Back in high school, she couldn’t stand him. He was short, ugly, loud, careless, always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. The kind of guy who made her roll her eyes before he even opened his mouth. When he moved to another state, she barely noticed—if anything, the halls felt quieter. She did notice how much easier it was to focus. She buried herself in school, stayed up late studying, stopped wasting energy on people who annoyed her. By the time graduation came, she had a plan, a future