Author's Preface
I decided I wasn't going to do it.
I wasn't going to chase Noah.
I wasn't going to interrupt their story.
Every villain knows her role. She gets jealous. She causes problems. She loses.
But what if I simply refused to participate?
The thought felt strangely freeing.
So I watched from a distance.
Eleanor spent most of lunch alone.
Not because people disliked her.
Because she looked lost.
Like someone who had been dropped into the middle of a movie without being given the script.
A few days later, I spotted her sitting outside with a sandwich balanced on her knee.
The sandwich slipped from her hands and landed on the ground.
Not just the ground.
A puddle of mystery liquid someone had spilled twenty minutes earlier.
Disgusting.
Eleanor bent down to pick it up.
And then I stepped on it.
Hard.
Her eyes widened.
"So you're not eating that."
For a second, I almost explained.
Then I remembered who I was.
The pretty villain.
The mean girl.
Explaining never helped.
Before Eleanor could respond, someone shoved my shoulder.
"What's wrong with you?"
I looked up.
Mia.
Eleanor's self-appointed protector.
Short, chubby, loud, and permanently angry.
She glared at me like she'd been waiting her entire life for proof that I was evil.
"You can't just ruin people's food."
I sighed.
Here we go again.
"I was trying to stop her from eating it."
"Sure you were."
Eleanor looked between us.
Confused.
Embarrassed.
Uncomfortable.
Exactly how every misunderstanding begins.
I walked away before I could make it worse.
Unfortunately, making things worse happened to be one of my talents.
A week later, I found Mia sitting alone after gym class.
She was breathing heavily.
Her face was red.
She looked exhausted.
Something about it worried me.
"You should take better care of yourself."
Mia frowned.
"What?"
"You've been out of breath all week."
Her expression hardened.
I knew I should stop talking.
I didn't.
"Maybe you should exercise more."
The moment the words left my mouth, I knew how they sounded.
Mean.
Judgmental.
Cruel.
Exactly like me.
Mia grabbed her bag and stormed off.
Across the courtyard, Eleanor shot me a disappointed look.
And somehow that felt worse.
I stared at the ground.
I wasn't trying to hurt anyone.
But intentions didn't matter much when nobody could hear them.
A shadow appeared beside me.
I looked up.
Noah.
Of course.
He had probably witnessed the whole disaster.
His hands were tucked into his pockets.
His expression unreadable.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then he smiled slightly.
Not the smile people gave because I was pretty.
Not the smile people gave because they wanted something.
A different one.
The kind that felt like he could see straight through me.
"You know," he said quietly, "you're really bad at helping people."
My jaw dropped.
And to my horror...
he laughed.