Chapter 1

The air in the university library was thick with the smell of old paper and quiet panic. It was the last day to submit college applications, and the final deadline was just hours away. I sat at a computer, my mouse hovering over the 'Submit' button for my Caltech application. Everything was perfect, every essay polished, every detail checked a hundred times.

Beside me, Liam, my best friend since we were kids, was laughing with a group of his friends. Their voices, though kept low, carried easily in the silent room.

"So, Liam, you really did it?" one of his friends, Mark, asked, clapping him on the back. "You switched your top choice to NYU?"

"Of course," Liam said, his voice full of easy confidence. "Chloe' s going there. She' s an art major, and she' s kind of nervous about being in the city alone. Someone' s got to look out for her."

Chloe. The new girl. She' d arrived at our school six months ago, all wide eyes and soft smiles, and immediately became the center of attention.

Another friend laughed. "Man, what about your promise to Ava? Weren' t you two supposed to go to Caltech together? You' ve been saying that since you were six."

The mention of my name made my hand freeze. I pretended to be focused on my screen, but my ears were straining to hear every word.

Liam let out a casual laugh, a sound I knew better than my own heartbeat.

"That old thing? We were just kids."

He leaned in, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, but it still reached me clearly.

"Ava? It' s fine. She has my account password. When she sees I' ve changed my mind, she' ll follow suit. She can' t live without me anyway."

The words hit me. My breath caught in my throat, and the library suddenly felt airless. He didn' t just break our promise, he expected me to abandon my own dreams without a second thought, like a pet following its owner. He said it so casually, so certain of my dependence on him.

My heart felt heavy and tight in my chest. I looked at my screen, at the words 'California Institute of Technology' and 'Aerospace Engineering' . This wasn' t just a school, it was a promise I had made to myself, to my father.

Liam' s friends were still talking, teasing him about being Chloe' s knight in shining armor.

"She' s just so fragile, you know?" Liam explained, and there was a note of pride in his voice. "She told me she barely has any other options, and she' s scared. I can' t just let her go through that alone."

Fragile. He saw Chloe as fragile and needing protection, while he saw me as an extension of himself, someone with no will of her own. The pain was sharp and deep, a cold feeling spreading through me.

I couldn' t sit there any longer. I couldn' t face him, couldn' t let him see the hurt in my eyes. Quietly, I gathered my things, my movements small and silent. I closed the laptop without clicking submit, packed it into my bag, and stood up.

No one noticed me leave.

As I walked out of the library and into the cool evening air, his words echoed in my head. She can' t live without me anyway.

A bitter smile touched my lips. He had no idea.

I didn' t go home and check the application system. I didn' t change a single word of my application.

Let him chase Chloe across the country. Let him be her hero.

My dream, the one I had worked for through countless sleepless nights and early mornings, was never just for him. He was a part of it, a huge part, but he wasn't the foundation. The foundation was something much stronger, something he knew nothing about.

I had my own sky to soar to, and I was going to fly there alone.