Everyone Hates Kelsie Miller

Chapter One CHAPTER ONE
My parents love this old song where the girl knows down to the hour how long her lover has been gone. I'd never come close to feeling that way about some dude, but I had the same tragic energy as I missed my best friend.

It'd been twenty-two hours and thirty-six days since I'd last seen Brianna. Two hours and thirty days since she'd last responded to my texts-not that I was painfully aware of the time to the minute or anything.

But second after lonely second had passed, and somehow it was another Saturday night in our small town-or, I should say, my small town. Brianna Hoffman had moved across the country to Seattle, so it wasn't like Saratoga was "ours" anymore. Yet it was still a summer weekend, and I had plans.

I was acting like a saddo at a house party.

All around me girls shouted elaborate toasts before spilling shots down their gullets. Future frat boys showed off their flip-cup skills in the dining room, hoping for the girls to notice them. Guys who were way too old for high school parties creeped in the corner of the living room. And in the kitchen, a crowd was celebrating someone eating a full can of whipped cream in record time.

It was the worst place on earth to be sad.

But I'd gone in with a mission.

It just wasn't working out.

I stood alone by the sliding-glass door, nursing the contents of my red Solo cup while repeatedly scanning the party. The mystery green punch tasted like apples and aftershave, but the liquor had made taking a duck-faced selfie marginally bearable. I'd posted it online in a pathetic attempt to say: Look how I'm having fun without you! Like Brianna was even going to check my socials.

"Oh em gee, we should do karaoke!" some girl screeched. Like that. Like the letters-O. M. and, you guessed it, G.

"Hell yeah!" was the reply.

No.

I tossed my cup and slid out into the backyard. I could handle only so much in my fragile state. It was dark, but it wouldn't be too

Meredith Ireland was born in Korea and adopted by a New York librarian. Her love of books started early and although she pursued both pre-med at Rollins College and law at the University of Miami, stories were her fate. She currently resides with her two children, and Bob, a carnival goldfish, who's likely a person. She writes young adult books, some of which you may like. She is the author of The Jasmine Project and Everyone Hates Kelsie Miller.