Chapter 1

At the graduation party when I was eighteen, Jacob Taylor introduced me to an adult secret.

I endured the initial discomfort, but secretly smiled the whole way home.

Six years of secret love, from middle school to high school graduation, had finally come to fruition.

I curled up in bed, my fingertips lightly tracing the marks he left behind, as if this could make that moment last forever.

Until the next afternoon, when I returned to school early to retrieve a forgotten notebook and heard Jacob and his basketball teammates laughing in the empty classroom.

"Nice job, you scored with the class beauty," a gruff male voice rang out - it was Mike, the team's center.

My heart skipped a beat as I stood in the shadows of the hallway clutching my notebook, my cheeks burning.

"I wanted to pursue Jessica, but was afraid she'd think I was too inexperienced," Jacob's casual voice was like a dull knife, slowly cutting open my chest, "So I practiced my skills with Emily first."

I didn't say a word, I just changed my first college choice from New York University to the University of Florida - the option furthest from New York.