The Price of Childhood Sweethearts

Chapter 1

Three years with Chad.

Then, I accidentally scratched his precious childhood friend’s hand.

So, on my birthday, he got a whole crew to corner me in an alley. They broke my left hand, the one I used to play the violin.

He stood over me, all high and mighty, and said, “Forget the violin, you don’t need that junk anymore.”

Later, he went totally psycho, clinging to me, begging me not to forget the past.

But all he got back was a blank stare. I didn’t remember a thing.

1

“Ashley, you okay?”

“Ashley! What happened? What’s going on?”

It was a dark and stormy night, straight out of a movie. Chad and his buddies had me pinned in an alley near my place.

The sky was a total blackout, no stars, just layers of clouds hanging low.

The alley was dead silent, except for my brother’s frantic voice coming from the cell phone smashed on the ground.

“Ashley? What is it? Talk to me…”

My breath turned to ice in the air, thick with dread.

Two gorillas held my arms pinned to the wall.

Chad, he was holding a cigarette, giving me this cold look.

He picked up the phone and hung up on my brother.

I looked up at him, and then one of the other guys kicked me hard.

“What are you looking at!?”

“What’s with staring at Chad like that? You still hung up on that fairytale romance?”

The goon holding my arm leaned in, his face all twisted in a sneer.

He pinched my cheek and clicked his tongue.

“You do look a little like Tiffany, no wonder Chad fell for a piece of trash like you.”

Then he shoved my face toward Chad, hard.

I still couldn’t believe Chad was doing this.

I stared at him, asking the only question that mattered.

“Why?”

He didn’t even look at me. Just crushed his cigarette out on the wall.

The guy who kicked me started laughing.

“You dare to ask why? How dare you scratch Tiffany’s hand! That’s her violin hand!”

“And who are you to even compare yourself to her?”

“Don’t blame us,” he patted my face, hard. “You couldn’t pay for what you did, even if you had two sets of hands.”

So, Chad dragged me out here in the middle of the night because I accidentally nicked his precious Tiffany?

All this time, Tiffany was the only one he cared about.

Chad squatted down, grabbed my left hand, looked it over real slow.

His words were ice cold.

“I can’t let you get in her way.”

“Forget the violin. You don’t need that garbage anymore.”

“Just stick with me.”

Tiffany is some kind of princess, destined to chase her dreams. And I get to be broken so she can do whatever she wants?

I’m supposed to be happy that my hand is broken so that I can just be some kind of replacement?

I stood up, screaming, trying to get someone outside the alley to notice.

But Chad had planned this out.

The whole street was empty.

I fought like hell, but they ganged up on me, held me down.

They smashed my violin on the ground.

Crack. It split in two.

Today was my birthday.

That violin was the last gift my mom gave me before she died.

Chad looked a little sorry when he saw it.

He put on an act, squatting down and touching the broken pieces of the violin, he said he was sad.

“It’s okay, all you need is me. You don’t need this.”

I bit my lip, trying not to cry, but my vision was blurring.

Tears ran down my face.

All I could think about was that it was the last thing my mom left me.

Chad waved his hand, and they started in on me.

That’s when I felt real fear.

“Chad, you can’t do this to me!”

I screamed, but then they smashed my arm with a steel bar.

Pain shot through me, and I screamed again.

I was so scared.

If my hand was ruined, I could never play again.

So, I started crawling.

I couldn’t even think straight. I just begged them to stop.

I grabbed Chad’s pants leg.

“Chad… please, stop… I can’t live without my violin…”

“I’ll die… please…”

He kicked my hand away.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry… It’s my fault, I won’t bother you anymore, okay? I’ll leave, I’ll get out of your lives, you’ll never see me again, okay?”

They kept hitting me, again and again, until I couldn’t feel my left hand anymore.

“Chad… I don’t love you anymore, just stop… Please, I need my violin…”

If I couldn’t even hold a violin, I didn’t want to live.

I could lose anything, but not my dream.

So, I groveled at his feet, begging him to stop.

I gave him my last bit of dignity.

But he just watched, and then, when he was sure my arm was totally destroyed, he told them to stop. He looked down at me, all pitying.

“Don’t worry, I’ll marry you.”

“But you can’t get in Tiffany’s way.”

I fell on the ground, brushing my right hand over the mess that was my left arm.

All the crap I’d been holding in finally burst out of me.

My eyes were wide and empty. I screamed.

I turned my pain and fear into a scream.

“Chad! You’ll never see me again!”

“You’re gonna be miserable forever!”

2

Chad and I had been together for three years.

At first, it was just me practicing the violin, and he heard me.

Summer wind through the trees, people walking down the street.

The sound of “La Vie en Rose” floated to his ears.

He turned and saw me playing.

And, it was like some kind of movie moment, I saw him too.

The music flowed between us, like walking down a street in Paris, seeing roses everywhere.

Our thing blew up fast, and Chad became my family.

So, when I heard the rumors, I didn’t believe them.

“Hey, you hear?”

“Tiffany’s back in town.”

A group of girls with expensive clothes sat in the corner, talking about me, one sentence after another.

“Who’s Chad gonna pick, Tiffany or Ashley?”

“Tiffany, duh. He’s been hung up on her for ten years. They’re childhood sweethearts.”

The girl closest to me rolled her eyes at me and dragged the other girls away.

“Ashley doesn’t even know she’s a stand-in, but soon she’ll be dumped so Chad can chase his true love.”

“Ashley is nothing compared to Tiffany, she’s real high society…”

The rumors got worse.

