Chapter 1

The pep rally noise was a hammer against my head. I shouldn't have skipped lunch to save a few bucks. That cheap burger from the corner store churned in my stomach. I leaned against the bleachers, a wave of dizziness washing over me. Then, darkness.

When I came to, Ethan Hayes was kneeling beside me. The Ethan Hayes. Golden boy, quarterback, the guy I' d had a silent, hopeless crush on for two years. He offered a hand. "You okay, Sarah?" His voice was smooth, concerned.

But then, another voice, sharp and clear inside my head, not his spoken one. Ugh, she' s always staring. So clumsy. Wonder if she even showers properly? Probably smells like that greasy diner her parents own.

The thoughts hit me harder than the fall. My carefully built fantasy of him, the kind, perfect Ethan, shattered. This was him. This disgust.

"I'm fine," I mumbled, pulling away from his offered hand like it burned. I scrambled up, the world still spinning. The disgust in his thoughts was a physical weight. I had to get away. I pushed through the crowd, his polite, fake concern echoing behind me, drowned out by the real, ugly words in my head.

I stumbled into the empty hallway, gulping air. Food poisoning, definitely. But the voice... Ethan' s thoughts... it couldn' t be.

I remembered the first time I saw him, freshman year. He' d given a speech, confident and charming. Everyone loved him. I' d thought he was like a hero from a movie. Smart, athletic, kind. My heart had done that stupid fluttery thing. For two years, that image had lived in my head. Now, it was just... gone. Replaced by a sneer I hadn't seen but had definitely heard.

I made it to the nurse' s office. She said it was probably food poisoning and called my mom. Lying on the cot, the nausea was bad, but the echo of Ethan' s thoughts was worse. I pressed my hands to my ears, but the voice wasn't an outside sound. It was in me.

My best friend, Jess Ramirez, found me there after the rally.

"Sarah! You okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Worse, Jess," I said, my voice weak. "I think I heard one."

I didn' t tell her about Ethan' s thoughts. Not yet. It was too raw, too humiliating. How could I explain it? I just wanted to go home, to the familiar smell of my family' s diner, a place that suddenly felt like the only real thing in the world. I needed to forget the boy whose beautiful face hid such ugly thoughts. I decided then, I'd just focus on my schoolwork, on getting into a good college. Far away from here. Far away from him.