thorne. It’s not.”

“I didn’t know you loved Vivian before.”

“Stay away from me from now on. Once I survive the rest of high school, I’ll go to a different college than you.”

“We’ll never see each other again.”

I bolted forward with everything I had. Why wouldn’t he just leave me alone, even after we’d been given a second chance?

The moment I stopped, Thorne suddenly got sick, leaving me covered in the mess.

The whole class erupted in laughter.

I dropped him onto the ground without a second thought.

He sat there on the ground, stunned, staring at me covered in vomit, still wearing that same confused expression.

I used to think he just didn’t understand because of his condition.

But when Vivian ran over to help him up, he pulled out his handkerchief and obsessively wiped her hands clean.

“I’m dirty…”

Vivian laughed. “How could you ever be dirty?”

Then she turned to me, eyes blazing with fake concern. “He only threw up because you were running too fast. How could you just drop him like that? You could’ve hurt him!”

I stood there in a humiliating mess, desperate to get changed. But Vivian wouldn’t back down.

“You need to apologize to Thorne.”

I looked straight at him.

“Thorne, if I apologize, will you leave me alone?”

He avoided my gaze and turned away. Then he ran off like he was escaping something.

I let out a bitter laugh. “You see that, Vivian? He doesn’t need my apology.”