A crash in the background on their side, followed by a stream of profanity, cuts him off, and I wince at the realization that Sierra’s there. Of course she found a way to disrupt even this thirty-second conversation. “Your sister’s here,” Mom says weakly, as if forgetting that I can hear everything through the speaker. “Do you want to say hi?”

My parents know that something between Craig and Sierra was the biggest reason I wanted to leave, but I wasn’t about to tell them that I caught their precious oldest child bare-ass naked in bed with my boyfriend. Of course, without knowing that, they think it’s just silly drama between us, like one too many sweaters borrowed without asking, and that this is more about my needing space and being dramatic than anything else. My mom assured me that I’d miss Sierra to death five minutes after I left, and I guess she’s still convinced of that.

“I do not,” I say as diplomatically as I can, “but it sounds like you guys have your hands full over there. I should go. I’ll let you know how classes go tomorrow.”

They don’t seem to mind being shoved off the phone, and as soon as we hang up, I take one deep breath after another, trying to cool down the heat in my face.

Sierra steals my boyfriend, and no one cares.

Sierra curses a blue streak around my parents, and no one cares.

Sierra comes back from parties smelling like vodka and cigarette smoke, and no one cares.

I do everything right—barring tonight’s stupidity with Lucas—and I end up being the one who has to run away.

What is even the point of being good when you get so much more out of being bad?

In a flash, it hits me. Maybe my fresh start didn’t kick off exactly as I’d planned, but that’s fine; I can learn from this. Because I knew what I was running away from when I came here, but I didn’t know what it was I wanted to achieve here, and now I do.

Before I found out Lucas was a wild disappointment in every way, I did enjoy slipping out of orientation, breaking the rules, finally being the one to get away with something.

During move-in, when I channeled Sierra’s take-charge attitude instead of rolling over and being polite, I actually finally got something done.

Today, I wasn’t the good girl.

Maybe, here, I don’t have to be.

And wouldn’t you know, the perfect person to help me break out of my shell just happens to owe me a favor.