Chapter 1

It was dark outside, so I turned on the living room lights to a warm yellow. It was exactly the same lighting I always used when Liam Zimmerman came over.

I flipped through the old college admissions guide an upperclassman had given me the year before. The edges were worn from how many times I had gone through it.

However, I hadn't taken in a single word. All my attention was on the comments drifting across my vision.

"Damn! I just caught Liam coming out of Summer Skye's place. He was carrying her favorite strawberry cream frappuccino. He'd just taken it up to her!"

"I'm so sick of seeing that flash drive in his pocket. Summer gave it to him last week as part of a matching set for couples."

"There's a little sun printed on the case to match Summer's online username. It's so disgusting!"

I pinched the corner of the page without meaning to, but it still crinkled under my fingers.

I remembered our junior year, when he was preparing for a computer science competition.

I had saved my breakfast money for two months and had someone bring me a limited-edition flash drive from overseas with his initials engraved on it. When I gave it to him, my palms were covered in sweat from nerves.

He had smiled and ruffled my hair, saying, "Aster, you're so thoughtful."

Less than two weeks later, he told me he had lost it and couldn't find it anywhere.

He hadn't lost it. He simply hadn't cared about it and had switched to the matching one Summer, his first love, gave him.

Now he wanted to use that flash drive to take away the future I had spent three years working toward.

I pulled the softcover notebook from the back of my desk drawer.

It was the notebook I had used during my sophomore year. The first half of it was filled with problems I had gotten wrong. The second half was filled with pages of "Liam Zimmerman" written in secret.

Liam had come across it the last time he came over to borrow my notes. He smiled then and gently stroked my cheek.

He hadn't given me a yes or no. He'd just said, "Oh, you."

Back then, I had thought he was quietly admitting that he felt the same way.

Now I opened the notebook to the page covered in his name and set it beside my scratch paper. It was so obvious there was no way he could miss it.

After some thought, I took out my phone and snapped a picture of my desk with the scratch paper and notebook spread across it.

I captioned it, "I'm going crazy trying to figure out where to apply. Good thing I have someone to help me choose."

I set it so only Liam could see it and hit the post button.

Before long, Liam liked the post and sent me a GIF of someone patting another person on the head.

"Oh my God! That jerk is checking his social media feed in a cab. He's practically grinning from ear to ear."

"He even messaged Summer, 'See? What did I tell you? She can't get by without me.'"

"Warning! He'll be downstairs at Aster's place in two minutes! Liam checked his pocket three times to make sure the flash drive was still there!"

I got up and headed to the front door. I stopped in front of it, and the doorbell rang.

I opened the door. Liam was standing outside, a bead of sweat still clinging to his forehead.