Melissa Hertzler

I’m broken, hiding my pain behind fake smiles and pretend joy. Inside, I’m a mental mess between being tossed into conversion therapy and foster care as a kid. I struggle to focus and suffer anxiety, panic attacks, and nightmares. My passions for skateboarding and bartending make me happy enough. But only Nate, my former foster brother and best friend, calms me and keeps me going forward. I’m not sure what I would do without him. Even worse, I secretly love him. Loving him could mean losing him.

I'm the quiet one. At a party, I'll be sipping from my Solo cup, hanging by my much chattier best friend Brenner. Easygoing, all smiles, and hot as hell, Brenner always has his pick of guy or girl by the end of the night. I do fine, but I don't trust easily, so he's one of the few people who really knows me. We do everything together—studying, playing video games, and occasionally, ridiculous dares. Like this latest dare.

Just the sight of Nico ‘Stix’ Jamieson makes me want to hurt something. Between his stupid smiles on that annoyingly handsome face and the constant drumming of anything that makes a sound with those drumsticks of his, I want to throttle him. No one is that happy. I don’t trust it. Even when my hate for him is clear, he throws it back in my face with a smile and wave. And how he loves to push my buttons when he’s feeling especially obnoxious. If I hate him, then why am I obsessed with him?

I hate Galaxy 6781. HATE it! One last job. The bounty of a lifetime. It wasn’t supposed to end with me on a slave planet and my entire crew dead. So, when the chance to escape presented itself, I took it. Had I known more about my fellow escapee, I might have reconsidered. When Grantham, crowned prince of Ditali, tried giving me some schpiel about how the universe has chosen us to be together, as in together ‘together’, I shot that theory down stat. I mean, I’m not even into males.