Last Year's Mistake

by Gina Ciocca

  “You know that saying, ‘If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with’?”

  “That’s a stupid saying. The one you love and the one you’re with should be the same person.”

  “So you still think you can’t be with someone if you’re not together physically? Because I think you’re wrong.”

  He wasn’t making sense. He’d just told me he and ­Violet ended things to avoid long distance, and now he was contradicting himself.

  I drew back, the lump in my throat ready to burst. “I don’t know what you’re saying, but—” I tried again to get around him, but he stepped in front of me again and cut me off before I could finish my sentence.

  “I’m saying the only person I’d have a long-distance relationship with is you.”

  I must’ve looked like an owl, staring at him with big, blinking eyes. One second I stood glued to the spot, wondering what in the hell I was supposed to say to that. In the next I barely registered that I’d been gathered up in his arms. My back collided with the outer wall of the house, but I hardly noticed that either. All I felt were David’s lips pressed against mine, his arms wrapped around me, my body molded against his.

  I didn’t care why he’d done it. I just knew I wanted it.

  I kissed him with everything I had in me, trying to memorize every second of his lips and his scent, in case it never happened again. I had no idea how much time had passed once our kisses became softer, slower, and we finally had to stop to catch our breath.

  The moment my lips were unoccupied, the babbling started again.

  “We can do this, can’t we? Long distance isn’t so bad, right? And we can see each other on the weekends and maybe one of us can transfer later on—”

  David shut me up with another kiss. “I told you your timing sucked.”

  “I know. But we’ve already tried forgetting each other, and it didn’t work. Don’t you at least want to try?”

  The tip of his nose brushed mine and he leaned in to within a hair’s breadth of my lips. “Why didn’t it work?” he said softly.

  “Because I can’t forget you.” I moved in to kiss him, but he didn’t let me.

  “And why not?”

  “You know why.”

  A smirk spread across his completely edible lips. “Tell me again.”

  “Because I love you.” I moved in, but he dodged me, and this time his expression turned serious.

  “You mean it, Kelse?”

  Now it was my turn to smile. I took his face in my hands and said the words I should have said a long time ago, the words he hadn’t hesitated to say to me.

  “I always have.”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  There are so many people I need to thank for making this book a reality. First, my agent, John M. Cusick, for pulling me from the slush pile and being the last person I ever would’ve expected to believe in and love this story. And for being exactly the right person to represent it. I still can’t believe it’s been three years since the phone bomb that made my dream come true.

  To my editor, Sara Sargent: I cannot thank you enough for loving this novel the way you do. Never in a million years did I expect to get an e-mail saying that you’d been reading Last Year’s Mistake on your morning commute—two years after it was first submitted to you. On Valentine’s Day, no less. Thank you, thank you, for not being able to forget this story. Thank you for coming back for it, and for helping me make it the book I always meant for it to be. You are this novel’s very own David. Working with you has been a gift.

  Special thanks to the rest of the Simon Pulse team, especially Jessica Handelman for the gorgeous, sexy cover, and the copy editors who caught all my embarrassing mistakes. I am eternally grateful to everyone who had a hand in making this book not just presentable, but badass.

  To the people who took the time to read and offer critique in LYM’s awkward early stages: Leigh Ann Kopans, Chessie Zappia, Maggie Hall, Megan Whitmer, Jenny Kaczorowski, Tristina Wright, Jamie Grey, Alexa Hirsch, and Katie Mills. Your time, insight, observations, and kind words were key in making this story something I could be proud of.

  A big hug of thanks to Brenda Drake for hosting the contest that ultimately scored LYM its two offers of agent representation, and another huge hug to Marieke Nijkamp for not only critiquing my early drafts, but writing the pitch that changed everything. You, Maggie, and Dahlia Adler are CP gold and I’m so lucky to have stumbled into your paths. I’m not sure I would’ve hung in as long as I did without the three of you and many epic, novel-length e-mails. Never leave me.

  To my family: thank you for putting up with years of my antisocial behavior as I buried my nose in books at every party and gathering. Diana, I know how much you hated waiting for me to finish “one more chapter”—but look where it got me! Mom and Dad, you always encouraged my creativity, always told me my stories were good. You believed I could do anything I wanted, and now I have. I love you.

  I owe a big debt of gratitude to my in-laws, Linda and Domenick, for having us over for dinner every Saturday night while I was writing this book, and for the random pots of soup you’d bring over just because I loved it. You didn’t know it then, but you were giving me the free time I needed to get my first draft done. Thank you for that!

  And to Aunt Gloria: this might not be the book I wrote while you were taking care of Andrew and me, but you’ve saved my life in a thousand other ways, and I am so very grateful to you.

  Last but not least, to Dom: Thank you for not laughing at me when you caught me in our study writing my first novel five years ago. If you had, things might’ve happened very differently. You’re my husband and now Daddy to our sweet little boy, but I’ll never forget that you were my very own YA romance.

  About the Author

  Photograph by Marchet Butler

  Gina Ciocca graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in English. She lives in Georgia with her family. Gina is a member of the writing and blogging group YA Misfits and you can find her online at WritersBlog-Gina.blogspot.com. Last Year’s Mistake is her first novel.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  SIMON PULSE

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  First Simon Pulse hardcover edition June 2015

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Text copyright © 2015 by Gina Ciocca

  Jacket photograph copyright © 2015 by Michael Frost (couple), Thinkstock (car), and Steve Gardner/PixelWorks Studios (ground)

  Jacket photo-illustration by Steve Gardner/PixelWorks Studios

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  Jacket designed by Jessica Handelman

  Interior designed by Mike Rosamilia

  The text of this book was set in Janson Text LT Std.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Ciocca, Gina.

  Last year’s mistake / by Gina Ciocca. — First Simon Pulse hardcover edition.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Although Kelsey has fallen in love with her best friend, David, she cuts ties with him before moving from Connecticut to Rhode Island, believing they need a fresh start, but David moves nearby at the start of senior year, threatening Kelsey’s relationship with Ryan.

  [1. Best friends—Fiction. 2. Friendship—Fiction. 3. Love—Fiction.

  4. High schools—Fiction 5. Schools—Fiction.

  6. Family life—Rhode Island—Fiction. 7. Rhode Island—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.1.C56Las 2016

  [Fic]—dc23

  2014032573

  ISBN 978-1-4814-3223-8 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-3225-2 (eBook)