More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
We parked our cars at Overlook Point.
For as long as I could remember, this was where we came to talk when something had gone seriously wrong.
Overlook Point was for the big-drama moments. It was for life-and-death situations,
For as long as I could remember, the King brothers had been the royalty of West Valley. The oldest two were twins, and the younger was only a year their junior.
We all swear that no matter what, even if the King brothers come begging us for forgiveness on their knees, even if they end up becoming megafamous billionaires, we’ll never date them again.
“Friendships are a lot like kindergarten art projects: without glue, they all fall apart.”
I couldn’t help feeling like my friends and I were growing apart.
The Kings had left right after high school to launch some tech company out in California. Unfortunately for us, they’d found enough success and money that they had become billionaires and they had become national celebrities.
Our common interests were dying a slow death, and it was becoming more and more clear that we were clinging to the last, decaying wisps of the promise.
A dose of routine felt good when everything else was changing, and Bradley’s for coffee before work was our routine.
Tomorrow, I had to find a way to stand in front of classrooms full of high school seniors and try not to make a fool of myself.
Iris was clad in her police uniform.
“The Kings,” Miranda said. “All of them. Not just them either. The entire crazy tribe is coming. Mom and Dad. Media.
“They’re building a new headquarters for Sion, and they’re putting it here.”
We need to all swear it again. No matter what, we won’t date the Kings.”
My brothers and I all played our parts in the success of Sion. My twin brother, Cade, was good with people. He was our negotiator and our salesman. Our younger brother, Nick, had a stroke of genius in him.
I was supposed to be the one with the head for business. I was the one who filtered their ideas and made the ultimate decision on whether a certain move was the right call.
The three of us had done our fair share of damage growing up here. Even though we never talked about it, there were three girls who had stuck with all of us in their own ways. They were also the three who had the most reasons to hate us.
I knew I’d never stopped thinking about Kira and what I’d done.
Like everyone else who crossed my path, she’d been left with a life that was a burned ruin of what it had been before she met me.
I’m very responsible when it comes to my extracurdickular activities.”
extracurdickular
It wasn’t the first time being the mayor’s daughter had given me some unwanted advantage.
“I make rodent sweaters, okay? I sell them online.
I had been saddled with the crumbling theater department no one wanted and a budget that couldn’t even buy us a movie ticket, let alone props, costumes, and equipment to put on a respectable play. Of course, he had a national megabusiness to run.
His little scheme of forcing himself into my life wasn’t supposed to work.
Stella, you stay away. I saw the way you were looking at Kira, and you can’t have her.”
“Rich and I are pretending to be an item. It keeps our parents from meddling. I’m only interested in women. Especially ones who have a kind of sexy librarian thing going on.”
“You forgot the part where you nearly ruined said sexy librarian’s life and how she might have a good reason for holding back with you.”
“I still can’t believe he told you about my story. I never understood why he did that,”
After all, if he hadn’t told Rich, I never would’ve lost my scholarship.
I’d been writing an essay for a contest in the Washington Post. They were taking submissions, and the winner would win a free ride through college. Thanks to someone in their marketing department making a mistake, only our school and one other got any notification about the contest. In the end, about five kids entered. I knew my story could’ve won, but thanks to Rich, I never got to find out.
being on the team was my life back then.
That story might have been your ticket to a college scholarship, but it was probably going to be my ticket off the team and out of high school sports.”
Nick just said you had some dirt on the athletic department, and it might mean heads were going to roll.
I got threatened with expulsion if I didn’t promise to delete the article.”
When I wanted to leave West Valley after school to chase a job in another school district, he didn’t let me forget that I still owed him too much to leave.
“Who says you need balls to do something brave?” I asked. “Why do testicles get so much credit? What does a shriveled-up, hairy bag have to do with conquering your fears? It’d make just about as much sense as saying, Damn, that took boobs.”
I had an unquenchable interest in anything dinosaur related. It was a poorly kept secret that I’d never completely grown out of the
phase most five-year-old boys pass through. Bones, history, videos, and even wild theories were all fair game. Big and heavy bones were even better.
You don’t have any say in who I date or what I do with my life. You’re spectators.”
