What Happens Here

Chapter One

Months of begging and pleading had done nothing to change one fact: I was going to Europe and Lindsay was not.

She was lying on my bed, flipping through my Lonely Planet guide to London, and I was packing and pouting. "If you don't quit it," she said, "I'm going to loosen the caps on all your ridiculously cute trial-size toiletries and pack them next to your favorite top."

I folded a T-shirt. "I'm sorry. I just wish it had turned out differently.""Yeah, well, me, too." She tossed the book into my suitcase. "But if anyone should be pouting, it's me."

She was right, of course. I was going to Europe. I was living out the dream we'd shared since we were little. Lindsay would be stuck here in the oven that is Vegas in summertime, just going to work and going home at night and minding our dog, Burt, who was staying with her family while we were gone.

My parents had announced on Christmas -- when my sister, Zoe, and I no doubt seemed disappointed with that morning's meager offerings around the tree -- that after years ("Years!") of saving and planning, they were going to take us to Europe for two weeks come summer.

... read full excerpt from What Happens Here ebook