I Died for Them. Now Watch Me Return the Favor

Brynn's POV

In my past life, we were camping in the wilderness area of a state park when my best friend handed out "lucky charms" to the whole group. Charms she'd secretly packed full of wildlife attractant.

A wild boar knocked me to the ground outside the cabin door. Its tusks tore into my stomach. I pounded on the wood with both fists, screaming. "Help! Open the door!"

Inside were my boyfriend of two years and the best friend I'd been quietly supporting for just as long. Autumn Warren.

"I'm so sorry, Brynn." Autumn's voice broke into sobs, but her weight stayed pressed hard against the door. "There are boars everywhere. We open that door, we're all dead."

"Just hold on! I'm calling 911!" Wyatt Fletcher's voice rang out with the kind of conviction that cost him absolutely nothing.

I paid for that trip. I'd fallen behind because I'd stopped to pull Autumn along.

And they stood on the other side of that door, my blood soaking into the dirt, and locked me out.

I open my eyes. I'm back. It's the day we left.

"Brynn? Hello? Why are you zoning out? Autumn's trying to give you something."

Wyatt's impatient voice cuts through the fog.

My eyes snap open.

No blood. No mud. No stench of wild boar. Just early fall sunlight burning bright through the trees, the whole forest dense and green around me.

I'm gasping. Cold sweat has soaked straight through my jacket. I dig my nails into my palm until the pain is sharp enough to feel real.

I came back.

"Brynn? Hey." Autumn steps into my line of sight. "You don't look so good."

She's wearing a faded denim jacket, washed so many times it's nearly gray. She cradles a small pile of red cloth pouches in both hands, her expression already tilting toward hurt.

"I got these at that little gift shop at the base of the trail," she says softly. "I saved up from my shifts to buy one for everyone. I know they're not fancy or anything, and you probably think stuff like this is cheap. But I just wanted everyone to be safe out there. That's all."

Her bottom lip catches between her teeth. The message underneath is perfectly clear: turn this down and you're the villain.

Around me, the rest of the Outdoor Adventure Club turns to look. I can already feel it coming.

"Are you serious right now, Brynn?" Connor Walsh crosses his arms, his voice wrapped in something that wants to sound like principle but is really just resentment. "Autumn's juggling three jobs on a financial aid package and she still thought to do something nice for everyone. You can't even take it?"

"Honestly," Madison Hughes mutters, shooting me a look. "Just because you have money doesn't mean you get to treat people like crap."

I look at all of them.

In my past life, these same people completely fell apart the second anything went wrong. Screaming, running in circles, totally useless. I was the one who stayed calm. I was the one who found the cabin.

And then they locked me outside of it. Wyatt right there beside her.

My eyes drop to the red pouch in Autumn's hands.

I didn't think twice about it last time. Just clipped it onto my bag like it was nothing. But that was the exact moment everything changed. The moment the boars in those woods stopped avoiding us and started coming straight for me. Specifically me. Like something had marked me.

It wasn't a lucky charm. It was a death sentence with a bow on it.

"Brynn, come on."

Wyatt walks over and pulls Autumn into his side, looking at me with that expression. The disappointed one. The one that used to make me feel like I'd failed some test I didn't know I was taking.

"She worked closing shifts washing dishes to afford these. You don't even have to mean it, just take it. We're on a club camping trip, not a photoshoot. Can you put the princess thing on pause for one weekend?"

He plucks the pouch from Autumn's hands and tries to push it into mine.

"Take it. Say sorry to Autumn. That's it, we're done. We're all friends here. Don't make this into something."

I stare at him.

Two years. Two years I twisted myself into whatever shape he needed. I never brought up where I grew up or what my family had, because he had this whole chip on his shoulder about people with money. I ate at places I'd never have picked. Every month I quietly slipped money into Autumn's account because he said she was struggling and we should look out for her. Like I'd be a bad person if I didn't.

And when the boars came, he put his arms around her. And he didn't move.

I can still hear myself screaming on the other side of that door.

I watch his hand reach toward me, and something in my chest goes very still and very cold.

If I get a second life and spend it letting these people use me again, I might as well not have come back at all.

I slap him.

The sound cracks across the open air. Birds scatter from the trees. The whole group goes dead quiet.

Four finger marks rise red across Wyatt's cheek.

He stands there for a solid three seconds, hand hovering near his face, expression completely blank. Then it lands.

"What the hell, Brynn?! Did you just hit me?!"

"Yeah," I say. "I did."

I knock the pouch out of his hand.

"Brynn!" Autumn scrambles to pick it up, tears already running down her face. "If you don't want it, fine. But why would you throw it? Why would you hit him? All he was doing was standing up for me!"