I Gave Him a Future Without Me
1.1k Views · Ongoing · Lyric Ross
I've always been a little slower than everyone else.
Ethan Walker used to promise he'd wait for me. We'd been best friends since we were four.
Then Madison Reed came along, and he stopped keeping that promise.
At dinner, they'd leave before I finished eating. At the beach, they disappeared while I was still struggling to swim back to shore.
I kept making excuses for him.
Until the night I arrived late to a party and heard one of his friends ask, "Where's Alice? Thought she was coming with you."
Ethan let out an annoyed sigh.
"She's probably still getting ready. You know how slow she is."
"Why didn't you wait?"
"Because it's exhausting. Everything takes twice as long with her around. I'm not spending my whole life waiting for her."
I stood outside the door, unable to move.
I'd spent years trying to catch up to him.
I never realized he'd been counting the minutes until he could leave me behind.
Ethan and Madison had been planning to attend UCLA together for months. They'd already made it clear that they expected me to go with them, too.
He assumed I'd follow, just like always.
But I quietly accepted my offer from the University of Washington instead.
Ethan was right about one thing.
He shouldn't have to spend his life waiting for me.
So this time, I chose Seattle.
And I gave him a future without me.
Ethan Walker used to promise he'd wait for me. We'd been best friends since we were four.
Then Madison Reed came along, and he stopped keeping that promise.
At dinner, they'd leave before I finished eating. At the beach, they disappeared while I was still struggling to swim back to shore.
I kept making excuses for him.
Until the night I arrived late to a party and heard one of his friends ask, "Where's Alice? Thought she was coming with you."
Ethan let out an annoyed sigh.
"She's probably still getting ready. You know how slow she is."
"Why didn't you wait?"
"Because it's exhausting. Everything takes twice as long with her around. I'm not spending my whole life waiting for her."
I stood outside the door, unable to move.
I'd spent years trying to catch up to him.
I never realized he'd been counting the minutes until he could leave me behind.
Ethan and Madison had been planning to attend UCLA together for months. They'd already made it clear that they expected me to go with them, too.
He assumed I'd follow, just like always.
But I quietly accepted my offer from the University of Washington instead.
Ethan was right about one thing.
He shouldn't have to spend his life waiting for me.
So this time, I chose Seattle.
And I gave him a future without me.















