I was so nervous that I didn’t see someone outside the practice room door.

The door was old, the handle fell off and smashed into someone’s hand.

The sharp edge made a deep cut, and blood poured out.

That’s when everything changed.

I met Tiffany.

She did look a bit like me, especially from the side.

And we were both violinists.

Even some of our habits were the same.

Chad always hugged me, calling me “Tiff.”

I thought he was different from my brother and all my friends because they called me Ashley, not Tiff.

Turns out, he was saying “Tiff” not “Ash”.

3

I sat in the corner of the hospital, hugging my broken arm.

When my brother realized something was wrong on the phone, he came out and found me outside the house.

Chad’s family has money, so he covered it up and promised me money.

But I couldn’t play anymore.

I was numb, didn’t react to anything, just hugged my arm.

My brother couldn’t deal with it.

I grabbed his hand, my eyes red.

“Brother…” I smiled at him, but my eyes were still red, “I have a show in a couple of days, I can’t stay home. Can you bring me back to the orchestra?”

He choked up, staring at me.

“Ashley… don’t be scared…” He wiped my tears, “I’ll protect you…”

“Brother! Please… take me back to the orchestra…”

My brother couldn’t take it anymore, so he put me to bed and then cried in a corner.

I didn’t know what was happening, but it was like my brain was covered with a sheet.

It was like there was an eraser in my head, slowly wiping away my memories.

I was scared, but I was also looking forward to forgetting.

Then one day, I went out for lunch with my brother.

When I tried to go home, I couldn’t remember how to get back.

I wandered around the neighborhood, but I couldn’t figure out where to go.

I couldn’t find my way home.

I thought and thought, but I couldn’t remember how to get back. I hugged my left arm, trying to keep it together.

I didn’t know what to do, so I just ran.

I couldn’t stop myself, and I ran into the alleyways, not knowing how long I’d be running.

I could hear myself breathing, and my heart was beating faster, and I was crying.

Then I ran into my brother, who was looking for me.

He grabbed my shoulders, trying to calm me down.

I couldn’t stop crying, and I looked around, saying, “Brother, I can’t find it… I can’t find my way home…”

“I, I can’t go back, brother…”

“Why can’t I remember anything? What am I gonna do, brother…”

I grabbed my brother’s clothes and cried.

“Ashley!”

He stared at me.

“Calm down!”

I stared back at him.

“It’s okay.”

“I’ll take you. Let’s go to the doctor, okay?”

He bent down, picked me up, and took me to the hospital.

I knew he was sad, and I knew he was worried.

But I couldn’t remember anything.

4

“The patient has early-onset Alzheimer’s, and it’s getting worse.”

“What? My sister’s only 27!”

I looked out the window at the birds, not hearing my brother and the doctor talking.

“She also has severe depression, probably from something traumatic. Did something happen to her?”

I was still hugging my left arm, thinking about how my birthday was coming up in a month, and wondering what my brother would get me.

Chad never got me anything for my birthday.

He always got me stuff on the day we met!

I smiled at my brother and poked him.

“What are you gonna get me for my birthday?”

I forgot that I met Chad on Tiffany’s birthday.

And I forgot that my birthday had already passed.

My brother listened to the doctor and put his hand down to comfort me.

He smiled, but he didn’t want to show me how worried he was.

“Anything you want, Ashley.”

“If we act now, it might get better, but we can’t guarantee it.”

“She needs to stay away from whatever triggered it.”

My brother took me home and put away anything that had to do with the orchestra or Chad.

He was trying to protect me.

But I couldn’t see anything.

5

“Open the door. It’s Chad.”

I stared at the door.

I heard the voice, and I looked at my brother in the kitchen, and I opened the door.

Chad stood there, looking annoyed.

He was mad that I took too long to open the door.

But I didn’t know what he did. All I knew was that this was my boyfriend, and I should be happy.

So, I smiled at him and grabbed his arm.

“Chad! What are you doing here?”

“Aren’t you busy with work?”

Chad didn’t expect me to say that. He looked at me, frowning.

My left arm was in a cast.

But I didn’t seem to notice.

He thought I couldn’t live without him.

But he didn’t know…

I just forgot that he broke my arm, and I forgot that I was just Tiffany’s replacement.

I pulled him inside.

My brother in the kitchen heard the noise and came to the door.

When he saw Chad, he snapped, pulled me into the house, and punched Chad in the face.

Chad’s face was red.

He wiped his mouth and smiled at my brother.

My brother stared at Chad, yelling, “How dare you show your face! You ruined my sister’s life!”

Chad grabbed his wrist and said,

“I promised I’d marry her, she won’t need those things anymore, I’ll take care of her.”

“Your sister seems happy to see me.”

“Don’t push it!”

Then my brother slapped Chad.

“You don’t know anything!”

My brother’s emotions exploded when he saw Chad.

They fought.

Finally, my brother fell down and cried.

I didn’t hear them fighting.

I was thinking about the new song I wrote a few months ago, and I wanted Chad to hear it.

So, I started looking around.

Finally, I found the violin Chad got me.

I looked at it, said I should have tried to get my mother’s violin. Oh well, I figured Chad would want to hear it anyway.

I grabbed the violin and went outside, staring at the two men.

I smiled at Chad.

“Chad, I wrote a new song, you wanted to hear me play, right?”

Chad looked confused, he didn’t know what I was doing.

I raised my hand, getting ready.

But then I realized, why couldn’t I lift my left hand?