Author's Preface
Chapter One: The Arrival
The door opened halfway through English Literature, and I knew immediately that she was important.
Not because she was beautiful.
Lots of girls were beautiful.
Not because she was shy.
Half the school pretended to be shy whenever a cute boy walked by.
No, I knew because the room changed.
Every story has a moment when the main character arrives. The music swells. The camera slows. The universe itself seems to lean forward.
This felt exactly like that.
The teacher stopped talking. A few students looked up from their phones. Even the sunlight pouring through the windows seemed to find her first.
She stood awkwardly in the doorway, clutching a stack of books against her chest.
Dark hair.
Big eyes.
Soft smile.
The kind of face people described as "interesting" before they admitted it was beautiful.
"Class, this is Eleanor Hart," the teacher said.
There she was.
The protagonist.
I rested my chin on my hand and watched her walk toward the empty seat near the window.
Of course it was near the window.
Main characters always sat near windows.
I almost laughed.
Then it happened.
Noah Reyes looked up.
Noah.
The boy every girl liked and pretended not to.
The boy with the effortless smile and the annoying habit of being nice to everyone.
Their eyes met.
For a second, the world seemed to hold its breath.
There it is, I thought.
The beginning.
The actress and the actor.
The girl with books and the boy with kind eyes.
I could already see the entire story unfolding.
They'd become friends.
Then best friends.
Then one rainy afternoon one of them would confess their feelings.
The end.
Simple.
Predictable.
Perfect.
But then Noah's gaze moved.
Past Eleanor.
Past the window.
Past everyone else.
Until it landed on me.
I blinked.
His lips curved into a smile.
Not a huge smile.
Just a small one.
A quiet one.
The kind that felt personal.
For a moment, my heart stumbled.
Then I rolled my eyes.
Please.
I knew exactly what that was.
Pretty girls get smiles all the time.
People opened doors for us.
Laughed at jokes that weren't funny.
Remembered our names when we hadn't earned it.
A smile didn't mean anything.
Especially not from a boy who was obviously destined to fall in love with someone else.
I glanced back at Eleanor.
She was unpacking her books, completely unaware that she had just walked into the first chapter of her own love story.
Poor thing.
She probably didn't know she was the main character yet.
I did.
And villains like me always know how the story ends.