Introduction
~~
Victoria's life takes a drastic turn the night her best friend dies in a car accident. Suddenly all she has of her are photos, memories, nightmares and a boy Lily was seeing, Hayden Collins.
As she's trying to come to terms with losing Lily, old secrets come out and her once almost perfect life is nothing but. More dangerous that the lies she's being fed by her family, is the feelings evoked by Hayden's meer presence in her life.
Hayden had long thought love wasn't in the cards for him after losing the only chance of declaring his love to a girl in highschool. That changes when he meets he girl who stole his heart without knowing at his latest fling's funeral.
She's more beautiful than she was when he left for college six years ago, standing in front of him is a woman and she still has his heart beating like before. The only major obstacle is, he was balls deep in her best friend a week ago before she died.
~~
Will the past and grief over Lily's death stand in the way of what could be their only chance at love?
Chapter 1
I wake up to the consistent knock on my bedroom door, Lily, my roommate had to be the one knocking.
"Come in"
"Good morning! Wake up girl." Lily says with a cheerful voice.
Why is she so hyper, it's not even noon yet!
"What can be so good that you had to wake me before eight on a Saturday Lily?" I ask her shielding my eyes from the sun peeping between the curtains.
"Tori please don't tell me you forgot?" She groans.
I know she is talking about going with her to see her boyfriend or fling Hayden, before we go home for the holidays.
"Lily, I really don't have to go with you, Mo is tagging along too." I point out.
"But, Tori I thought it would be nice if we could all go there, one of his mates is hosting a party tonight." She says with a pout.
Lily and I have been friends since we were nine years old, between the two of us she had always been the outgoing one, she is the girl everyone wants to be friends with on campus.
Then you have me, Victoria Amelia Thomson, the reserved girl, bookworm, and the introvert. Lily and I are different, she is the opposite of me, but people say we balance each other.
"You know I don't like parties, those things creep me out." I explain for the hundredth time.
I have only been to a party about three times, once in high school, and twice here in NYC since I thought college parties were cool, but turns out that they are ten times worse what I experienced in high school.
"Come on Tori, it will be fun." She says whining.
"No! Lily, don't even lie to me, and if I go to this party with you guys who will drive us home on Monday, if we are all smashed, and hangover?"
I know Lily and Monica will need one of us to be responsible, and yay!! It will have to be me so she can't complain more.
"Clever bitch, you have a point. So you're not going with us to see Hayden then?"
Lily has been seeing Hayden for almost three months now, they first met at one of those parties back in high school despite going to the same high school, but only exchanged numbers when they met back at home in Florida about a year ago.
"There is no need, I know you will make sure I see him everyday when we get back." I smile at her.
"Fine let me go call Mo, and check if we can go shopping before heading to Hayden's." Lily says taking her phone out of her Jean pocket.
"Alright" I say smiling, because I want to go back to my sleep if it's possible.
As soon as Lily gets out of my room I snuggle more into my bed. Lily and I live in a small cosy apartment not far from college. It's a two bedroom apartment, and a kitchen joined with the living room. We have bathrooms attached to our bedrooms so we don't have to share a bathroom.
I like it this way, because I don't have to worry about being late for lectures while waiting for Lily to finish bathing, since she takes forever in there.
.......................
I wake up an hour later smelling bacon, then hurry to the bathroom to do my morning routine. Since I'm staying in I decide to wear yoga pants, and an oversized t- shirt that I stole from my brother, Noah.
"I knew this would wake you up." Lily says as soon as I enter the kitchen.
"Yes mum." I mock her since that's that she does when I wake her up with breakfast.
"Do you want bacon, and eggs with coffee only or want some toast?"
"I think I should tone done the caffeine a bit, I have been consuming too much caffeine for the past few weeks"
"Suit yourself." She says, as I watch her eat her breakfast.
Lily and I take turns when it comes to cooking dinner, if we don't eat take outs. As for breakfast we cook it when we have time, we eat cereal more than a full English breakfast. Well, I'm more of a cereal girl than Lily.
"So when are you guys leaving?" I ask Lily biting into the mouth watering bacon.
I could eat bacon all day.
"Mo will be here in about, 30 minutes or so, still have to go to the mall." She says after downing the rest of her coffee.
Monica is a pro when it comes to shopping, she can't just stop, but with Lily by her side their accounts will be empty after this summer.
"I am going to miss you, even though it's nice to have the apartment to myself once in a while" I honestly tell Lily.
Lily and Mo will be spending the night at Hayden or Jamie's house after the party. They were two years our senior in high school so after completing their degrees they decided to settle here in New York.
"You can still change your mind you know?" Lily informs me collecting her plates to drop them in the dishwasher.
"Ha ha ha nice try my friend, I have a date." I give her my most innocent smile.
Oh dear! I can already see the wheels turning in my best friend's head at the word date.
"D-date why didn't you tell me?" She yells.
"Calm down girl, I meant I have a date with Netflix, and my bed tonight." I interrupt her.
"Way to kill my vibe Tori, way to kill my vibe.
There's a loud knocking at the front door, alerting us of Mo's arrival.
"Come in Mo" I call out knowing that it's Monica.
"Hey Vicky, why aren't you ready yet?" I guess Lily didn't tell Mo that I'm not going with them to this party.
"Sorry love, I'm not going with you guys, I don't want to end up being a fifth wheel." I answer Mo standing up to put my dishes away.
Mo catches on my excuse. "Stop lying, I know you all too well to know that you hate parties." She says with a smirk.
"How did you guys end up being friends actually? Lily loves partying, and well you love books, and all that shit." She questions looking between the two of us.
"Hey! Watch it, you don't want to end up being kicked out because of insulting L
literature and movies." Lily winks at me and smiles.
She knows me too well, as much as we have different taste, Lily and I share love for music and movies. We love same things expect fashion, and going all out partying.
"Just get out of here, I want to fantasize about the lead actor on movies I'm going to watch." I shoo them with my hands.
The girls get their stuff ready as I go into my room to tidy things around it. I sometimes wonder why can't I be a normal girl and party, maybe it would help me distress.
That would be hell of a night I'm sure.
Last Chapters
#65 Chapter 65 Kept looking, searching..
Last Updated: 6/26/2026#64 Chapter 64 Graduation
Last Updated: 6/26/2026#63 Chapter 63 Forgiveness
Last Updated: 6/26/2026#62 Chapter 62 Stop Surviving & Start living
Last Updated: 6/26/2026#61 Chapter 61 Hypocrite
Last Updated: 6/26/2026#60 Chapter 60 Thé S Fort
Last Updated: 6/26/2026#59 Chapter 59 The Collins
Last Updated: 6/26/2026#58 Chapter 58 Spilling old secrets
Last Updated: 6/26/2026#57 Chapter 57 Victoria's mess
Last Updated: 6/26/2026#56 Chapter 56 Farewell
Last Updated: 6/26/2026
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