Heartsick
Alum - Creative Writing at The New School
Kokila, 2025
High school senior Margot Whitman is an intern at Healing Hearts Inc., the company that created the innovative pill that can erase a person’s heartbreak overnight. Every weekend, Margot witnesses patients get cured of their broken hearts. Meanwhile, she’s nursing a heartbreak of her own. With college on the horizon and their futures taking them in different directions, she and her ex Isaac recently called it quits. Margot has thought about taking a pill, but erasing her love for Isaac doesn’t feel right. However, her heart breaks all over again when Isaac shows up to the Healing Hearts center, presumably seeking a pill to stop loving her.
As soon as Isaac Fisher walked through the Healing Hearts center doors, he knew he’d made a mistake. Even though he’s struggling with heartbreak, he realizes that he doesn’t want to fall out of love with Margot. He’s surprised to see her working at the front desk, and of course she assumes he’s there to get over her. It doesn’t seem like things can get much worse, but then Margot and Isaac accidentally overhear a terrible and harmful secret about the pill. When they’re caught eavesdropping and almost attacked by shady Healing Hearts executives and their guards, they have no choice but to flee. Now they have to work together to reveal the truth about the pill . . . and maybe, just maybe, repair each other’s hearts in the process.