He Destroyed the Tenderly Nurtured Rose by His Own Hands

I stood at the edge of a nine-year chasm between Ethan Hunter and me.

He was nine years older and had raised me for just as long.

On the day I confessed my feelings, he threw my roses back at me, his eyes filled with disdain.

"Anyone can stand beside me," he said, "but it will never be you."

True to his words, he soon came back with someone else who was my college roommate, the very person who had once led the charge to isolate me.

In a moment of desperation, I applied for an exchange program abroad, and suddenly, Ethan seemed to regret his choice.