Chapter 1
It was the last week of application season.
I stared at my personal statement, draft seven, for a full twenty minutes without changing a single word.
Ethan Whitmore's messages had been pouring in since noon.
Ethan: Isla, done with your PS yet? Send it over.
Ethan: Your opening is way too soft. Admissions officers read hundreds of these every day. The first line has to grab them, got it?
Ethan: Forget it. Just come over. I'll fix it for you. Your grammar gives me a headache.
Ethan: Hello? Ignoring me again?
I replied with several words.
Isla: Still working on it.
A familiar cat meme popped up on my screen. Then came a sixty-second voice message.
The first five seconds were Ethan's voice. For the rest of the message, Lila Hayes started arguing with him. One of them wanted to drag me to Newford City. The other wanted to drag me to Port Helena.
They argued over me like I was a suitcase being fought over.
This had been going on since application season began. Lila was set on Kingsley in Newford City. Ethan was supposed to be heading to Westbridge, out by Westbridge Bay.
No one had ever asked me, "Isla, where do you want to go?"
There were forty minutes left before the application portal closed.
I switched back to the application page, clicked submit, and shut my laptop.
My mom was in the kitchen reheating homemade chicken soup. She had never been to school. She didn't understand any of this college application stuff. All she knew was that Ethan and Lila were both going to good schools—so I would too.
Back when I was deciding on schools, Ethan and Lila came over for dinner every week. My mom always made a full spread.
They would sit at the table and argue over how Kingsley Business School was only a few blocks from Sterling Row, and how Westbridge had the best computer science program in the country.
I stood beside them, watching. No one paid me any mind.
When I returned to the table with another dish, the conversation had already shifted.
"You're giving up Westbridge for Kingsley?" Lila set down her spoon and glared at Ethan.
Ethan leaned back in his chair, sounding as casual as if he were talking about tomorrow's weather. "Yeah, I'm applying to Kingsley too. There's a fintech group there with strong Sterling Row connections. It's way more interesting than Westbridge."
Lila froze for a second. Then she laughed and smacked his arm.
"You're not even going to Westbridge anymore? That palm tree poster has been on your wall for four years. Freshman year, you specifically picked a Westbridge alum as your advisor. What happened to your whole Pacific Tech Corridor dream?"
"What's so great about the Pacific Tech Corridor?" Ethan took a sip of water and glanced at Lila. "Aren't you going to Kingsley? Newford City and Westbridge Bay are almost three thousand miles apart. What am I supposed to do out there all alone?"
Lila rolled her eyes. "Who asked you to follow? Isla can just follow me."
Ethan shot back. "Isla's my girlfriend. Of course she's following me. Don't overthink it."
And just like that, they were at it again.
I stood in the kitchen doorway, holding a plate of cold honey-glazed chicken wings as my fingers slowly tightened around the dish.
Westbridge University was the dream school Ethan had talked about for four years, the place he had told everyone was the holy grail for programmers in the Pacific Tech Corridor.
Now, because Lila had said she was going to Kingsley University, he had torn that dream down without a second thought.
I did not want to think about how many sleepless nights were hidden behind his casual "I'm applying to Kingsley too."
Lila probably thought Ethan was competing with her again.
As for me, some things, once you saw them clearly, you wouldn't want to keep going.
