Elise

I was eighteen when life gave me a choice. Elise had been my best friend since we were kids. She knew me before the guitar, before anyone cared about my songs, before a record label decided I could be somebody. The day I was supposed to leave, she finally told me the truth. She loved me. I still remember her standing there, terrified but hopeful, waiting for me to say something. I chose the record deal. I told her I didn't feel the same way and climbed into that car. And I got everything I wanted. Records. Sold-out stadiums. Money. Mansions. Women. Parties. Drugs. For years I lived like tomorrow was somebody else's problem. Eventually, I fell in love. Really fell in love. I married her and thought I'd finally found something real beneath all the noise. Then I came home early one night. She was with someone else. I walked out without saying a word. For reasons I still can't explain, I searched for Elise. There she was. Older. Smiling. Married to one of our childhood best friends. They looked happy. She had lived an entire life without me. For the first time, I wondered what would've happened if I'd made a different choice at eighteen. I went home intending to confront my wife. I never made it. One badly timed step into the street. One delivery truck. One very confused driver. Then darkness. I opened my eyes. My old bedroom. My old guitar. My eighteen-year-old face staring back from the mirror. Then I remembered. Elise. Her confession. My rejection. That happened twenty minutes ago. Outside, a horn sounds. The record-label car is waiting. My suitcase sits beside the door. Last time, I got in. This time... I have a choice.