Rewriting Our Love Story

heat clinging to everyone. Olivia' s soror

, jabbing a finger at my chest. "Still carryin

iends

ortable thing. "Olivia? Nah, tha

s was it, the first st

louder than I intended, "I' m pra

their little grou

feet, red punch bleeding into the beige carpet. Her eyes, wid

knot in my stomach. Sh

"awakening," it' s

ve been in love with Olivia. She' s three years older, my brother Ale

was eight. I always insisted on being the husband.

an obsession, a deep, unhealthy thin

g a terrible movie I can' t turn off, a

d its peak. It was at a college football game. Olivia was there, laughing with

inside m

Alex was the hero, the one she was meant

ration for some win. I saw my chance,

y plan was sickeningly simple: compromise her, create a sca

pliant as I led her away from the noise. We were in a

t a frantic bird in

e world

. It was a vision, a download

e scandal would bind us, a chain of misery. I saw myself, a hollow man, drinking to forget, to

life snuffed out. The vision hinted, with sickening clarity, that

ater, unloved, unmourned, a p

just actors playing our doomed parts. My role was the o

, so vivid, it felt more r