AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My cheeks burned. “Only he’s allowed to call me that.”
We all laughed, along with the audience.
“Troy, have you ever gotten backlash from being in a relationship with your former bully?”
“I do. It was especially bad the first time I appeared in one of Maddie’s live where he interviewed me as my former bully.”
I squeezed Troy’s hand, and he returned the pressure.
“I watched that live,” Mark said. “It was powerful stuff the way you could talk openly about it instead of pretending it never happened. Some couples would have done that, you know. But we witnessed you both having a discovery right there on air.”
I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat. When I’d asked Troy to do the Q&A with me, neither of us had any idea of the emotional turn it would have taken. I hadn’t known he still harbored some resentment over the way I’d soured his high school experience.
“That’s still my most viewed video,” I said, inhaling deeply. “It showed us both that even though we were already two years into our relationship at that point, Troy still had some resentment. We learned from that video that healing doesn’t happen instantly but may need to endure for a long time and, most importantly, that we needed an objective third party to help us through the residual resentment.”
“And how’s everything going now?”
“Great.” Troy smiled at me. “We still see our therapist individually and together from time to time. It’s kept our relationship healthy over the years. We’re definitely stronger for it.”
“Maddix, can you tell us about your recent venture?”
“Sure. Former Lives, our nonprofit, recently launched an app that allows bullies to connect with those in their lives who they wronged in the past. The thing that was most difficult when I tried to make restitution was disrupting the lives of people who had moved on. I had no right to re-insert myself into their lives just to make me feel better. The app allows people who had been bullied to register and indicate the level of contact that they’re open to by their former bullies. Some may want a direct face-to-face conversation, others are okay with an email, a public apology and so on. It also allows the bullied to donate to a cause directly in the app.”
“And since you launched the app a week ago, we’re seeing that you’ve had a lot of traffic.”
“I admit I underestimated how much reach we would have, but when you think of it, one in every five students is being bullied. Those students grow up to become adults, but many have scars from then.”
“If you have been bullied,” Jenny said, addressing the camera. “Or you would like to show an interest in having your bully get in touch to make amends, you can download the FormerLives app and sign up.”
“Thank you for having me to talk about all of this,” I said.
“You’re welcome, but before you go, Maddix, the audience would love you to play something for us.”
They’d prepared me for this, so I already had a song all picked out and brought my guitar. Troy started to leave, but I told him to stay while I took the center stage where they had a microphone setup.
“This song is for second chances and the people who don’t need to but give them anyway,” I said.
The strum of my guitar filled the room. Dozens of faces stared back at me from the audience, but as I looked out, I could see only Troy’s face in my mind.
Verse 1
We walked on separate roads,
Two hearts, two different codes.
But destiny played its part,
Brought us back to the start.
Now our love’s an original work of art.
Chorus
Second chances, love advances,
With every glance, we’re taking chances.
Fall in love, once again,
