Chapter 2

I just didn't have it in me to argue with her, but her nasty attitude made my chest tighten with anger.

Not long after, Shirley was transferred out of the ICU and sent to the general ward.

Meanwhile, I was stuck in the ICU for over a month.

During that time, I went through surgery after surgery, and in the end, they had to amputate both my legs. The tissue was beyond saving.

They wouldn't even give me a pain pump, so every single day hurt like hell. Some moments, the agony was so intense I honestly just wanted it all to end.

During that stretch, Shirley sent me a few texts.

None of them asked how I was doing. She just wanted to moan about her own problems.

She wrote: [I've got a fever and my head and throat hurt so badly. I feel awful.

[Don't worry, I'll come see you when you're out of the hospital.]

*****

All through my stay in the hospital, getting discharged, and those two years I was stuck out of school—Shirley never showed up once to visit me.

She even hid her posts from me on social media, always showing off her carefree life back at school after getting out of the hospital.

After I was finally discharged, I was stuck relying on prosthetics and a wheelchair just to get around.

That accident wrecked me. I ended up crippled for life.

My family had to burn through a fortune just to pay the hospital bills and get me fitted for prosthetics and a decent wheelchair.

My mom turned into a total wreck, crying all the time, sighing herself hoarse, and her black hair turned white almost overnight.

My dad pulled triple shifts to pay off all those medical debts, and no matter how thirsty he got, he wouldn't even splurge on a bottle of water.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. At one point, I was all set on taking Shirley to court.

But then the court came back and told me the truck driver was the one fully at fault, so Shirley got to walk away withno consequences at all.

The only problem was that the truck driver was already dead, and his family was flat broke. So in the end, I just had to suck it up and swallow my bad luck.

While Shirley was out there soaking up campus life, all smiles and sunshine, I was holed up at home, like some gloomy recluse living in the shadows.

Relatives shot me those weird, pitying glances. Strangers stared and gossiped behind my back. My family was buckling under the weight of it all.

The cost of artificial limbs was like robbery. All that trauma had shattered me inside. My health just kept circling the drain, and anything as basic as a bathroom trip or heading outside became an ordeal nobody could imagine.

Every single thing felt like it was crushing down on me, making it impossible to even catch my breath.

In the end, I just couldn't take the pressure anymore. I couldn't bear dragging my family down with me, so I downed an entire bottle of sleeping pills.

Before I did it, I left a suicide note and blasted Shirley's real sins all over the internet.

My heart was howling with unwillingness and overflowing with bitter hatred toward her.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself two years back in time.

It was that very day when Shirley tried to drag me out.

I stared at the calendar and the familiar, homey setup of my dorm room, completely stunned. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I gave Shirley a hard pinch, and her shriek snapped me out of my daze.

I knew that I had time-traveled.

The familiar scent of food lingering in the dorm snapped me back. Shirley hadn't had a chance to stir up any trouble yet.

I looked down at my legs that were still perfectly fine and whole. I couldn't help grinning with delight, and before I even realized it, I was pumping out fifty high knees right there in the room.

People were always blind to what they already had, forever obsessed with chasing after something more.

But honestly, just having a healthy, whole body made me feel luckier than most.

I treasured my legs more than ever, now that I'd gotten them back.

Right then and there, I thought that no matter what tricks Shirley tried today, I was flat-out not stepping a foot out the door with her.

Shirley rubbed at the angry red print on her face, jumped to her feet and glared daggers at me.

She asked, "Ursula, have you totally lost it? What are you doing?"

I shot her a sly grin, just trying to brush it off.

I said, "Your cheeks looked so squishy. I just couldn't help myself.

"I just went a bit too hard. My bad."

Andrea piped up to defend me. "Come on, who could resist pinching the campus queen's cheeks? Shirley, your face is just too cute.

"Ursula, you just did what I've wanted to do for ages."

Robin was the thoughtful one. She dug out an ice pack and handed it over.

"Here, put this on. It'll help the swelling go down in no time," she said.

On the outside, I put on my best apologetic face, but inside, I was sorta kicking myself.

Honestly, I wished I'd really gone all out with that pinch.

Compared to all the hell Shirley put me through in my last life, this tiny sting was nothing.

Shirley had this unshakable confidence in her looks, so the way Andrea and I buttered her up totally went down easy for her.

She bought my apology in a heartbeat. Then, she asked me to head out with her ahead of schedule.