Chapter One
McKenna
YOU ALL OVER ME
Performed by Taylor Swift with Maren Morris
TEN YEARS LATER
Bouncing on my bed woke me. I forced my eyes open and then slammed them shut upon seeing Sally’s glowing face. It was too early for this kind of over-the-top happiness.
“Happy birthday, McKenna!” she practically screamed, forcing me to look at her again.
I groaned and tried to bury my head under the covers, but my roommate wouldn’t let me.
Instead, she ripped the blankets back with surprisingly strong hands and shoved a heavy present at me.
Her large, mahogany eyes twinkled in her light-brown face as her pink-tipped waves swung around her sharply defined cheeks and chin.
I hated birthdays, while Sally was from a family who celebrated them like they were a bigger deal than Christmas.
In the three years I’d been living with her, she’d made sure I had cake, presents, and whatever I wanted for dinner.
Last year, she’d even thrown a surprise party for me at the nurses’ station.
I’d wanted to run as soon as I’d turned the corner, and I’d made her promise never to do it again.
Growing up, my birthdays had been a painful reminder of what had gone wrong in Mama’s life, and she’d done everything to make sure her worst day would also be mine. Only one person besides Sally had ever tried to make this day something different.
I pushed aside the memories that threatened to weigh me down and groused without any real heat, “It’s too early for presents and celebrations, Sal.”
“Shut up and open it!” she said, ignoring my grumpiness and shoving the box at me with her wide smile fixed permanently in place.
I sat up, and my naturally blonde hair tumbled around me in knots. I’d regret going to bed with it wet, but I’d been exhausted after my twelve-hour shift at the hospital had turned into a sixteen-hour one. I’d barely been able to shower, let alone worry about my hair.
I pulled the bulky gift onto my lap and shot Sally a frown. “I hope you didn’t do something stupid, like spend some of your car money on me. I don’t want to be the reason you can’t get it in January!”
She flicked my shoulder. “Just open it and stop being ridiculous.”
I slowly undid the ribbon and pulled off the lid.
Inside was a DVD collection of Buffy the Vampire Slayer .
Every season. I swallowed hard. The DVDs weren’t new, but they still had to have cost her a pretty penny to get the entire set.
With both of us barely scraping by due to the enormous college debt resting on our shoulders, this wasn’t a little gift.
Tears hit my eyes for real, but I refused to let them out, like I’d learned to do early in life by biting my cheek and clenching my nails into my palms. But my voice was still clogged with emotions when I choked out, “Dang it, Sal.”
She hugged me to her, and I did my best not to stiffen, letting my head land briefly on her shoulder.
“Now, you’ll always have Buffy when you need her,” she said softly.
“I need her less these days because I have you,” I responded.
She was the best female friend I’d ever had.
I’d say she was my best friend ever, but there was a teeny-tiny place inside my heart that knew it would be a lie.
But I wouldn’t hear from him today. I’d shoved him out of my life for a dream―a mirage―that had disappeared in the shimmer of the hot sun.
My gut twisted.
I couldn’t think of that today. Of him. Of my mistakes.
I had to get my head on straight, put on my white jacket, and head to the ER—to the real dream I was mere months away from finalizing.
Once my residency was over, I’d be one-hundred-percent official. I’d not only be a doctor, but I’d also be able to call the shots. Goosebumps covered my arms. Ten-year-old me would hardly be able to believe it. That I’d actually escaped and made it happen.
“Get dressed. Your birthday breakfast awaits,” Sally said and basically pushed me out of the bed. I stumbled, barely catching myself on the dresser.
“Geez, if this is how you treat a friend on her birthday, I don’t want to see how you treat your enemies,” I teased.
She headed for the door. “If you’re not out in five minutes, I’m going to shove your pancakes—whipped cream and all—in your face. Dickwad Gregory is in charge today, so neither of us can afford to be late.”
My stomach knotted thinking of the head of the ER department. He was obnoxious, and egotistical, and thought everyone should swoon over his fifty-year-old, married self. Worse, some people did. Made me pukey even thinking about it.
“McK, I’m not kidding. Five minutes,” Sally said, bringing me out of my thoughts.
“Okay, okay.”
I slipped into the bathroom, washed up, and pulled on my scrubs.
As I fought to drag my messy hair into a high ponytail, the shadows under my hazel eyes caught my attention.
They’d pretty much become a permanent feature since starting my residency and were almost as black as my heavy brows.
My hand stalled as it hit me suddenly―I looked like Mama.
That scared me. My tired expression wasn’t from drugs and alcohol, but it was from running fast and furious for too many years.
“McK!” Sally hollered.
I shoved my phone, water bottle, and keys into a small backpack and hurried out of the room before coming to a complete stop, mouth dropping open.
The entire apartment was full of balloons and streamers.
I bit my cheek hard, tasting blood, and blinked rapidly to hold back the waterworks. Sally was all but dancing around me, excitement on her face from the pure joy of doing this for me.
I didn’t care about my birthday. But I thanked the universe for the day Sally had found me on the bench outside the hospital, in a rare fit of tears, and befriended me. It was almost as important as the day Maddox Hatley had found me cowering in a shed behind his uncle’s bar when I was eight.
Too bad I didn’t have Maddox anymore.
It made this, what I had with Sally, that much more important. So, I’d celebrate today because she wanted me to. Because she was literally the only soul left on this planet who would care if I disappeared tomorrow.