Chapter 1

At the freshman orientation performance, my boyfriend went up on stage and sang a love song to confess his feelings to his girl buddy.

When I heard him call out Kirsten Shepherd's name, the whole crowd broke into thunderous applause and started chanting for them to kiss.

I stood off to the side, and the surprise I'd been expecting turned in an instant into a humiliation I had nowhere to hide from.

Kirsten laughed and reached up to pinch Victor Stephens's cheek. "You've got some nerve, kid. Guess your old man didn't misjudge you after all."

Then she noticed me frozen where I stood, and put on a startled look.

"It was just a joke with Kit, and now she's upset again."

"Go on, go make it up to her."

Victor turned his head, glanced at me once, then turned back, completely unbothered.

"Whatever I promised you, I'll follow through on."

"Kit's parents both say she's petty, that I don't have to indulge her. Why bother with her?"

And the two of them dissolved into their usual roughhousing again.

Victor was always like this.

When we first got together, I said I wanted to go public, and he'd said the same thing then too.

"Go public for what? If Kirsten and those buddies of hers find out, they'll just give me a hard time."

So for three years together, Kirsten led the pack in calling me the tagalong.

And every time, Victor would laugh and shove back and forth with her, joining right in and calling me that too.

Watching the two of them in the crowd not far off, soaking up the congratulations while they scuffled like grade-schoolers.

I didn't want to keep putting myself through this. I applied for a campus transfer.

Victor, and that confession that would never come, I didn't want any of it anymore.

01.

Second week of freshman year, our drill instructor got everyone playing performance games.

My boyfriend got picked to go up and sing.

Everyone was cheering him on, but I turned to look at him, worried.

He'd told me he didn't like being showy.

Amid all the laughing, Victor stood up briskly and took the mic.

The song finished.

He grinned and said, "Kirsten, I like you. Be my girlfriend."

A wave of cheering rose and fell all around them.

Kirsten ran up and grabbed his face. "You've got nerve, kid. Your old man didn't misjudge you."

There was a doting look in Victor's eyes as he batted her hand away with one hand and reached out to pinch her cheek with the other.

I stood frozen, staring blankly at the two of them.

As if she'd finally caught my eye, Kirsten covered her mouth in surprise.

"Oh no, it was just a joke, and now Kit's mad again."

Then, all fake generosity, she added,

"You'd better go smooth things over with her, you rascal."

"Don't you worry about me, your old man's not the petty type."

That was what she said, but she never let go of Victor's hand.

Hearing her, Victor followed her gaze and gave me a cool, indifferent glance.

Then he bent down again to fix the hair Kirsten had gotten mussed in all the roughhousing.

He said, "It's fine. I lost the dare, so I promised to confess to you, and I keep my word."

"As for Kit, you don't have to bother with her."

"Even her dad says she's petty, that I don't have to indulge her. Why waste your time on her?"

Kirsten's face went red and she pinched his arm.

"You're just using the game to take advantage of me, kid. Now everyone thinks we're a couple, and I'm supposed to be your daddy."

Victor looked at her, doting.

"Yes, Daddy."

My nose stung and I lowered my head, holding my breath to force the tears back.

I remembered when Victor and I first got together, I told him I wanted to go public.

He'd laughed as he finished replying to Kirsten's message, then glanced down at me.

"Go public for what? If Kirsten and those buddies of hers find out, they'll just give me grief."

"Kit, if showy is what you like."

"Then I'm sorry, I'm not right for you."

We never went public, and Kirsten led the pack in calling me the tagalong for three years.

Now that I thought about it, the not-liking-showy thing was a lie.

He just wasn't willing to be showy for me.

The tears fell anyway, no matter how hard I tried.

The students beside me noticed.

They whispered about me under their breath.

"Someone's confessing to a girl over there, so what's Kit crying about?"

"I saw her glued to Victor ages ago, wouldn't let go. Probably just jealous of Kirsten."

Some of them stared openly, eyes bright with the promise of a show.

I fought hard to force the tears back.

I turned to head toward the dorms, but Kirsten grabbed my arm.

She held on to me with a bright smile, her nails digging deep into my skin.

I couldn't pull free, and a ring of red marks rose fast on my forearm.

"Kit, don't cry."

"It was just a joke. Victor and I are just good buddies, don't read too much into it."

I'd just opened my mouth to speak when Victor cut me off, his face dark.

"You. Come with me."

He left no room to argue, seizing my other arm and dragging me off to where fewer people were.

The arm Kirsten had pinched was oozing blood, but he didn't see it.

His face was cold. "I lost a dare, so I confessed to Kirsten, that's all. It's not like it was some stranger. What are you crying about?"

I looked at him, hurt. "But Kirsten said you were going up there today to surprise me, and I thought..."

He rubbed the space between his brows, impatient.

"Kirsten's got a kid's temper, she just likes to joke around. You didn't need to overreact like this."

"At the end of it, it's just one confession. What's there to nitpick over?"

"Did you forget everything your parents taught you? Be gracious, Kit."

It was over ninety degrees out, the height of summer, and yet I felt like I'd fallen into a pit of ice.

I stared at him, mouth open, unable to get a single word out.

Noise carried over from the distance.

It was Kirsten, saying something or other to the other students.

They were laughing and talking, and halfway through they lifted their heads and pointed my way.

All I could faintly make out was those three syllables. Tagalong.

Humiliation and hurt swallowed me whole.

I stopped paying Victor any attention and turned to run toward the dorms.

I just wanted to escape all those mocking, sneering eyes.