NO FRIEND SHOULD KNOW HOW YOU TASTE

Chapter One: The Girl Who Never Fit In The first thing people noticed about Maya was that she didn't look like she belonged anywhere. She wore oversized hoodies, faded jeans, and sneakers that had seen better days. Her hair was always tucked beneath a cap, and she carried herself with a confidence that made strangers think she didn't care what anyone thought. They were wrong. Maya noticed every whisper. "She walks like a boy." "Why does she dress like that?" "Is she even interested in guys?" By the end of high school, she had learned to smile through the questions and keep her real thoughts locked away. Then there was Lena. Lena was everything Maya wasn't—bright, effortlessly beautiful, friendly, and impossible to ignore. She laughed with her whole heart, made friends in minutes, and somehow convinced everyone around her that life was meant to be enjoyed. When they were paired together for a college orientation project, neither of them expected the partnership to last more than a week. Instead, it became the beginning of an unforgettable friendship. Late-night conversations turned into shared secrets. Shared secrets became trust. Before long, people joked that if you saw one of them, the other couldn't be far away. "We're basically sisters," Lena would say with a grin. Maya always smiled back. But deep inside, she wondered if that was true—or if there were parts of herself she could never allow Lena to see. Friendships are built on honesty, people say. Yet some truths don't strengthen a friendship. They destroy it. Years later, Maya would look back on that first meeting and realize it was the moment everything changed. Because some lines, once crossed, can never be uncrossed. And some friends learn things they were never meant to know.