The Right Mistake

On the slopes, I stumbled across a video that made me want to confront my boyfriend Ryan.

But I fell and got a concussion that wiped my memory clean.

When I woke up, Ryan told me my boyfriend was actually his roommate Paxton.

I believed him and spent two weeks getting close to this stranger who was supposedly my boyfriend.

He took such tender care of me—peeling apples to feed me, blushing to his ears whenever I leaned against his shoulder.

Until my memory returned.

Ryan smugly said, "I told you you'd come crawling back to me, didn't I?"

Looking at my hot, gentle "new boyfriend" Paxton, I couldn't bear to let him go.

So why not just switch them?

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1

I woke up to a searing pain, my head throbbing against the icy ground. That fall on the slopes had the whole world spinning. I reached back to touch my head, and my fingertips came away wet and sticky. Blood.

I distantly heard screaming, the chaotic clatter of skis and poles around me. Then, everything went black.

But before I blacked out, one image kept replaying in my mind: the short video I’d just seen on Instagram.

The scene was a frat party, the lights flashing and the music deafening.

My boyfriend, Ryan Parker, was in the middle of a smoky basement packed with college students.

We’d known each other forever; in my eyes, he was flawless. But in the video, he was completely wasted.

Madison Thompson, our year's cheerleader captain, was plastered to his side, her fingers tracing circles on his muscular chest. "Ryan, sweetie, don't drink too much. You have that game tomorrow."

Her gaze was practically glued to him, dripping with a sickly sweet adoration. In the dim light, she was practically in his lap, and he wasn't doing a thing to stop her.

Someone in the video hollered, "Hey Ryan, want us to call your girl to come get you?"

He raised his red solo cup, laughing sloppily. "No way in hell. If she showed up, she'd kill the vibe for everyone. I finally managed to ditch her for a night. I've never met a more clingy girl."

The video had been sent to me from an anonymous account. I watched it over and over, my mind reeling, unable to accept that this was how Ryan really felt.

We'd been together since high school. Our families were close friends. Everyone just assumed we'd get engaged after graduation.

With our similar backgrounds and parents already discussing engagement parties, it all felt like a foregone conclusion.

In the video, Madison fanned the flames, her voice feigning innocence. "No way. Haven't you and Fabiola been together for years? She's so in love with you."

I watched Ryan tilt his head back and snort.

"Like I can say a single bad thing about her? My parents would skin me alive if I tried to break up, and hers would finish the job."

"You guys are all jealous, but this relationship is a goddamn cage. Sometimes, I really envy you guys. You can sleep with whoever you want in college while I'm chained to her."

By that point, my vision was blurry. I rubbed my eyes, only to find my face was streaked with tears. I thought we were soulmates. Turns out, in his eyes, I was just baggage he was stuck with.

At the end of the video, a man's cold, annoyed voice cut through the noise. "Tell him to shut up."

But I didn't care about that. My only thought was to storm over to that frat house, shove my phone in Ryan's face, and demand if any of it was true.

I’m Fabiola Martinez, and I’m not the type to cling to someone who doesn’t want me. If Ryan thought I was a burden, then I’d give him exactly what he wanted.

But just as I was about to go confront him, I accidentally fell and hit the back of my head hard on the ground.

When I slowly opened my eyes, the room was spinning, and my head ached as if it were about to split open. I heard a doctor talking to someone. "The patient has a concussion from the fall. Fortunately, it's a minor one, with no internal bleeding."

A voice, low and laced with a tremor despite its coolness, asked, "Then why was there so much blood?"

"Head wounds bleed a lot; that's to be expected. The cut isn't deep. We've already taken care of it. We'll just need to observe her once she wakes up."

Then, another man’s voice cut in. "Thanks, doc. Any idea when she'll wake up? I've got places to be tonight. Can't be stuck here all day."