Chapter 1The Zion Itinerary

The Zion trip was the light at the end of the tunnel. For three years, since freshman year, it was the thing Liam and I planned for, the epic post-graduation adventure that made all the late-night study sessions and SAT prep worth it.

The night before our flight, he blew it all up. He secretly changed everyone’s tickets to a cushy all-inclusive resort in Cancun. The one Chloe, our school’s reigning queen bee, had been talking about for weeks.

I overheard his friends teasing him in the hotel lobby. "Dude, what about your little master planner? Just gonna leave Maya high and dry?"

"She's so attached at the hip, she'll probably cry when she finds out we left."

Liam paused, and then I heard the casual arrogance in his voice that had become all too familiar. "Nah, it's fine. She has the password to our Google Doc itinerary. She checks it like ten times a day. Once she sees I changed the flights, she'll book a new ticket and chase us down to Mexico. She always does."

I didn’t confront him. I didn’t scream. I just quietly backed away.

I didn't touch his new itinerary. I didn't change my destination. I only changed one thing. On my laptop, I logged into the university portal, declined my offer from UCLA—his dream school, just 3000 miles away from my own dream—and officially committed to NYU.

He wanted to lounge on a beach with Chloe. I had my own mountains to climb.

That adventure map, the one I’d spent countless nights perfecting, was never just for him anyway.

* * *

The notification on my phone was subtle: “Liam Miller made edits to ‘Project Zion.’” I opened the Google Doc on my tablet, my heart sinking as I saw the familiar red rock landscapes of Utah replaced with stock photos of turquoise water and white sand beaches. Cancun. The editor, based on the little profile icon, was Chloe Vance.

Tablet in hand, I walked towards Liam’s hotel room, planning to ask what was going on. But their voices, leaking through the door, stopped me cold.

He knew. He knew how much hiking Zion meant to me.

Back in freshman year, I’d told him my dream was to stand on top of Angel's Landing, to conquer a trail that was bigger and wilder than anything in our suburban Connecticut town. Liam had looked me right in the eye and promised, "The day after we graduate, I’m taking you there. We’ll do it together."

He’d watched me pour over maps, create gear lists, and book campsites for years. And now, less than twelve hours before we were supposed to leave, he’d just… changed his mind.

"Aren't you worried Maya's gonna flip?" one of his friends, Mark, asked.

"It's just a trip. We can go hiking anytime. Chloe mentioned she wanted a real vacation. How could I say no to that?"

Mentioned she wanted it?

Liam and I had grown up next door to each other. He gave me my first kiss in ninth grade, a clumsy peck on the cheek behind the bleachers, and told me he had a surprise for me after graduation. But everything shifted when Chloe transferred to our school sophomore year.

My 18th birthday party? Liam ditched it because Chloe wanted to go to the city for a concert. The slice of cake I'd saved for myself after a rough day? Chloe saw it, said it looked good, and Liam handed it to her without a second thought. The morning of our final SATs? Chloe "forgot" her bag of supplies, so Liam ripped my backpack out of my hands and gave it to her, leaving me to sprint across campus and beg a proctor for a spare pencil thirty minutes before the exam.

Afterward, he’d always say the same thing with a shrug. "It's not a big deal. I'll make it up to you."

"...Besides, man, Chloe's a knockout," Mark's voice drifted through the door. "Rich family, super hot... when a girl like that asks for something, you give it to her. Only a tomboy like Maya would want to go play in the dirt for a week."

Then came Liam's voice, a sarcastic chuckle that shattered the last piece of my heart. "She's basically a puppy dog. She'll whine a bit, but she’ll still follow me wherever I go. God, it’s so annoying. I can't shake her."

A wave of laughter followed. I leaned against the cool wall, feeling the floor drop out from under me.