He Took Her To Bali While I Buried My Parents Alone Chapter 01
After senior year ended, I randomly scrolled through a thread. [
which major would you pick?]
A ton of people said they’d switch. Regret came in all flavors.
But one answer stood out from the rest.
[I’d pick English Lit.]
If you could do it all over,
[That way, her and I wouldn’t have to worry about that third wheel, and we wouldn’t have missed the four years we should’ve had together.]
I smiled and was about to scroll away-then I saw the profile picture and ID. Exactly the same as my childhood friend, Landon Randall.
I clicked in. The personal info matched completely too, except the age was ten years older.
My heart dropped.
So this was him from ten years in the future.
No wonder I was the only one cheering when we got into the same major.
No wonder he spaced out for so long after seeing my best friend Tessa Morgan receive her acceptance letter to the English Lit program.
Turns out I was the third wheel who caused him so much regret and remorse.
Fine then-
I quietly clicked confirm and accepted the offer to study abroad.
years early.
[Who’s this third wheel you’re talking about?]
Let me end this mistake ten e- *** I took a deep breath and typed out that question.
Just a few seconds later, his reply came.
[Someone who grew up with me.]
[Basically, she’s this girl who grew up with me.]
[Her parents died saving me back in the day, so my parents took her in. Out of guilt.)
[And she used that guilt to latch onto me. Every single thing. Let everyone think she was basically my future wife or something.]
[But I never asked for any of that.]
I blinked.
Tears splashed onto my screen. I thought of my parents, frozen
forever in photos.
In that landslide, my dad pushed him out of the way and got crushed by a boulder.
My mom used all her strength to lift him out, then got buried under the collapse.
Landon once said that from then on, his family would be my family.
And that he would stay by my side and protect me for the rest of my life.
But in the end, to him, I was just an entitled brat using my family’s sacrifice to manipulate him.
[God, I hate emotional blackmail. Congrats on getting out, OP.]
[Skip the drama. Give us the cute details! How’d you and your real girl get together?]
Replies kept coming. Landon was quiet for a while, then posted two sentences:
[It’s simple. When that girl wanted to get engaged to me, I came clean.]
[I told her straight up that I’d already slept with the person I really loved.]
My fingers started shaking uncontrollably.
[Wow! What a man, so direct!]
[So the clingy girl just backed off? No drama?]
[She made a scene.”
Landon replied.
[Didn’t matter.]
[I had dirt on her. The company she worked for belonged to my uncle.]
[Her grandmother was really sick and needed one last surgery. I held back her bonus.]
[So in the end, she had no choice but to let go.]
The thread in my brain snapped. I could barely breathe.
No way. No way Landon would use my own family to hurt me like that.
[So where are you and your current girl at? Married yet?]
Someone else asked.
Next second, a photo popped up. Two hands with wedding rings, fingers intertwined.
And my heart plunged into an abyss.
The freckles on those hands were identical to Tessa’s.
And the locket on her wrist-at this very moment, was on mine.
The Randalls had given it to us, said it was passed down through the family. Something to keep us safe.
“One for each of us, so we’ll never be apart!”
That year, Landon held my hand and made that promise. In the end, he gave that forever to someone else.
I gritted my teeth, fighting through the pain that made my breath tremble, and sent a private
message to that account.
[Hey.
love.]
I’m in a similar situation. There’s someone in the way, so I can’t be with the person I
[Can we talk?]
I needed to know what happened in those ten years.
And soon, I got a reply. [Sure.]
[But I wouldn’t say I’m love-locked.]
[Actually, that summer after high school graduation, I secretly booked a couples’ tour package and took her to Maui alone.]
[By then, we’d both already caught feelings.]
I squeezed my phone so hard it hurt.
Maui. A vacation.
Landon told me he wanted to travel alone that summer, enjoy some free air without anyone bothering him.
But really, he’d already taken Tessa to the island I dreamed of the most.
I spaced out for a long time. Then went back to the chat and sent a message to the present-day Landon.
[Landon, did you actually want to sign up for the same major as me?]
He answered right away.
[Why else?]
[Mom and Dad said I have to take care of you for the rest of your life.]
Have to take care of me. Not want to.
So Landon’s words had already changed.
I gave a bitter smile, clicked confirm, and accepted the offer to study abroad.
It’s okay.
Landon, from now on, I don’t need you anymore.