Pushed Off the Cliff by My Best Friend

On a graduation trip with my best friend, I lost my footing and fell off a cliff. Both my legs were paralyzed.

My boyfriend comforted me. From now on, I'll be your legs.

Out of guilt, my best friend enrolled in the same university as me, the same major, the same dorm room.

She said, I'll be by your side forever.

That day, as always, my best friend set the breakfast my boyfriend had sent on my desk.

"Nelly, eat it while it's warm."

I didn't touch it.

A breakfast sandwich and an iced latte. Those were what she liked. My stomach couldn't handle them.

At the same moment, a message from my boyfriend popped up on my phone.

"It's going to rain today, and getting around is hard on your legs. Let's see the movie another time."

I was about to tell him I could go, that my legs were showing signs of recovery, that the doctor had me practicing walking every day.

My best friend reached over and took the 3D glasses off my desk.

"Godfrey Dickerson said he wants to thank his little future mother-in-law for taking care of you all this time. He asked me to a movie."

By the time I came back to myself, she'd already left the dorm.

A close-friends alert popped up on social media.

In the photo, she stood beside my boyfriend holding a single rose, smiling sweetly.

"A little someone told the big brother to buy his pretty girlfriend a flower, so a certain person did."

Below it was a notification that my boyfriend had liked it.

I tapped like too.

Then I deleted the messages in our chat.

From here on, I'd walk my own road.

...

I'd just set the phone down when Godfrey called.

"Nelly, don't be upset. The post May Cox put up didn't mean anything. She just thought it was funny."

"When we're done with the movie we'll bring you back some blueberry cake, the kind you love."

The movie had already started. I could hear the music through the phone.

That film everyone called a must-see for couples. I'd waited so long for it. I'd even stayed up late camping out for tickets.

"Godfrey, you've got it wrong. May's the one who likes blueberry cake."

My voice carried nothing.

"I've always liked chocolate cake."

"Same thing."

He brushed it off, distracted.

"Okay, the movie's starting. I'll come find you when I'm back. Be good."

He hung up.

Same thing.

In the three months since the semester began, I'd heard that line more times than I could count.

I looked over at May's bed.

It was covered with the gifts Godfrey had sent to thank her for taking care of me.

Every one of them, I had a matching copy in my own cabinet.

When Godfrey sent me a gift and had May bring it up to the dorm, he'd get her one too.

Back then I pretended to sulk, to be jealous.

He'd crouch in front of me, holding my hand, coaxing me.

"I just want your best friend to look after you a little more, that's all. Getting her one was just a bonus. It's really for you."

But little by little, the gifts started being chosen to suit May's taste.

I became the bonus.

If I could just stand up, I wouldn't need May wedged between Godfrey and me.

I clenched my teeth, braced both hands on the desk, pushed myself up, and inched along with a hand on the wall.

In my hurry I stepped in a wet spot and went down.

At the hospital.

May crouched in front of me, her face full of blame for herself.

"Nelly, it's all my fault for leaving the dorm. If I hadn't, you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

Godfrey stood behind her, frowning at me.

"I didn't take you to the movie because it was pouring today. I already explained that. Did you really have to hurt yourself on purpose just to make May feel guilty?"

Thick bandages were wrapped around my forehead, and scrapes covered my arms.

They came all this way, and not one word of concern.

One face pinched into fake, wounded guilt; the other snapping at me in irritation.

I looked at the two of them calmly and spoke, slow and even.

"I fell by accident while I was doing my exercises. The doctor says my legs are showing signs of recovery. If I keep at it, I'll be walking again soon."

May's tears stopped. What sat under them was resentment.

Godfrey looked almost let down.

Bitterness soaked into the root of my tongue. I pulled the corners of my mouth into something like a smile.

"Godfrey, let's break up."

There was a soft plop. The insulated bag in Godfrey's hand hit the floor, and a clear plastic box rolled out of it.

