Chapter 1

At my boyfriend, Alex Carter's, birthday party, Sophie Young, the girl he swore was just a friend, crowded me out to the edge of the room.

When the cake came out, Sophie planted herself at his side with everyone circled around them, filling the spot that belonged to me. She laughed loud enough for the whole room and swiped frosting across Alex's nose.

"Make a wish, Alex," Sophie said. "To us being best friends forever!"

His friends whooped and egged her on. "See, Sophie gets it. Not like some people who mope around all night and kill the mood."

"Some people" meant me.

Alex gave her a fond look and handed her the first slice, the one cut clean and perfect.

I stood off to the side with a cup of water, the ice melted down to nothing, and I watched the whole thing without feeling anything at all.

*****

The old me would have been blinking back tears by then, shoving through the crowd to demand why the first slice wasn't mine and why Sophie got to stand that close.

Instead, I set the cup down, picked up my bag, and walked over to him.

The room quieted down a notch.

Alex's smile thinned out, and his eyebrows pulled together, patience already gone. "What now, Emily? Half the school is here. Don't start."

"I'm not starting anything." I met his eyes and kept my voice low, though it carried anyway. "We're breaking up, Alex."

The room went dead quiet.

Sophie broke it with a laugh.

"Emily, how many times are you going to pull this? Over a slice of cake?" Sophie widened her eyes, all wounded innocence. "Alex, go make up with your girlfriend. It's my fault. I shouldn't have taken it."

Alex's face darkened, and he dropped his fork onto the plate with a sharp clink.

"That's enough, Emily Lane," he said, his eyes cold. "Doesn't this get old? Every time people are having fun, you have to blow something up. Threatening to break up over nothing. What's the point?"

"There isn't one," I said, nodding. "That's why I'm done."

I turned and walked out.

Alex's voice chased me across the room, ragged with temper. "Fine! Don't come crying to me when you regret it, Emily! You walk out that door, don't beg me to unblock you."

Kevin Lewis, one of his friends, called after me, laughing. "Don't chase her, Alex. I'll bet 150 bucks she's downstairs at your dorm with breakfast inside of three days, begging you to take her back. You spoiled her rotten."

"Three days?" Alex scoffed, and his voice slid out through the half-open door after me. "She'll call me before midnight. Girl can't survive a week without me."

I didn't slow down. The cold air outside the lounge hit my face, and instead of shivering, I felt lighter than I had in years.

There was one thing Alex didn't know.

This time, there would be no three days and no phone call that night.

I had already been accepted into a two-year exchange at the Arts College in Lyon. My visa had come through the day before, and my flight was booked for the following week.

I was done with him, and this time I meant it.

I went back to the apartment and started packing.

Alex and I had moved off campus together in our first year, but I had kept my bed in the dorms the whole time, in case a day like this ever came.

Not much in that apartment was mine. For three years, I had run the place like his housekeeper, and it showed: his sneakers covered a whole wall, his gaming setup swallowed the spare room, and my things lived in whatever gaps were left over.

I dragged out a heavy-duty garbage bag and dumped it all in: the clothes I had bought him this year and never gotten around to giving him, our matching mugs, the photo albums full of everything I used to think we were.

My phone buzzed.

The message was from Alex.

It wasn't an apology. It was a screenshot of a payment request.

[Kevin and the guys got out of hand, and Sophie spilled wine all over her hoodie. That thing wasn't cheap. Send me 600 bucks, and I'll pay her back.]

The message made me laugh.

How had I ever let myself get that pathetic?

Sophie ruined her own hoodie, went to my boyfriend to cover it, and my boyfriend came to me for the money?

That was how Alex's mind worked. My family had money, so in his book, I was the one who paid for his so-called brotherhood. To keep him happy and stay in his circle, I had played the sucker more times than I could count.

But what did I owe him now?

I didn't answer. I deleted the thread instead.

Two minutes later, my phone rang.

I picked up, put him on speaker, and went back to dropping the pair of limited-edition collector bears into the trash bag.

"You're ignoring me now, Emily?" Alex's voice came through hot. "You read it and said nothing? I'm talking to you. Send the money over. Sophie's sitting there crying with everybody watching. Don't embarrass me."

"Why is her crying my problem?" My voice stayed flat. "She spilled it, or you did. Either way you can pay for it. I'm broke."

"You're broke?" He laughed like I had told him the funniest thing he'd heard all year. "Didn't your scholarship come through last week? Lying about money to make me cave, Emily? My patience only goes so far..."

"Alex." I cut him off.

I was holding a picture frame while I said it, the two of us, first year, right after we got together. He was grinning widely in that photo, looking at me like nothing else in the room existed.

"We broke up. That means your pride, your Sophie, and your money are all officially none of my business."

With that, I hung up.

Then I blocked his number.

The frame went into the trash, and the glass cracked apart with a sound that carried through the empty apartment.

Something that had been sitting on my chest for three years broke apart right along with it.

I slept better that night than I had in months.

I didn't lie under the covers crying and waiting for him to come around, the way Alex had promised everyone I would.

He wasn't in my dreams. What I saw were the plane trees of Lyon and the wind coming off the river.