PROLOGUE
JAMIE
College wasn’t supposed to feel this heavy.
Everyone kept telling me this would be the start of my real life – the freedom, the independence, the fresh air, sort of speaking.
But no one mentions the quiet.
No one warns you how loud the silence gets when you finally live alone with your thoughts.
Maybe that’s why I keep drowning in them.
Depression sits on my chest like an unwelcome roommate, always chewing on the edges of my sanity.
Anxiety drags its nails down my spine whenever I try to sleep. And then there’s also the nightmares… God, the nightmares are the worst part.
They started afterthatparty.
The one I should’ve never agreed to go to.
My friend begged me to come because she didn’t want to be alone with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend who, at the time, was Lex fucking Rothwell – walking embodiment of a trust fund, wrapped in arrogance, cruelty, and the prettiest face I’ve ever pretended not to stare at.
Even she didn’t feel safe with him.
Which should’ve told me everything.
Some genius decided we should play a “fun” version of hide and seek.
In the woods.
At night.
And apparently fate had a personal vendetta against me, because I got picked to hide.
And when I heard Lex was on the opposite team, searching, hunting –
I begged someone, any fucking one, to find me before he did.
Not because I was scared.
But because if he found me first, we’d fight.
Because we always fought.
I know that it wouldn’t be much of a fight, considering how different we are compared to each other: I’m eighteen, he’s twenty two, I’m 5’9, he’s 6’3, I have a bleach blonde hair, he has a dark midnight one. As I’ve said – total opposites.
We couldn’t be in the same room without wanting to claw at each other.
Because he was exactly the type of guy I’d want in a potential boyfriend, if I had a single ounce of self-preservation missing from my body. Tall, athletic, tattoos, jaw that could slice me open, voice smooth enough to ruin reputations.
And a complete asshole.
Which should’ve been enough to kill the attraction.
But am I a liar?
Yes.