Inside was a blueberry cake, crushed.

Godfrey's brows drew together, as if he needed to be sure he'd heard me right.

Before he could say anything, May got to her feet.

"Nelly, don't say things you don't mean. I only watched that movie with Godfrey to help him relax."

"He squeezes into the cafeteria line every day to bring you food. He carries your wheelchair up and down the stairs."

"It hurts me just to watch. So don't take it out on him with these little moods, okay?"

I looked at May.

We'd grown up together, best friends who told each other everything.

When someone bullied her, I fought them for her.

When her parents divorced and neither wanted her, I brought her home to eat with us, and split my own parents' love with her.

When her grades slipped, I stayed up nights tutoring her.

When she said she wanted a graduation trip, I took her on one with three years of saved-up allowance.

And now she wanted to take my boyfriend too.

A sharp ache pulled tight across my chest.

She reached out her hand, and I shoved it away hard.

Godfrey lunged and caught her before she fell. May's raised foot kicked my wheelchair over.

"Cornelia, one movie, and you'd actually put your hands on May?"

"May gave up the university and the major she dreamed of just to take care of you. Do you have any conscience at all?"

I hit the floor.

I stared up at the hair tie around Godfrey's wrist.

My hair is short. I have no use for it. So that hair tie was meant for May.

Something in my head went off like a blast, and the string called reason finally snapped clean through.

I pointed at them and screamed.

"I have no conscience?"

"May, you used taking care of me as your cover while you went behind my back and threw yourself at my boyfriend. Have you no shame!"

"Godfrey, do you really enjoy the sneaking around so much"

"Enough!"

Godfrey snatched the cake off the floor and threw it in my face.

He glared down at me.

"Why didn't that fall off the cliff just kill you!"

The moment the words were out, Godfrey froze.

I blinked, and the tears fell.

He panicked.

He fumbled at my face, wiping away the cream mixed with my tears.

"Nelly, that's not what I meant just now"

He lifted me and set me back in the wheelchair.

May bit her lip and tugged at Godfrey's arm, her voice pressed thin with grievance.

"Nelly, I'm sorry. I won't contact Godfrey anymore, I promise."

She wiped her tears and ran off.

Watching her go, Godfrey clenched his fists.

"Cornelia, let's both just calm down."

Then he chased off after May.

Leaving me alone, a wreck in the wheelchair.

A nurse passing by couldn't help herself.

"What's the deal with your friend and her boyfriend? Dumping you alone at the hospital in the pouring rain."

To anyone on the outside, they were the couple.

The rain outside came down harder and harder.

I couldn't get a cab anywhere at the hospital entrance.

I waited until the middle of the night before I finally flagged down an unlicensed cab passing by.

The driver braved the rain to help me into the car, then folded up the wheelchair for me.

He held out a warm bottled drink.

"Here, sweetheart, have something hot. Wouldn't want you getting sick."

"Hard to get around in your condition. How come you don't have family or friends with you?"

As he drew his hand back, he deliberately let it brush across my chest.

Watching the look in his eyes, I kept my head down and called Godfrey over and over.

Every time I dialed, he cut the call.

Twelve calls in all.

So I typed out a text begging for help and sent it to him instead.

On the other end, Godfrey was pure impatience.

"Cornelia, how childish are you going to be? Do you really need to make up a lie like this to mess with me? Just go to sleep."

The driver saw what I was doing and snatched the phone from my hand.

"Once you're in my car, don't even think about running."

The road ahead was turning more and more deserted.

Out of options, I shoved the door open and threw myself from the moving car.

The pain hit so hard I blacked out at once.

When I woke again, my whole body hurt so much I could barely breathe.

The doctor looked at me with real regret.

"Your legs were only just showing signs of recovery, and now they've taken another serious injury. The scans aren't good at all."

My voice shook.

"Are my legs never going to heal?"

He couldn't say for sure either.

