Prologue

The streets were packed with people and cars that one Friday when Caterina Valentine, 25, decided to go shopping. Her friends Tori and Jade were not around, of course. They couldn't come. Tori had decided to go to this art fair with her cousins. Jade, single and alone, just wanted to curl up with Pop Tarts and a movie. She had broken up with Beck. For the fourth time.

"Shopping will get your mind off of things, you know," Cat had said.

"No," Jade had replied. "No way. Cat, you know very well how hot and cold my relationship with Beck Oliver has been. Since we were fifteen, we've been getting together and breaking up. This time, he actually had the gall to cheat on me!"

"Aw, that's terrible," Cat had said sympathetically. "I'll be round at your house this evening, don't worry."

"Now I will worry," Jade had muttered.

"Well, I have to go now," Cat had said. "I should be heading out. Bye!"

"Bye, have a nice time," Jade had replied grumpily and hung up.

Cat sighed as she remembered this phone call. New York City was a busy place. Cat lived there, in an apartment. She had passed college recently and was living the life. She didn't care about marriage. She didn't need it. She was just too young to think about it—at least that's what she thought.

She stopped at the grocer's first and bought some food for dinner.

"That will be…$25 please," the lady at the counter smiled.

"Here you go," Cat said in a cheerful tone.

She handed the money to the lady. The lady smiled sadly at her. "Wonderful isn't it, being young?"

Cat thought about this. "Well, yeah," she said. "Life is amazing so far. I just passed college."

"Oh! That's great," the lady grinned. "I hope you come around here often. We'll have a lot to talk about."

"I'd love that, actually," Cat replied. "I don't get to spend a lot of time with my friends, ma'am."

"Lynn," the lady smiled. "My name's Lynn. It's short for Carolynn."

"I like that name," Cat replied, grinning. "Anyway, I should be going now. Thanks and bye!"

"Bye, hon!" Lynn called.


Living in NYC was a problem for Cat. It was so different from L.A. She had moved to a completely different coast! It was like entering a magical universe, so different from where she had come from.

Cat's apartment was tiny compared to Jade's large hotel-like house, but Cat didn't care. She loved it, it was the most perfect house she'd ever been in. The walls of her room were painted lemongrass green and coral pink. The carpets were red velvet, and she loved them because they reminded her of her favorite cupcakes. The furniture looked spick and span, and the floors looked polished. Finally I'm in my dream house, Cat thought and spun around.

Suddenly, she heard a loud crash come from upstairs. "Oh!" she squealed, startled.

What could that be? she wondered. All kinds of thoughts came into her head. New York: City of Thieves & Thugs. Criminals. Murderers. Escaped prisoners. Dogs with rabies. That was the worst.

Fortunately, as she realized when she got upstairs, it was just her golden retriever Lora.

"Ruff!" Lora greeted as Cat entered the room.

"Hi, Lora," she said, stroking Lora's ears. "What did my little girl drop this time?"

On the ground, she found a box full of papers, photographs and other souvenirs like that. She also saw what looked like the journals she had written in during 8th grade and 11th grade.

She sat down on the ground and went through her photographs. That's Tori, she thought, and that's me. That's Jade, André, Beck and…Robbie.

Seeing Robbie after years should've cheered her up. For some reason, it didn't. It gave her this strange, unusual, somewhat sick feeling in her stomach.

She looked at Robbie in the pictures. He was always looking at her longingly, and she wasn't even being attention. Had she been so uncaring? So oblivious that she hadn't even cared to look at him? "Oh my god," Cat said.

Robbie had had a major crush on her. She could see it in his eyes. However, she had just ignored him. How could she have been so heartless?

Forget about Robbie, she thought. She got up, leaving the box on the floor. She'd look at it later.