First published in Great Britain in 2017
by Electric Monkey, an imprint of Egmont UK Limited
The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN
First published in the USA in 2017 by Simon Pulse,
an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
Text copyright © 2017 by Lynn Weingarten
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First e-book edition 2017
ISBN 978 1 4052 7158 5
Ebook ISBN 978 1 7803 1494 5
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
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CONTENTS
SASHA
SASHA
XAVIER
SASHA
SASHA
XAVIER
SASHA
SASHA
XAVIER
SASHA
SASHA
XAVIER
SASHA
XAVIER
SASHA
XAVIER
PART 2
SASHA
XAVIER
SASHA
XAVIER
SASHA
XAVIER
SASHA
XAVIER
XAVIER
XAVIER
XAVIER
SASHA
XAVIER
XAVIER
SASHA
SASHA
XAVIER
XAVIER
SASHA
XAVIER
1 YEAR LATER
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We were holding hands, palm against palm. I could feel his heart beating, his blood against my blood.
When I looked up, his smile was wide and real. “Ready?” he said.
I faked a smile back. I had gotten so good at faking things.
I thought: You brought this on yourself, Sasha. You will never get to stop pretending.
I thought: Protect those you love, no matter what the cost.
He squeezed my hand. This is exactly what I always wanted. And nothing I ever wanted at all. And there is just no taking anything back.
“Let’s go,” I said.
“Road trip!” he said.
He couldn’t begin to imagine what this actually was. He had no idea what I’d done. What any of us had.
I turned the key. The engine started. We went.
On the eve of Xavier’s seventeenth birthday, I decided I was finally going to tell him the truth.
We were in his bathroom with