"Let's focus on treatment for now."

The hope that had just flickered to life was snuffed out again, and I crumbled completely.

I held myself together until the officers finished taking my statement and left. Only then did I hide under the blanket and cry.

Footsteps sounded outside the door.

Then came an argument, both voices kept low.

I looked through the gap in the door.

May's eyes were red, her voice thick with tears.

"Godfrey, this is all my fault. Nelly nearly got hurt for good."

"The doctor said after an accident like this, her legs may never let her stand again."

Godfrey looked at her, his eyes full of ache for her.

"Stop putting everything on yourself. This isn't your fault. She just had bad luck, there's nothing you could do."

May leaned into his arms and cried.

I was the one who'd been hurt.

Yet somehow it was May getting comforted.

Godfrey soothed her for a long while before they finally pushed the door open and came in.

I didn't want to face them, so I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep.

"Nelly, I know you're already awake."

Godfrey took a fancy gift box out of his pocket.

"I'm sorry. It's my fault for not believing you. That's why you ended up jumping from the car."

"You've always said you wanted this bracelet, haven't you?"

"I meant it as a surprise. Now I guess it's an apology gift instead."

I slowly opened my eyes.

May took the box from Godfrey's hand, lifted the lid, drew out the bracelet, and fastened it on my wrist.

"Nelly, Godfrey lined up all night to get you this bracelet."

Looking at the bracelet on my wrist, something in me softened for a moment.

The next second, the color drained from my face.

On the custom tag at the end of the bracelet were three letters: "YQ."

May Cox.

Fighting the pain in my arm, I ripped the bracelet off and flung it at Godfrey.

"Take your bracelet and get out!"

Godfrey's face went dark all at once.

"Cornelia, what the hell has gotten into you now?"

I held my anger down.

"Who exactly did you buy this bracelet for? You know perfectly well whose name is engraved on it!"

May picked the bracelet up off the floor, a flicker of glee in her eyes.

Then she put on that innocent act to explain it away for Godfrey.

"Nelly, there's got to be some misunderstanding here. Godfrey was probably just careless and didn't look closely."

"Men are like that, being careless is normal. Don't hold it against him."

That shop's custom order process requires three separate confirmations.

There was no way it was a misunderstanding.

Watching the corner of May's mouth twitch up despite herself, I let out a cold laugh.

"May, you're smiling so wide already. Go on, put the bracelet on."

May pouted at once.

"I don't want to"

"Cornelia, don't come crying about it later!"

Godfrey snatched the bracelet from May's hand and fastened it on her wrist himself.

Then he turned his head and looked at me, almost taunting.

"Nobody owes you a thing!"

With that, he took May by the hand and walked out without looking back.

That night, May sent me a message.

"Haven't you noticed how much happier Godfrey is when he's with me? He and I never run out of things to say."

"If I'd met him first, I'd be the one with him now."

"Nelly, you might never walk again. You shouldn't drag Godfrey down with you."

"So hand him over to me, okay?"

Then came a long video.

The background was a hotel room.

Godfrey and May sat on the bed drinking, a dozen empty bottles scattered on the floor.

Halfway through the drinking, May suddenly leaned in, cupped Godfrey's face, and pressed her lips to his.

His body went rigid for a moment.

Then he lifted a hand to the back of her head and deepened the kiss.

They kissed like they couldn't bear to part, and fell onto the bed together, wrapped around each other.

The video cut off abruptly.

The black phone screen reflected my ashen face.

The next day, Godfrey came to apologize with flowers and a newly bought bracelet.

"Nelly, can we stop fighting?"

"I already took the bracelet back to the shop and had it swapped. The name's right this time."

I laughed coldly and pulled up the video May had sent the night before.

"So this is your guilty little apology after cheating on me?"

The smile froze on Godfrey's face, and something I'd never seen before flickered in his eyespanic.

"Nelly, let me explain."

