Maybe everything does happen for a reason.

Or maybe, my sadistic side answered, it just happens so everyone can laugh at you behind your back.

Ouch.

Pain. That’s all I felt those first few weeks. I ignored the leering, comical stares of my peers. I ignored Robert chasing me down almost every day after school. I didn’t slow, and eventually, he realized how stupid it was to try to make amends with me. Not now. Not ever.

Most of all, I ignored Lissa. She, of all people, knew me better than I knew myself. Yes, she kept her distance. But the idea, after all of this, that he would be hers and not mine, left me crazy and depressed.

Love’s such a fickle thing. It has you flying high through heavenly clouds one day, and the next it drops you flat on your head, with no way to regain your balance.

I’d never been dropped before, and I wasn’t sure I could handle it much longer.