She laughed. “Just kidding. For real, but, uh…” She cleared her throat. “We need to come up with a plan so those two are distracted while you slip down the back hallway door. They really should have one positioned in the lobby and the other by the back door. It only locks from the outside, and the alarm’s not turned on during the day.”

“What?”

She clapped her hands together. “Exactly. Operation Distract and Dash needs to commence…” She looked at my pajamas. “Whenever you’re dressed, that is.”

Summer went past the two girls, who really were camped out by the doorway. Nina was holding her backpack in her lap while Kitty had a strand of hair pulled over her face. She was furiously picking at it. Summer strolled past them and pretended to trip over Nina’s feet. Kitty didn’t seem impressed, so Summer spied the water bottle next to her and somehow lunged for it, knocking that to the ground, too.

I waited as both girls got up. Nina helped Summer while Kitty grabbed her water bottle before it fell down the rest of the stairs.

It was my time.

Both were distracted, and I slipped down the back stairs. I went all the way down and through the back door. Summer was right. A girl soared through the door two seconds before I hit the last set of stairs. No alarm sounded, so I went outside.

I was waiting by the bike rack as Summer came out, laughing. She was barely holding on to her coffee cup, which she’d told me she was going to refill in Ruby’s room right before activating Operation Distract and Dash.

She had a second cup for me and shook her head, tsking under her breath. “Logan was not enough of a dick to put those two off. I think he only cemented that they both want to marry him. What will Nate think? Kitty loved him first.”

“I think Nate will sleep just fine at night.”

“You never know. She could’ve been the love of his life.” Summer sped forward as we began walking toward the classroom buildings and turned around so she was walking backward. She wiggled her eyebrows. “What if Kitty actually is the girl he’s meant to be with? I mean, who knows? He could end up going down the completely wrong lane in life. Do you believe in stuff like that?”

I slowed, frowning. “What are you talking about?”

She sped up, still walking backward and motioned for me to keep up with her. “I mean, the decisions you make today could alter your future. Things like that. Maybe I wasn’t meant to be your roommate. Maybe I was supposed to be someone else’s, but something happened. Say, for instance, she did something horrible. She made one decision that changed her future, so it changed ours, too. You and I weren’t even going to meet, much less become the best buds that we will be. Thank god she made that horrible decision, right? Or maybe not. Maybe whoever that girl was might have actually been the love of Nate’s life, or maybe even Logan’s. Let’s get ambitious here. Do you think about stuff like that?”

“No.” I scratched my head. It was spinning a little bit. “Why the hell would you?”

Summer laughed, twirling around so that she was walking side by side with me again. She lifted a shoulder, her head falling down. “I don’t know. I think it’s the aftereffects of hating my stepmother. She did a real fucking doozy on my dad. I always think, what if they hadn’t met at that bar? What if my mom and dad hadn’t fought that night? What if I hadn’t come home late, so they wouldn’t have ended up fighting because of me? Things might’ve been different.” She sounded so serious now. “Things might’ve been happier.”

I stopped walking. People streamed around us. A few shot us dirty looks, but most just zipped around us, hurrying to their classes.

I’d known her a day.

That one moment told me so much more about her than all the other hours we’d spent together.

She was unhappy.

She hated her stepmother.

She wished for her old life.

And she blamed herself.

As if she realized she’d given me a full window to her inner workings, Summer grinned at me, looking at me sideways. “What are you looking at?”

A broken daughter.

I shook my head. “Nothing.”

Me. I was looking at myself.

I pushed forward. “Let’s go to class. Where’s your first one?”

Summer pointed to a brick building across the courtyard. “In there. I checked the map yesterday when we got our books. The store is right over there.” She moved to the smaller building right next to where her classroom was.

Students were everywhere. A line was outside of the bookstore, weaving down the sidewalk. People were milling back and forth, some dashing around the line and moving into the brick building. The larger building extended higher, maybe four floors, and students were lingering outside those doors, too. Some were smoking. Others were talking with friends. Still more stood next to the bike rack. We were coming down a sidewalk that met five other sidewalks in a large stone circle in the middle of the courtyard, and people were coming back and forth.

As Summer checked her map again, I saw some others doing the same. We weren’t the only lost freshmen. The thought was a little comforting.

“Yeah.” Summer nodded before folding the paper up and sliding it into her folder. “That’s my building. Where’s your classroom?”

“In Ives. Room three-twelve.”

Her forehead wrinkled, and she pulled the sheet back out. “Okay.” She stopped. Her finger started to point, but she turned until it was aiming at the building right behind us. “This is your stop.”

“Really?”

“Yep.” She checked once more. “Ives. That’s what my map says, so this is it unless there are two Ives buildings.”

I was about to say good-bye and head inside when Park Sebastian stepped in front of me, blocking me. A smug smirk was on his face beneath his black sunglasses. His gelled hair was combed to the side. As he stood there, holding a book and a couple of notebooks in his hand, he looked like he stepped right from a college magazine shoot. His shirt hung from his wide shoulders, not too tight, and fell to his trim waist. He had on frayed cargo shorts, but they seemed like they’d been frayed on purpose.

I didn’t think. I said the first thing on my mind, “You look like a douche.” I pointed to his shorts. “That’s trendy? If you’re hoping to look poor, you’re sucking at it. Your whole demeanor screams entitled rich prick.”