Author's Preface
There was one thing movies prepared me for.
The second male lead.
He was always there.
Standing quietly in the background.
Smiling while the heroine looked at someone else.
Loving someone he knew he'd never have.
Every story had one.
Ours was Adrian.
The quiet boy with glasses.
The one who answered every question in class before the teacher even finished asking it.
The one who spent his lunches in the library instead of with people.
The one who always seemed to glance toward Eleanor whenever she wasn't looking.
I felt sorry for him.
Maybe because I understood what it was like to know your ending before it happened.
Villains never got chosen.
Second male leads never got chosen either.
We were different characters...
But the same tragedy.
So I made a decision.
I wasn't going to chase Noah.
That wasn't my role anymore.
If Noah and Eleanor were destined to fall in love...
Then I'd help them.
Not because I wanted to.
Because stories always reached the same ending anyway.
I figured Adrian had probably realized that too.
I found him in the library, exactly where I expected.
Books stacked neatly across the table.
A pair of glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose.
He didn't even look up when I sat across from him.
"I need your help."
His page turned.
"...Do you?"
"I have a proposal."
That got his attention.
He slowly lifted his eyes from the book.
"You and I..."
I leaned forward.
"...should join forces."
He blinked once.
"For what?"
"To help Noah and Eleanor."
Silence.
"They're obviously going to end up together," I continued. "So instead of getting in the way..."
"...we make sure they do."
He studied my face for a long moment.
Almost as if he was trying to decide whether I was serious.
Or insane.
Finally...
"...Fine."
I smiled.
"Really?"
"I don't see the harm."
Neither did I.
Unfortunately...
The students walking past the library doors saw something completely different.
The pretty villain...
Meeting in secret with the quiet genius.
Talking in whispers.
Smiling.
By the end of the afternoon, the rumors had already spread through the school.
"She's trying to steal Noah."
"Adrian's helping her."
"I knew she was planning something."
I sighed.
Some stories didn't need a villain.
People were perfectly capable of writing one themselves.