Prank Gone Wrong Chapter 12

Prank Gone Wrong Chapter 12

The psychologist gave me the final diagnosis. Severe C-PTSD.

Every desensitization session ripped the scab off a wound that hadn’t healed.

“You have to face it, Maya.” The therapist’s voice was gentle. “Avoidance won’t help you win in court. It won’t help you find yourself either.”

But I wanted to forget.

The moldy smell of that basement.

But my brain was a broken hard drive. It locked onto the pain and refused to let go.

Fifth week. I finally stood up with a walker.

Every step, the metal pins in my bones screamed. The pain shot up my spine and into my skull.

I kept going anyway.

Because the day I walked out of this hospital was the day their countdown to hell began.

The rehab room had a full wall of mirrors.

For the first time, I didn’t flinch. I looked at my whole body. Clearly.

It was a Frankenstein body.

My face looked stitched together by a butcher. Features distorted. Wrong.

The skin that used to glow with youth was now just grotesque.

I stared at the stranger in the mirror. The ugly one.

And I laughed.

A horrible, shredding laugh.

The physical therapist rushed over. She reached for a sedative.

I waved her off.

Because this was all so absurd.

So this was the price. The nerd sacrificed for the cheerleader-quarterback romance.

I stared into my own eyes and asked the question over and over.

Was it worth it, Maya?

Destroying your chance at an Ivy League school. For a selfish bastard. Worth it?

If you could go back, would you put down that physics exam again?

Never.

Even if the world ended. Never.