Chapter 1 - Intro
There is a universal rule for surviving high school: never look back.
You’re supposed to lock your embarrassing freshman memories in a vault, ignore the cringey sophomore phases, and completely erase the people who broke your heart. I had a whole plan for senior year. It involved keeping my grades up, keeping my head down, and pretending that the last twelve months of my life hadn’t been a total emotional trainwreck.
My plan lasted exactly four minutes.
The morning bell hadn’t even rung yet, but the hallway of Westbridge High was already a loud, claustrophobic sea of slammed lockers and catching up. I was standing by my locker, adjusting my backpack strap, when the air in the hallway suddenly shifted. You know that weird instinctual feeling you get when you just know something is wrong?
I looked up. And the world completely stopped spinning.
Walking through the heavy front glass doors, shaking the morning rain out of his dark curls, was the last person I ever expected to see again. Xavier. The boy who knew exactly how to make my blood boil. The enemy I had spent three years fighting with—and three months secretly breaking my own heart over.
He stopped, his eyes scanning the crowded hallway until they locked directly onto mine. A slow, familiar smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.
Xavier was back. And my senior year was officially ruined.
But to understand why the sight of him makes me want to scream—and why it simultaneously makes my chest ache—you have to go back. Back before the screaming matches in the parking lot. Back before the secret glances, the broken promises, and the quiet heartbreak that ruined my summer.
You have to go back exactly one year. To the first day of junior year, when Xavier was nothing more than a stranger with a bad attitude.
