Chapter 1

We were a threesome: my boyfriend, my best friend, and me.

My boyfriend and I were childhood sweethearts. We met when we were seven, and we stayed together all through elementary, middle, and high school.

I met my best friend in high school, and it was also in high school that my childhood sweetheart and I became a couple.

After our college entrance exams, my boyfriend and best friend didn't do well, so they could only go to a no-name college. They talked me into going to the same school.

"Willow, let's not split up, okay? Our grades are about the same anyway, so let's all go to the same school."

"Right, Willow. You and Samuel are a couple, and I'm your best friend. Wouldn't it be great if the three of us stuck together?"

He always chimed right in with her.

I couldn't hold out against their pestering, so I agreed. But once we got to college, I studied while the two of them went out to have fun.

When they got drunk, they had me come pick them up.

When they ran out of money, they had me pay.

They even had me go plead for them when they failed a class.

Little by little, I became their nanny.

Then came talk of marriage. On the eve of the wedding, I was running back and forth between work and the wedding arrangements, while my boyfriend and best friend spent the whole day out having fun and didn't call me to come get them until the early hours of the morning.

"Samuel, do you realize tomorrow is our wedding day?"

I glared at him, but he just draped his arm over my best friend's shoulder and said it like it was nothing.

"It's just a wedding. What's the rush?"

"Besides, aren't you handling it? I don't need to worry about it."

I was stunned. I never thought he'd care so little about his own wedding.

And he was getting more and more comfortable with his arm around her.

"So I have to worry about everything? The wedding has nothing to do with you? And I have nothing to do with you either?"

I demanded angrily.

Lena, though, put on a pitiful look.

"Willow, it's my fault. I was in a bad mood, so I had Samuel keep me company. You won't be mad, will you?"

"Ha, what do you think?"

I shot back.

Ever since senior year, those two had been acting strange. I'd just assumed they liked to have fun, but I never expected it to go this far.

…

At the engagement banquet six months ago, I was full of joy. I invited all our relatives and friends, and both families gathered for a lively celebration.

But when it came down to him, the leading man, he told me Lena had asked him to go out!

It was our engagement banquet, he was the leading man, and I had invited Lena too—yet the reply Lena gave me back then was completely different.

"Willow, I'm so sorry. My cold is pretty bad, I can't make it. I'll treat you both to a meal later to celebrate."

At the time I didn't suspect a thing. I even asked, concerned, how she was doing.

But at the engagement banquet, Samuel's answer chilled me to the bone.

One a boyfriend, one a best friend, and even their answers were nothing but empty excuses.

It was true six months ago, and it was true now.

Looking at the two of them in front of me, I saw nothing but a couple of phony, affected people.

"So do you still want to have this wedding or not?"

My tone went cold, and Samuel flared up too.

"Wedding, wedding, all you know is the wedding. Aren't there parents to handle it? Do we need you standing here worrying about nothing?"

His words were snide, and that one line—worrying about nothing—made my face go dark.

Sensing the mood turning sour, Lena, standing off to the side, piped up again in that coquettish voice of hers.

"Willow, don't be angry. Samuel didn't mean it. He cares about your wedding too."

"It's all because of me that you two are fighting."

Lena kept her eyes lowered, wearing a wronged look, and it made my blood boil.

"Shut up! I'm calling it off. Marry whoever you want!"

I threw the words out and turned to leave.

He didn't say a single word to make me stay. Instead, I could faintly hear Lena's hypocritical, put-on words.

I went home. He didn't want a wedding, and I had lost every last bit of patience.