Chapter 2

The morning sun burned through my curtains like it had a personal grudge against my sleep. I groaned, burying my face deeper into the pillow, but my body was already awake, humming with a weird energy I couldn't shake off.

However, last night felt out of this world.

The club, the music and importantly him.

I could still feel it, the ghost of his touch on my waist and the way his lips felt against mine. Like he knew exactly what he was doing while I was fumbling through every second of it.

I turned onto my back, staring at the ceiling. My heart was doing this annoying thing where it sped up just thinking about it and I hated that

"That wasn't like me," I muttered to the empty room.

And it wasn't. I didn't just kiss random guys at clubs. I let a stranger pull me close like they'd known me for years.

I sat up, rubbing my face. I wasn't fully ashamed. That was the weird part. Like I'd opened a door I didn't know existed and now I couldn't close it.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand, snapping me back from my thoughts. It was from Jennifer.

“Breakfast in 20. Get your ass up”

I typed back quickly.

Me: Give me 30

Jennifer: 10 or we're leaving with or without you*

I rolled my eyes but dragged myself out of bed anyway.

Twenty minutes later, because Jennifer could wait, I walked into the kitchen to find her already dressed, looking way too energetic for someone who'd been just as wild as me last night.

"Look who finally decided to join the living," she teased, scrolling through her phone.

"I hate you," I mumbled, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge.

"You love me." She looked up with a grin. "Especially since I got you to actually have fun for once."

I ignored her, chugging half the bottle.

"So," she started, that mischievous tone creeping into her voice. "Are we going to talk about last night?"

I didn’t respond, rather ignored her.

"Because I saw—"

"Jennifer, no."

"—you kissing that guy, and honestly? I'm proud of you."

I choked on my water. "Oh my God."

"What? It was hot. You were hot. He was definitely into it." She stood up, walking over to me with that annoying smirk still plastered on her face. "You finally loosened up. It's about time."

"I'm not talking about this."

"You will when Kyle gets here," she sang, already heading toward the door. "Let's go. He's outside."

I groaned but followed her anyway.

Kyle was already in the car when we got there, engine running. He turned when we climbed in, a matching grin on his face.

"Well, well, well," Kyle started immediately. "If it isn't the girl who made out with a stranger last night."

"Oh my God," I muttered, sinking into my seat.

"Jennifer told me everything," he added. "Honestly, Lav, I didn't think you had it in you."

"Can we not do this?" I pleaded.

"Absolutely not," Kyle said, pulling out of the parking lot. "This is the most interesting thing you've done all year. We're definitely talking about it. I mean kissing a guy you just met. At a club. That's very interesting for you." He glanced at me in the rearview mirror, his tone slightly mocking. "Especially considering your whole 'I don't do relationships' thing."

I crossed my arms. "It was just a kiss. It didn't mean anything."

"Sure," Jennifer said, not believing me for a second. "That's why you're blushing right now."

"I'm not blushing."

"You totally are," she chimed in, laughing.

"Look," Kyle continued, clearly enjoying this too much. "I'm just saying, it's about time you explored a little. Maybe this is good for you."

"Thanks for the analysis, Kyle," I said dryly.

"I'm serious. You spend all your time studying. When do you actually live?"

His words hung in the air longer than they should have. Because as much as I hated admitting it, he had a point.

When did I actually live?

I thought about last night again. 

As Kyle went to get our orders, Jen stayed scrolling through her I*******m.

"You don't find that weird?" Jennifer asked.

"I find it romantic," I just answered for the sake of answering. She'd rolled her eyes so hard I thought she'd strain something.

I was elbow-deep in readings for tomorrow's lecture, highlighter capped between my teeth, when she continued.

"Lav." Her voice had a pitch.

"What?"

"Lav, look at this."

She thrust her phone at me, screen still glowing, thumb frozen mid-scroll. I took it more out of reflex than curiosity and looked down.

The image swallowed me whole.

A man stood at the center of a crowd, helmet raised over his head like a trophy, sweat and disbelief written across his face. Confetti hung suspended mid-fall around him, caught by whoever had taken the shot. Behind him, was a banner read something in bold letters I couldn't process fast enough, and under the photo, thousands of comments scrolled by too quickly to read.

P1. He did it—absolutely dominant weekend.

I stared at his jaw, then his eyes. Even the way he held his head, that slight tilt, like he was laughing at some private joke no one else was in on.

“That’s not—” I started.

"It looks exactly like him." Jennifer's voice had gone flat.

"It's not him," I said.

"Lav."

"It's a coincidence."

"Lavinia."

"What?"

I was quiet, trying to convince her. She gave me a look that could've stripped paint. "This man just won first place in front of, what, forty thousand people, and you think it's a coincidence that he has your boyfriend's exact face?"

"He's not my boyfriend."

"Whatever he is."

I zoomed in, even though some stupid part of me still needed to be wrong. I needed him to be a stranger who just happened to have the same face. But the longer I stared, the worse the feeling in my chest became. Then I saw the scar above his eyebrow. I knew that scar. I’d traced it once with my thumb in the dark at the club and asked him how he got it. It was right there in the photo, small enough to miss if you didn’t know it was there. But I knew exactly where to look.

"Okay." I handed the phone back as it had burned me. "Even if, and I’m not saying it is him, even if it was, why do I need to care?"

Jennifer shrugged. "This could be great news for you, girl. You can literally become Kylie Jenner overnight."

"That’s insane. We met only once. He even has forgotten what I look like."

"Or maybe," she said, "he likes that you like him for him. Not for..." She waved at the screen, "...that."

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I wanted to say something clever, but my mind had gone completely blank.

My phone buzzed on the coffee, and we both fell silent. I picked it up already knowing who it was before I even looked.

Root: free tonight? Want to see you.

I stared at the message until the words blurred into meaningless shapes. Jennifer leaned over my shoulder, reading it upside down, and I could already hear the grin in her voice.

"Well," she said. "Guess you're about to find out."