Too Late For Regret: The Lawyer's Comeback

I woke up at seventeen again, right on the morning of our college application day.

But this time, things were completely off. My boyfriend Kevin and my best friend Jack suddenly announced they were ditching our shared Ivy League dream.

"We’re going to apply to State University. Locally. Brittany needs support," Kevin said, avoiding my eyes.

Instead of Princeton, they decided to sacrifice their futures to tutor the blonde head cheerleader. They handed over my meticulously organized SAT notes to her and became her full-time academic babysitters. When I refused to play along, Kevin snatched my yearbook and wrote a mocking goodbye, while Jack coldly accused me of being selfish. They paraded her around, genuinely believing my plans to go out of state were just a childish tantrum.

In my previous life, when I fell into severe depression after my dad died, they didn't even try to make me smile. Yet now, they were treating me like a villain and throwing away everything we had built, all for a girl who was clearly playing them for fools.

Watching them fawn over Brittany's fake tears, the cold knot in my stomach turned into iron resolve.

I packed my bags and pulled out my one-way ticket and secret acceptance letter to UC Berkeley. This life was already different, and it was time I made it my own.