Chapter 7

Less than twenty minutes after Aiden left, Maya sent me a screenshot of Madison’s Instagram post: “Perfect morning—say you’re hungry and your crush magically appears with breakfast. I think this made the dreaming into something real…” The photo showed the exact same box of chocolate croissants from my kitchen table.

I didn’t reply. I silently wiped away my tears and knelt to clean up the spilled boba tea. After scrubbing endlessly, I realized with frustration that the stain had soaked deep into the wool carpet fibers. It wasn’t coming out.

In a burst of anger, I rolled up the entire carpet and threw it away. It was the one Aiden and his parents had spent an afternoon selecting in Nepal and carried back as a gift.

While I was at it, I gathered everything Aiden had left at my house, plus every gift he’d ever given me. Even all our photos—from prom pictures to casual selfies—went into garbage bags. It took all day to pack up and throw away six years of memories. Not like he’d want any of it anyway.

But that day, I didn’t hear from him for days. Things must have been going well with Madison. Or maybe he was waiting for me to cave first—as I always did during our fights, without exception. But this time, I didn’t reach out. There was no point anymore.

I blocked him on everything—Instagram, Snapchat, texts, calls. I changed my door code and deactivated all my social media accounts. After that purge, I called my parents, who were away on business. I told them I wanted to spend the summer with Aunt Claire in Buster.

My plan was to stay there until fall, then head straight to Stanford with Maya. Besides her, no one knew I’d switched schools. This way, I could avoid any chance of running into Aiden.

Mom teased me on the phone: “Ooh, planning a romantic summer getaway with Aiden?” I made up an excuse, not wanting to explain. I just said I missed Aunt Sarah and Grandma. I begged Dad to book me on the next available flight—I needed to leave tonight.

But as I was heading out, I ran into Aiden’s mom by our driveways.

“Brooklyn, sweetie! Where’s Aiden? Isn’t he taking you to Aspen for skiing? He mentioned planning a special trip—you have my full blessing.”

I was confused. During senior year finals, I had mentioned wanting to go skiing in Aspen, dreaming of a winter getaway.

But given everything, a romantic trip seemed ridiculous now. Running late for my flight, I mumbled an excuse and hurried off. What I didn’t expect was to see Aiden himself at the airport.