Chapter 1

At our senior graduation party, Lucas Sinclair lost a round of truth or dare. He picked dare, and the challenge was to kiss one of the girls in the room.

We had already planned to go public tonight. I sat there with my heart pounding, waiting for him to walk over, kiss me, and make us official.

But his eyes swept right past me and landed on Susan Taylor, the prettiest girl in our class.

He stood up without a second of hesitation, walked past me, stopped in front of Susan, and cupped her face in his hands. Then he kissed her.

The whole class erupted. He deepened it into a full French kiss that lasted over a minute.

Then he dropped to one knee and pulled out the promise ring he was supposed to give me. He slid it onto Susan's finger and said softly, "Be my girlfriend. I'll make you the happiest girl in the world."

Susan nodded, and they kissed again while everyone around them cheered and hollered.

I sat in the corner, cold all over, feeling like the biggest joke in the room.

That was when Samuel Knight, the valedictorian who barely talked to anyone, walked up and stopped right in front of me. His eyes were dead serious.

"Leah Hope, be my girlfriend. Northbridge University made me an offer. If I enroll, I can get my partner admitted too."

*****

The lights at the graduation party glowed warm enough to sting, and the private room buzzed with classmates laughing and roughhousing around me.

Beer foam spilled over the rims of glasses, and the noise of youth pressed against my face like a wave of heat.

I sat in the corner with my fingers wrapped around an ice-cold glass, but my eyes never left Lucas in the crowd.

He was the golden boy of our class. He had the looks, the grades, and the kind of effortless charm that made everyone look up to him.

He was also the boy I had kept hidden in my heart for three full years, my secret boyfriend that no one knew about.

With SATs around the corner, we had made a pact: once exams were over, we would go public at the graduation party and finally reveal the relationship we had been hiding all this time.

I had waited for this day for three whole years.

From the moment I first saw him in my first year and felt my pulse stutter, to the quiet sweetness of being together in secret, every part of me had been building toward tonight.

I thought of all those nights walking side by side along campus paths after study hall, all the notes we slipped each other when no one was looking, and all the words of love we only ever dared to whisper.

Today was the day I could finally stand beside him in the open.

A few minutes ago, Lucas lost a round of Truth or Dare.

Everyone egged him on and forced him to choose either to confess his deepest secret or kiss one of the girls in the room.

My heart hammered against my ribs, and my eyes lit up with anticipation.

I had already rehearsed it a thousand times in my head.

He would cut through the crowd, stop in front of me, and lean down to kiss me.

Then he would take my hand, turn to the whole class, and tell them I was his girlfriend.

He had a promise ring ready for weeks. He told me he would slip it on my finger the day we went public, a quiet vow that I belonged with him and he was never letting go.

I lifted my chin and watched him with burning eyes as a smile crept across my lips.

I was waiting for him to walk toward me.

But the next second, Lucas' gaze swept right past me, light and careless, as if I were just another stranger sitting invisible in the corner of the room.

His eyes landed on Susan, the prettiest girl in our class.

Susan wore a cute dress with her makeup done to perfection. She blinked those big sparkling eyes at Lucas, her expression caught somewhere between shy and coy, but the smugness and challenge behind her gaze were impossible to miss.

My smile froze. Something clamped down on my heart like an invisible fist, squeezing so hard I couldn't breathe.

Before I could even process what was happening, Lucas stood up without hesitation.

He walked right past me without breaking stride and didn't spare me a single glance, as if I didn't exist.

He went straight to Susan and cupped her face gently in both hands, right in front of the entire class.

Before anyone could react, he leaned down and kissed her.

The whole room erupted.

"Oh my God, Lucas actually did it!"

"He kissed her! He's kissing Susan!"

"That is so freaking cute."

Cheers, screams, and clapping crashed together, so loud they made my ears ring.

I sat frozen in place as every drop of blood in my body turned to ice.

The cold spread from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.

I could only watch as Lucas deepened the kiss instead of pulling away, turning it into something slow and lingering that lasted well over a minute.

I counted every second, and each one drove into my heart like a blade, carving away every last shred of hope and love I had left.

Finally, he let Susan go. The class erupted into even wilder cheers, and Lucas slowly dropped to one knee.

He pulled a small velvet box from his pocket and opened it.

Inside sat the promise ring he had told me was meant for me.

I had spent so long choosing the design, something simple and understated, with our initials engraved on the inside.

He had promised to slip it onto my pinky finger the day he made things official between us.

But now he held that ring up to Susan and looked at her with so much tenderness that his voice came out impossibly soft. Every word cut straight through me.

"Susan, will you be my girlfriend? I'll spoil you, love you, and treat you right for the rest of my life."

Susan pressed both hands over her mouth, her eyes glistening as the rims turned red. She nodded, hard and certain. "Yes, I will."

The words had barely left her lips before Lucas rose to his feet and swept her into his arms.

They kissed, long and deep, while the crowd erupted around them in cheers and whistles.

I sat in the corner like a fool. A complete, pathetic fool.

Three years of devotion, three years of waiting, three years of stolen glances and quiet joy. He had ground all of it to dust beneath his heel in a single moment.

The laughter swelling around me twisted into something cruel, and every cheer landed like a slap across my face.

I watched the picture-perfect couple on stage, surrounded by a sea of adoring faces, and I watched the ring that should have been mine glinting on another woman's finger.

Something inside my chest cracked so sharply I forgot how to breathe.