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CHAPTER 1
ERIN
“School’s out!” a boy in the hallway yells and then blows a whistle only a few inches from my ear.
“Hey, watch it!” My best friend Riley slaps his shoulder with a book.
He doesn’t seem to notice, though. He takes off, sliding down the railing and joining the throng of other students celebrating in front of the building.
I pause at the top of the stairs, savoring this moment. This is it. High school is done. I never have to walk through these double doors again.
And, in a few months, I’ll never need to return to this town again. Goodbye, Fort Williams, Texas.
Some of my classmates are wiping away tears, but I don’t get it. It’s not like high school was awful for me, but it also wasn’t amazing.
Nothing about this small town is amazing, which is why I’m heading out of here come fall.
Riley loops her arm through mine, and we grin at each other.
“We made it,” she says.
“Almost.” I laugh. “We still have to get through the summer.”
She bumps her hip against mine. “God, I can’t wait for New York. The subway, the art, the… everything!”
I laugh again. Riley is headed to film school, which is so fitting for her character.
And me? I got into an Ivy League university. And after that, it’s on to med school.
I’m right on track to living the life of my dreams, and the fact that everything is working out is kind of still blowing my mind. I almost expect something to go wrong right about now.
We walk across the lawn, lifting our faces to the fresh spring day.
“Hi, Riley!” a familiar voice calls out to us, and we turn to see Owen, a boy from our class, jogging towards us.
“Hey, Owen!” Riley greets him with a smile.
“I just wanted to say congratulations, you guys. We did it!” He pumps his fist in the air, and we all laugh.
“Thanks, Owen,” I say, feeling a bit awkward. Owen and I used to be friends, but we drifted apart over the years.
Which is what happened with a lot of my friends. High school was busy for me, in between school, extracurriculars, and working the front desk at my mom’s family medical practice in town.
“So, what are you guys planning to do this summer?” Owen asks, shoving his hands into his pockets.
“I’m interning at a film studio in New York,” Riley says proudly.
“I’m working,” I say. “Until I go to school.”
“Wow.” He grins bigger. “Man, you’re both so cool. I’m just going to community college. I don’t even know what I want to do with my life.”
I can’t help but feel proud of myself. He’s right. I’ve known what I wanted to do since elementary school, and I’ve put in the work to make it happen.
Owen starts talking about his plans to hang out at the lake this summer, but his voice fades away as I catch sight of someone across the lawn.
Josh Humphries sits in a tree branch, watching us.
My heart does a flip, and I quickly look away. Josh is the kind of hot that is almost painful to look at, and even though he’s friendly, the two of us have never run in the same circles.