"May and I were both drunk last night. It was impulsive. I'm sorry."

"We only kissed. Nothing else happened."

I had just opened my mouth when the door of the ward suddenly swung open and May stepped in.

She was trembling, weeping like a broken flower, and shot me one timid glance before turning to Godfrey, seeming to want to speak and then holding back.

"I"

Godfrey quickly grabbed the tissues off the table and handed them to her.

"What happened?"

May bit her lip, her eyes full of a hurt and fear that wouldn't lift.

"Someone posted on the campus forum calling me a homewrecker, saying I got between you two. The post has that video from the hospital yesterday. Now everyone at school is shutting me out."

"Godfrey, do I have to drop out? Mom and Dad won't pay for me to retake the year. What am I supposed to do with my life"

Godfrey took the phone May held out to him.

As he read the post and watched the video, something ice-cold surged in those dark eyes.

"Cornelia, you've gone too far!"

"What?"

He turned the screen toward me.

Let me see exactly what was in the post and the video.

The video came from the camera on my wheelchair.

Back then, worried that something might happen to me when I was alone, Godfrey had installed the camera on my wheelchair himself.

The footage uploaded automatically to the cloud on both our phones.

But the thing he'd done to protect me had become the blade driven into me now.

He was certain I had made that post.

I shook my head.

"Godfrey, I didn't post that."

He didn't believe me. His eyes on me were full of anger and disappointment.

"Cornelia, I never imagined you could be this vicious."

"May waited on you hand and foot, humbled herself like a servant to take care of you. Fine if you're not grateful, but to smear her on the campus forum like this?"

"Do you have any idea what a girl's reputation means to her? Are you trying to destroy her?"

Tears welled up in May Cox's eyes.

"Nelly, if this is what it takes for you to feel better, then I won't say a word. You're my best friend, after all."

Her yielding, her sweet reasonableness, only poured fuel on the fire.

Godfrey knocked the flowers off the table with one punch, stepped on them, and ground them under his heel again and again.

"Cornelia, your cruelty terrifies me."

"Everyone has to answer for what they do. I hope you don't come to regret yours."

I lowered my eyes, my fingertips trembling faintly.

The unfairness of it sat lodged in my chest, neither rising nor settling, until I couldn't breathe.

Soon enough I understood what Godfrey had meant by those parting words.

Godfrey posted on the campus forum under his real name, saying May was his actual girlfriend, that there was no such thing as a mistress or a homewrecker.

He said all his care for me had only ever been the care a boyfriend shows his girlfriend's best friend.

When a classmate posted a photo of us together and pressed him about it, he replied that I'd used my paraplegia to play the victim and hounded him without letting go.

Someone screenshotted the whole thing off the campus forum and spread it across the internet.

Every big creator on the video apps rode the story for views.

My information was dug up in no time.

They flooded my social media accounts with insults and bombarded my phone number without stopping.

"You crippled bitch, seducing your best friend's boyfrienddoesn't it make your skin crawl?"

"No wonder you broke your legs. Even heaven knows you're rotten and wanted to punish you!"

"How does a school even admit someone so morally bankrupt? Just wait to get expelled!"

Then some worked-up stranger tracked down which hospital I was in.

He slipped into my room under cover of night and climbed onto my bed, meaning to do something to me.

A nurse doing her rounds stopped him.

It only spiraled bigger.

Then came the message from my academic advisor, urging me to drop out.

The unfairness and the collapse surged up all at once, and a sharp pain stabbed through my head.

The machine beside me broke into rapid beeping.

Breathing turned hard, the figures in front of me spinning into a blur.

The doctor rushed in.

"Someone, in here!"

"Get the sedative, now!"

Just as the sedative was wearing off, a memory I'd forgotten came flooding back.

My fall from the cliff had never been an accident.

Those hands, that face, came into focus in this very moment.

With a shaking hand, I dialed the police.

"Hello, someone's trying to kill me"