CHAPTER 1
lilah
On my thirteenth birthday,I closed my eyes and wished on my candles that I would have the most exciting teen years possible. I was imagining all my favorite dramatic TV shows, already picturing the vampire I was sure to fall in love with and the popularity I would gain immediately.
In a way, my wish came true. But not at all in the way I expected.
The moment I heard the giddy scream, I knew my hopes for a nice, peaceful afternoon had been thrown out the window. Sometimes, when my brother came to visit me at boarding school, we managed to fly under the radar, but most of the time, it ended like this—running through the shortcuts in the streets behind my school, trying to lose all the fangirls in love with him.
Because those exciting teen years I wished for? They came in the form of being the younger sister of a world-famous boy band member.
“I’m really sorry about this,” Luca said as we turned down an alley filled with dumpsters overflowing with trash. I gagged as the smell overpowered my senses, but I kept running, knowing that something as trivial as garbage wasn’t going to stop some fangirls from chasing after their favorite celebrity.
I glanced over my shoulder at my brother, not slowing down my strides. “This alley leads to Maple Street, where Poppy’s–”
I slammed straight into something.
Well, more like it slammed into me—because as I stumbled backward into my brother’s arms, blinking the stars out of my eyes, I realized thesomethinghad been a dark blue door that definitely hadn’t been open ten seconds ago.
“Oh my gosh!”
I groaned as I heard the voice of the last person in the world I wanted to see right now. I rubbed at the side of my head where I was sure a bruise was forming right that moment, and let my gaze slide to the person whose hand was on the inside knob of the door.
“What areyoudoing here?”
CHAPTER 2
lilah
Despite what othersmay tell you, I didn’t hate Michael Valentine. Most of the time, I didn’t even mind being around him. He would always me out, I would turn him down, we’d make fun of each other relentlessly, and then I would complain about him to my friends. It was fun. Predictable. Dependable. And in a world where my life has felt chaotic because of my brother’s fame, it was nice having something consistent. Even if that consistency came in the form of a smug hockey player.
“I’m really sorry about the door!” he stammered. “I was just checking if the coast was clear and I didn’t hear you coming and—oh man, is thatblood?”
I pulled my hand back to see what he was talking about and noted, with a turn of my stomach, that yes, it was in fact blood. The idiot had hit me so hard with a door that my head was bleeding. Of course.
“You’re a hockey player, Tino. Shouldn’t you be used to the sight of blood?”
“Well, yeah, but…” He left the words hanging there but I got the gist:but not when a cute girl I may or may not be in love with, who is bleeding because of me.
Luca stepped forward, and I assumed he was going to comment on the literal head wound I had, but he wasn’t even looking at me.
“You’re Tino?” he asked. And gone was my fun-loving brother who has never been serious a day in his life. In lieu of his usual goofy smile was… well, a murderous expression.
Tino gulped. “Uh, yes sir?” His voice cracked on the last word. I grinned to myself as I realized that he was scared of Luca, the human embodiment of a puppy dog and a boy who wouldn’t hurt a fly. I knew Luca hated Tino because he always listened with rapt attention when I complained about the people at school, but he listened even more intently when I mentioned Tino.
Before Luca could say anything else, which was a shame because I was curious just how much he hated Tino—probably more now due to the whole door thing—another boy appeared in the doorway. And despite never having met Tino’s family, I knew immediately who he was.
Not because they looked similar.
Not even because I assumed that Tino’s family was also visiting him today.
No, I recognized him from the poster hanging in the common room on my floor right next to the one of my brother’s band.
Will Valentine—Tino’s eldest brother and one-third of the band The Valentine Brothers.
One of the reasons Tino insisted we would be perfect together—among the many,manyreasons which he’d actually outlined in a Google Doc for me—was that we were both the younger siblings of boy band members. For me, it was just Luca, since my other two siblings weren’t famous either. For Tino, though, all three of his brothers were in a boy band together called the Valentine Brothers (and yes, the fact that we were both the youngest of four siblings was something else he thoughtmade us compatible). I made it a point of making fun of him for being the only person in his family with zero musical talent and that they made a band name about being brothers, while completely excluding him. He, of course, always argued that he would rather be good at hockey than music, and he would be famous in his own right one day.
“What’s going on?” Will asked. In direct contrast to my brother, Will always seemed a little too serious for his own good. His concerned gaze flicked from his brother, to my mildly bleeding head, to Luca.
