GREY

CHAPTER 81 - Breathe

Monday 15.09.25

"Well I mean we're still the same." Lis spoke up, making me glance at her, my heart warming up at the way her eyes glistened gorgeously when talking about Derek, her best friend and ex-boyfriend.

"You guys dragged it for so long unnecessarily." I voiced and she released a breath, sitting by the table beside my mannequin of my small studio. "Yeah I know, but Ari, if I could go back in time I wouldn't have changed anything." She voiced, this time making me drop my pencil on the blank page before looking up at my little sister.

"You wouldn't have tried to fix it earlier?" I questioned, slightly surprised by her answer. She pushed a stray strand of her dark brown hair behind her ear, thinking about my question.

"Well I mean I know I feel like now that I could have done that, but I still remember how I felt then, every time I used to meet him, and that me wouldn't have fixed it either way." She voiced causing me to lean forward as I tried to understand my little sister's way of thinking.

"So you're telling me that if you could go back in time, you would leave everything as it is now and not change a single thing?" I asked, somewhat astonished by her explanation.

"Yeah basically it, I just think that everything in life is ordered in a certain way, almost like dominos, and this was all supposed to happen for the next thing in life to occur." She voiced as my mind processed her words.

Like dominos.

You remove one of the dominos out of all that has been stacked, the domino train will end.

Lis was right, life really was like a domino. Almost as if our life had already been stacked up and that everything that has occurred in life were all meant to happen.

"Would you change anything Ari?" Lis caught me off guard by her question as I moved my gaze back towards, not realised that I zoned out for a moment in my own thoughts.

"Huh?" I questioned even though I knew exactly what she said. I just needed to gain some time to think about an answer.

"Would you change anything?" She interrogated, but even with the second round, I still needed some time to think about it, especially after what she said.

If I could go back in time, I would make myself realise that I have feelings for Gray way before Jessica re-entered my life.

I would have told Gray that I liked him then and whether he liked me back or not, I wouldn't have allowed my feelings to ever get in the way of our friendship.

I would have made sure to keep our friendship consistent, so close that there won't be a difference to how we used to be and how we are now.

I'd make sure that I never dated Callum and gave him high hopes of being together endlessly.

I would have prevented myself on relying all my friends to be my forever and instead would have cherished every single day of my high school days.

Several things ran across my mind.

So many changes that I would have made.

But when Lissy's words struck to me, I slowly began to realise that everything that has happened in my life has happened for a reason.

I am the person I am today because of everything that has occurred.

I have faced betrayal, guilt, regret, pain.

So many different emotions.

But each one of them have only made me stronger.

Each pushed me down with a bigger force, but the weight of all the problems that have been harshly shoved in my way has only made me gain more power, using more strength each time to get back up.