Why wouldn’t the universe decide that the one thing I had never managed to find—love, a connection, a relationship, being desired, chosen—would now be the key to my academic, and maybe my general survival?
I folded the paper carefully.
Too carefully.
Because if I didn’t treat it like something fragile, I might rip it in half.
And that wouldn’t solve anything.
Nothing ever did.
“Fine,” I whispered to myself.
Because what choice did I have?
Fail?
Go home?
Face my mother with nothing to show for years of effort except confirmation of everything she already believed?
No thanks.
I lifted my chin slightly.
Drew in a breath.
“I’ll do it.”
Even if I didn’t believe in it.
Even if I didn’t believe in myself.
Even if the idea of someone—anyone—being destined for me felt like the cruelest joke of all.
Because if there was even the smallest chance that I could prove them wrong.
That I could prove her wrong—then I would take it.
No matter how impossible it seemed.
No matter how much it hurt to try.
And even though my stomach turned with anxiety—somewhere else, somewhere deep beneath that determination—I felt something other sit up and take notice.
It was quiet.
Uncertain, maybe.
But there.
As if the stars themselves had already begun to shift.
And the rest of us just hadn’t noticed yet.
Chapter 2-Sten
I couldn’t stop the laugh.
