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CHAPTER 1

Stars blanketed the sky like tiny tiki torches, casting pinpricks of light on the dark field that butted up to the edge of an obsessively manicured backyard I scratched at the label on the bottle I held and tippedmy eyes as the warrass scratched aton or near a fire-ant hill, about to be devoured alive, but I didn’t care

In less than forty-eight hours, I’d be startingup at stars, I’d be gazing at the twinkling city lights outside the University of Maryland

I would be so done with this place

“Ella, what in the hell are you doing?”

I jerked at the sound of Lindsey Roach’s voice and twisted at the waist She stood behindtwo bottles of beer in her hands

“Double fisting tonight?” I asked, raising my eyebrows “Hardcore, Linds”

She laughed as she dropped down besideone of the bottles toto be one of those girls who gets drunk at Brock’s party, takes off their clothes, and jus”

I opened my mouth

Linds held up a hand, silencing o down It happens every year One of the giggling chicks back there is going to strip down and show the world, God, and baby Jesus her goodies”

My lips twitched Linds and I had been best friends since freshether to work on a social sciences project She’d always been a hell of a lot more opinionated than me Linds really couldn’t be called pretty Not with her curly black hair that looked perfect whether it was pulled back tight at the crown or cascading down her back Pretty wasn’t a word I’d use for her near flawless deep brown skin, or cat-shaped eyes and lips ready-made for a makeup ad

Nope

Linds was the kind of beautiful that made you want to kick her in the lady bits when she donned a two-piece bikini She was gorgeous

“Remember last year?” She took a drink and rested the bottle on the hem of her denim shorts “Vee Bartol took off her clothes and danced on the diving board? Like dropped low on the diving board?”

I winced, easily recalling that incident Not because Vee got up and did that, but because of the fallout that occurred afterward But it happened every year since ere sophomores The parties Brock Cochran threw the weekend before school started had becoion to the student body They were notorious His parents were always on the absentee list Saturday night, and his older brother supplied the alcohol in various for school year regretting on an epic level

My smile faded away like the last days of sulanced over at Linds, and in the silvery

She bit down on her plump lower lip “I heard that the police still think she ran away”

Wiggling ain Everyone wants to believe that Vee ran away I do The only other options are horrifying and ugly, but when she went o, her fa for her return It ell known, as all things are in ss had disappeared

Who ran aithout money, an ID, or extra clothes?

Or even their cellphone?

It didn’t make sense

Linds tipped back her beer and I forced hts away from Vee I’d never been close to her, but her situation, whatever it as still difficult to really comprehend