Page 1 of Unwrapped

PROLOGUE

August 21st

7:05 p.m.

This was it. The end of my childhood. Eighteen years, I’d been living in this small town, and I was now an adult and more than ready to leave. My older sister, Olivia, had moved away from home to live in London, and I knew that was also where I eventually wanted to live, so I’d applied to London Southwark University. To my surprise, my parents were enthusiastic about the move—probably because they expected Liv to keep an eye on me, which made the thought of leaving home easier.

Tonight was the night to right my wrongs. I was going to leave my school life behind with no regrets, and that involved a chat with my former best friend-turned-enemy-turned-casual acquaintance…

“We’re gonna be best friends forever, aren’t we?” I looked at Ryan Jackson, who was sitting on the grass, rolling our mud-splattered football around with one outstretched foot. His dark hair was streaked with mud, too, as were his legs. Much like mine.

“Yeah. Course we are.” His hazel eyes sparkling in the sun, he gave me one of his big grins, the kind he didn’t give to anyone else. I liked that I was special to him. We’d been best friends ever since we’d been placed at the same table at preschool and I’d let him use my red crayon for the picture he was drawing. Now we were eight, and we were stronger than ever. It was so cool having a best friend. We both liked sports and superhero movies. Except his favourite superhero was Thor, and mine was Captain America. Everyone knew that Captain America was the best.

But we were best friends, and we always would be.

* * *

“Come on. Don’t be a baby.”

“I’m not a baby!” I shouted, folding my arms across my chest with a huff as I glared up at Ryan. It was just…the monkey bars werehigh. And I didn’t want to be all the way up there.

“You don’t have to be scared.”

“I’m not!” Fine. I’d show Ryan Jackson that I wasn’t too scared to do this.

Reaching out and wrapping one clammy palm around the bars, I made myself put a foot on the frame and then started climbing.

When I reached the top, I grinned at Ryan. “See? Told you I wasn’t scared.” It didn’t feel as high from up here.

“You were.”

“Wasn’t.” I shoved at him, and he wasn’t expecting it. His mouth opened, and he just…fell. All the way to the bottom, and I’d never forgotten the thump his body made against the rubber surface.

After that, everything was a blur. He was crying, and I was crying, and then his mum came running over, and then he was taken away from me.

It turned out that he’d broken his arm.I’dbroken his arm. It was an accident, but it was still my fault. And it had consequences—he could no longer attend the summer camp we’d both been planning to go to.

After that, we weren’t best friends anymore. He didn’t want to speak to me again.

Things never really improved. I guess we might have drifted apart eventually, anyway, but at age eight, that incident was enough to fracture more than just Ryan’s arm. We found our own friend groups and never really interacted unless we had to in the classroom. Looking back, if either of us had attempted to patch things up—me, especially—I think we would’ve been able to stay friends, but I was full of childish hurt and guilt, and he was still angry that his broken arm had meant him missing out on the sports summer camp we’d been planning to attend together.

Then, before I knew it, school was over. From what I’d heard through friends of friends, Ryan was applying for a uni place through the clearing process, aiming to study sports sciences at one of the universities up north. Tomorrow morning, I was moving to London to start my degree in business and computing, and I wanted to leave on a good note. I needed to tell Ryan that I wished things could’ve been different. Wished that we could’ve stayed friends. That I regretted not making more of an effort to make things right between us.

There was something else, too. Something I’d be keeping to myself because there was no point in sharing it with him, not when we were going our separate ways.

The truth was, I was gay—I’d known it since I was twelve, and I’d known for almost as long that Ryan Jackson was incredibly gorgeous. So gorgeous that he made my breath catch in my throat and my heart race. But Ryan had a girlfriend…or had done until recently. Had several girlfriends, in fact. No one serious, and I’d heard through the grapevine that he’d had a mutual breakup with Kasia because she was going to uni up in Scotland, and neither of them was interested in a long-distance relationship. I mean, it was possible that he was bisexual, but I was under no illusions that he’d ever be interested in me. And like I’d said, we were all going our separate ways.There was no point in pursuing anything, even if I’d had the opportunity. It was just an inconvenient crush that would soon go away.

So, inconvenient crush aside, my goal was to get Ryan to talk to me tonight and to leave my school years behind on a good note. And I was going to do that tonight when we saw each other at the leavers’ party.

Wish me luck, I mouthed to my reflection.

Here goes nothing.

* * *

8:45 p.m.

I looked across the crowded pub to where Ryan was standing, leaning against the wall with his hands shoved in his pockets, and my heart constricted painfully.Fuck. I’d wasted so much time. I had to make it up to him before it was too late.