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Chapter 1

Maya

Memories. Haunting me. Every day. Haunting me.

I can't find peace. At all. After what happened, I'm hanging by a thin, stubby piece of string.

I'm a goner.

I can't seem to be happy again.

Memories. Guilt. Depression. Secrets.

It's eating me alive. I can't function right.

After my parents left us, it was my job to protect her. My sister. Mia.

But then Maya Ross, a seventeen year old idiot, let her go out and party.

She drank. She was underage.

She died in a car accident.

I will never forgive myself after what happened to her. It was all my fault. I should've never let her go out.

I'm a monster.

***

As I step out into the searing rays of the sun, I trip over my own feet. At the mall, in front of everything. 

I do a mental face-palm.  

Idiot, Maya Ross. You're an idiot.

But then, as suddenly as I fall, someone catches me. I look into his face. He's very handsome. Wavy brown hair, next to my dull dirty-blonde. His eyes a sparkling green, mine a dull blue. A muscle, toned body. My lanky body.

Opposites.

I feel it. He has a perfect life. 

"Hey, are you okay?" He asks me.

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks for catching me."

"Oh, it's no problem. What happened though?" He says, his smile wide.

"I tripped over my own feet."