“Not like this one.” I couldn’t not show up to the first party of my senior year. It was social suicide.

“You know, I never went to a single high school party and my life turned out better than I could have possibly imagined.”

“Mom, the whole good girl act doesn’t really work when you slept with your professor in college.”

“Enough, Scarlett,” my dad said.

But my mom just laughed. “Touché. It doesn’t make it less true though. I didn’t even have my first kiss until college and everything worked out just fine.” She smiled up at my dad.

Vom.

“Are you gonna eat that?” Liam asked as he lifted up my waffle without waiting for a reply.

“What the hell?” I asked. But not because he had just swiped my breakfast. It was because of what he was wearing. “He’s not even wearing his tie. A tie is part of the dress code.”

“It’s uncomfortable,” Liam said which a shrug of his shoulders.

“Dad.”

My father shook his head. “Liam, go get your tie. Your sister is right, it’s part of the dress code.”

Liam laughed and pulled his wrinkled tie out of his pocket. “I have it.”

“Good,” my dad said. “Come on, we should get going.” He grabbed his to-go cup of coffee and said goodbye to my mom.

I stared at Liam as he shoved his tie back into his pocket instead of putting it on.

Seriously, what the hell?! This was so unfair. I snatched my waffle back out of his hands.

“Don’t turn on me, Scar,” Liam whispered. He shifted so his back was to both of the security cameras in the kitchen.

I just stared at him, waiting for him to say whatever it was he didn’t want our security detail to see.

“Or I might not help you sneak out of the apartment so we can go to that party tomorrow night.”

“How do you even know about the party?” I whispered.

“I was invited by some guys on the team.”

Liam was a freshman. He wasn’t supposed to be invited. I was pretty sure my little brother was already cooler than me and he’d only been at Empire High for one day.

He put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me toward the door. “I know you think that high school is hell. But have you ever thought that maybe you’re just taking it all too seriously?”

Honestly, he was probably right about that. My mom probably had a good point too. She’d never been kissed before college. She never even got invited to a party in high school. And she was always smiling. It was different though. She found her soulmate in college. Mine had been right in front of me my whole life and he acted like he didn’t know it too. To me, high school felt like a nightmare.