And after I dropped him off, I took the longest possible route home... I explored alleys and hidden roads I never knew existed. I discovered neighborhoods entirely new to me. And finally... I discovered I was sick of this town and everything in it.

I sat. And I thought. And the more I thought, connecting the events in my life, the more my heart collapsed.

It's nothing. A school project. My go-to answer for anything. Staying out late? School project. Need extra money? School project.

But I do know which is the least popular. The truth.

And as I stood there in the hallway―alone―trying to understand what had just happened and why, I realized the truth: I wasn't worth an explanation―not even a reaction. Not in your eyes.

When you write a book for publication, you're writing it for other people to read.

You can't go back to how things were. How you thought they were. All you really have is...now.