Last Life, She Laughed While I Died. This Life, She’ll Cry While I Watch Novel – Chapter 1 My best friend loved calling everything a joke. On my birthday, she put an ugly photo of me up on the big screen in front of everyone and said she was just trying to liven up the party. When I was on my period, she deliberately gave me a damaged pad. Even after she saw blood soaking through my pants, she said nothing, then claimed she was just helping me turn heads. After I started dating, she doctored explicit photos of me into fake escort cards and sent them to every campus group chat she could find. The card listed me at $100 for one hookup and $200 for three. When I finally snapped and confronted her, she just smiled and said, “I was only helping you test if your boyfriend really loved you.” “If he doubts you, that means he doesn’t love you. How can you blame me for that?” Later, some creep found me through the information on those cards.
He harassed me, drugged me, and dragged me into a basement, where he held me captive and abused me for three days and nights. In the end, I died a horrible death. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day my best friend sent my doctored photos into the group chats. *** The phone in my palm buzzed so hard my hand went numb. I jerked my gaze down and saw a flood of private messages popping up. [Savannah, guess you’re not shy around classmates, huh? Since we know each other, how about a discount—$50?] [With a body like that, who could stop at just twice in one night?] [I sent the money. Come to the hotel at this location tonight.] A roar filled my head, and I flung the phone away on instinct. The suffocating feeling of someone pulling a plastic bag over my head was still so vivid it crushed the air out of my lungs. Had I been reborn? Before I could think any further, Mandy Taylor’s familiar face peeked in through the doorway. Just like in my last life, she waved one of the cards printed with my doctored photo and grinned like she had done me a favor. “Savvy, I just made you famous on campus.
How are you going to thank me?” “You have no idea. I only made one little joke, and those gross guys started going crazy asking me for your contact info.” In the past, I probably would have teared up and asked why she would do something like this to me. But now, I was so furious my jaw clenched and my whole body shook. I snatched the card from her hand and slapped her across the face. Mandy cried out and covered her cheek in disbelief. “You hit me? I treat you like my best friend, and now you can’t even take a joke?” Best friend? A cold laugh rose in my chest. In my last life, she spread filthy rumors about me, dragged my name through the mud, and got my boyfriend, Logan Bennett, to humiliate me outside the dorm, calling me a slut to my face. Back then, I thought it only proved Logan didn’t love me enough. But a few days later, I caught Mandy making out with him downstairs. I even heard her tell him, “I knew Savvy wasn’t some innocent girl a long time ago.
I only kept quiet because she’s my best friend.” She called me her best friend every chance she got, but behind my back, she’d had her eye on my boyfriend all along. I pointed at the phone on the floor and gritted my teeth. “A joke? Did you ever ask me if I thought it was funny?” “You’d better start thinking about how you’re going to explain slandering me to Dean Taylor.” As soon as I finished speaking, I heard footsteps outside the door. My roommates, Hailey Brooks and Zoe Carter, walked in one after the other. Hailey stood behind Mandy and asked worriedly, “Dean Taylor? Mandy, what happened to your dad?” That was when I remembered that ever since Mandy enrolled, she had kept hinting that she and the dean shared the same last name—Taylor. With little hints here and there, she had let everyone believe she was Dean Taylor’s daughter. But my father was the school’s biggest financial backer.
I had checked with him before, and Dean Taylor did not have a daughter at all. Back then, I thought Mandy was my best friend and assumed she had her reasons, so I never exposed her. But now? There was no way I would let her keep playing pretend in front of me. Mandy recovered fast and started accusing me through tears. “I was only joking with Savvy, but she actually hit me…” “What? Savvy hit you?” Hailey rushed over and pointed at me. “How could you hit Mandy? Who do you think you are?” Mandy put on her wounded-lamb act and said, “Logan is the campus heartthrob. How could he actually fall for someone as plain as you? I was helping you test if he was serious.” Zoe caught on and shot me a sideways glance before scoffing. “I knew it. Mandy was trying to help you, and you still threw a tantrum. Do you really think you’re all that?” Hailey jumped in too, her voice dripping with mockery. “They were just a few little cards in the group chat. Aren’t you being way too sensitive?” “We’re in college.
What’s wrong with loosening up a little?” For a moment, I was so furious my mind went blank. Hadn’t they said the exact same thing in my last life? And in the end, their words had helped push me toward that basement, where a creep locked me up, abused me for three days and nights, and left me to die. This time, I wasn’t going to let any of them get away with it.