Stunned, I stared at the black screen of the computer as my vision tunneled. “What…just happened?” I breathed as my life seemingly flashed before my eyes.

I clicked the mouse.

Nothing.

I tapped randomly at the keyboard.

Still nothing.

I blinked slowly, trying to process what had just happened. It was like I couldn’t get my brain around it.

“What just happened?!” I squealed as hot panic swelled in my chest.

I turned off the computer, but when it restarted and the pages reloaded, I gasped and clapped my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. They were blank. Every single page—a moment ago filled with copy—was now completely blank. I scrolled frantically, trying to will the content back onto the page.

“Oh my god,” I murmured, my voice muffled by my hand.

Behind me, the door opened.

“Oh, Camilla, good, you’re working on the edits. Hope you caught the one about Mrs. Mandell eating her family. I knew giving that to Chip was a mistake. But he’s got to learn. Anyway, are you done?”

My whole body alive with horror, I turned around to see Eric striding into the room, his face alight with a bright smile.

But when he saw the look on my face, the smile faltered. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I—I think there’s something wrong with the system,” I stammered.

“What?” he asked, looking confused. “What’s wrong with the system?”

My heart was pounding so hard I was sure he could hear it in the empty, quiet classroom. “I don’t know. I had finished all the edits, and I just pressed save, when everything just…”

“Just what?” he asked when I didn’t go on.

I gestured toward the computer, where there was a completely blank page.

Eric’s frown deepened as he walked over to me. He leaned over me, so close I could smell his shampoo. God, he smelled good. But that was hard to think about as I watched the blood drain from his face as he scrolled.

“Sweet Jesus,” he murmured, trying—and failing—to find the file of the newspaper with all our copy imputed onto it. “Oh shit. Shit! What the hell did you do, Camilla?!”

“Nothing! I swear, I didn’t do anything. I just made the edits and pressed save. That’s it! Then the computer crashed, and when I opened it again, the pages looked like this,” I said, gesturing helplessly to the screen.

Pale a moment before, I watched as Eric’s face flushed red, color shooting into his high cheekbones. He was mad. No, not just mad—he was furious.

“I’m sorry, Eric. I just—”

“It’s fine,” he said in a sharp, clipped voice. “I’ll deal with it.”

“I can try—”

“Just go, Camilla,” he said, not even looking at me.

I wanted to die. I wanted the floor of the newsroom to open up so I could throw myself into the chasm it created. I had no idea what I’d done, and I didn’t know how to undo it. But one thing was clear, and that was that Eric did not want me there.

Feeling defeated as hell, I picked up my backpack and slunk out of the newsroom.

Welp, that was it. That was it for me trying to impress Eric. There was no way I was ever going to be the editor now. He would never pick me to take over. He would pick someone—anyone—else. Hell, maybe he’d pick Chip the freshman.

And—based on how he’d just spoken to me—he was never, ever going to be into me. I was indeed going to die alone.

Which was just absolutely freaking fantastic.

I headed down the stairs and out of the school, trudging listlessly out into the sunshine toward the athletic fields. The sprints were just about to start, and the crowd was restless, cheering for their favorite runners as people got organized into heats.

I saw Austin warming up. He smiled at me and waved, and I managed to wave back. Looking up into the bleachers, I scanned the crowd and found Jonah sitting halfway up. I walked up the stairs and dropped into the seat next to him as the starting pistol went off, signaling the start of the first heat.

We didn’t know anyone in it, so Jonah turned to me, assessing me in an instant.

“Okay, what’s up?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I mumbled.

Jonah rolled his eyes. “Give me a little credit, Camilla. Something’s clearly up. You look completely miserable. What happened?”

I had just opened my mouth to tell Jonah—and hopefully get some of this misery off my chest—when the starting gun went off again.

“Hang on,” Jonah said, grabbing my hand as he looked out at the field. “This is Austin’s heat.”

We both got to our feet as Austin started running, sprinting down the track with long, smooth strides.

He looked amazing, but there was another runner beside him—a tall guy with red hair who I didn’t recognize—who was moving fast and giving Austin a run for his money.

Jonah squeezed my hand. “Go, Austin! Go!”