PROLOGUE

The kingdom was in shock. The subjects watched the goings-on with widened eyes, unsure of how to react or where to go from this.

The reigning king and queen were no longer together, and, thus, the universe and its laws no longer made sense.

Or so it felt like to the general student population at East Greenberg High School. I thought it was all rather hilarious. The whispers, the looks, the sympathy and pity. I saw it all, and, inside, I was dying with laughter. Outwardly, I had to appear composed and accepted all the condolences from my friends and classmates with dignity and poise.

Jonathan Roberts and I had broken up after nearly two years of dating, and the cosmos had just crashed on the front lawn of the school. At least, that's the way everyone was acting.

The high school wasn't so very big, and even the teachers knew the student gossip. So I was subjected to their sympathetic looks and their questions.

"How are you doing, Zoey?"

"How are you holding up, Zoey?"

"Are you going to be okay?"

As kind as everyone was being, I wanted to scream…or laugh. I wasn't quite sure which one, but I knew that I'd probably be sent to the school psychologist if I did either one.

To be honest, breaking up with Jonathan was probably the best decision I'd made since I decided that I would accept the Early Decision offer from Georgetown University. Of course, the difference between the two decisions was that Georgetown excited me the way Jonathan had not. Not ever.

And while that simple fact makes me sound cold and callous, I'm not and I've never been. Ask anyone. Zoey Henderson was the epitome of perfection, apparently, in the East Greenberg social scene. I was pretty, well-liked, smart, and had musical talent in spades. The only thing missing was athletic ability, but, let's be honest. I trip over my own feet every other minute, but, because I was Zoey Henderson, I was automatically forgiven that small flaw.

I was fawned over by students and teachers alike. Freshmen whispered my name in awe and watched me with reverence in their expressions. I was the model pupil, the girl every other girl wanted to be, and the girl every guy wanted to be with.

I was so fed up with it I wanted to scream.

I thought that dating Jonathan would help me fall from social graces, even if it was only a little bit. He wasn't exactly "hot," but he was on the football team. He was nice, sweet, sort of smart, and had the humor of a brick. But he treated me well, and he hadn't been popular per se when we first started dating.

Unfortunately for me and fortunately for him, all that changed the instant he became my boyfriend. And me being me felt bad about dumping him just because my plans hadn't quite worked out the way I'd wanted. So I'd hung on for almost two years until I just couldn't take it anymore.

Everyone pitied me because they assumed that Jonathan had dumped me. They really shouldn't have worried because it had most definitely been the other way around.

Honestly, I didn't care what anyone thought had happened. They could speculate all they wanted, and none of it would bother me. Besides, in less than six months, I would graduate, and East Greenberg and its social issues would become a distant memory.

However, there was one, much more important reason as to why I simply didn't care what anyone thought of my break up with Jonathan. It was something that I'd never told anyone, except for my best friend, Erica, who'd moved to another state and refused to have contact with anyone at East Greenberg. It was something I only thought of when I was alone and could dream of how I wanted things to be.

My reason was Eric McAllister.