Chapter 1

After three years together, Xander set a rule: we couldn't hold hands for more than three minutes a day.

He said we had to meet at the summit---that we absolutely couldn't let ourselves get distracted before the SAT exams.

I believed him. I suppressed my desires and stayed up late studying with him.

The night the scores came out, there was a class party. I went to find him with my results---scores high enough to get into the same university as him.

But at the bar, I caught him pinning Summer, the worst student in our class, against the wall, kissing her with wild, unrestrained passion.

Summer gasped and pushed him away: "Xander, your girlfriend will be angry if she finds out..."

Xander laughed carelessly: "She's obedient as a dog. I just need to buy her a gift and say a few sweet words, and she'll be fine. She can't leave me."

Outside the door, my hands and feet went ice cold. My heart hurt so much I couldn't breathe.

I thought he had a low sex drive. Turns out he just wasn't interested in me.

I forced back the tears threatening to spill from my eyes and tore up that application form where I'd filled in the same choices as him, piece by piece.