Back To You – Ann Liang

“And there won’t be any pranks, promise.” “Sure, I’d love to come,” I say before I can lose my nerve. “Where is it?” “Don’t worry about that, I can come pick you up,” he offers. “What’s your number?” He holds out his phone and I take it slowly, almost expecting him to retract it at any second and tell me he’s joking. Could it have been this easy, all along? He has not collapsed in horror at my confession.

He hasn’t run away from me yelling at the top of his lungs. He’s letting me add my number to his contacts. “Cool,” he says, once I’ve finished typing. “I’ll see you tonight.” Victoria only exists inside libraries. That’s how it seems, at least. It’s where we’re always meeting—in the beginning, to study for our tests in middle school, then to study for our SATs in high school, and three years ago, or now, to study for our college assignments and exams.

I was technically closer to Victoria than I was to anyone else at school, which I guess made us best friends by default. We were tied for first place in every subject except compulsory sports, which neither of us took seriously. There were times when I wondered if that was maybe the sole reason she tolerated me: to keep tabs on me or intimidate me. Keep your friends close but your enemies closer and whatnot.

Once, in class, I made a stupid comment about the film we were watching—I can’t even remember exactly what I said. But everyone sitting around me laughed, and Victoria looked over, brows raised, and asked me to repeat it. “It’s stupid,” I said. “No,” she insisted, loudly, like it was a challenge. “You said something really funny, didn’t you? I want to know what it is.” It had not even been that funny the first time, and it was even less funny when I was made to repeat it.

She didn’t laugh at all. Just waited a moment, and then released a quick huff of breath between her teeth. “Oh, right, hilarious,” she said, turning her eyes back to the screen while I sat there, feeling foolish and judged.

If You Could See the Sun This Time It’s Real I Hope This Doesn’t Find You I Am Not Jessica Chen Never Thought I’d End Up Here I Could Give You the Moon 1kitap1.com/en 1kitap1.com/en This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Otherwise, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Text copyright © 2026 by Ann Liang All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. Published by Amazon Original Stories, Seattle www.apub.com Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Amazon Original Stories are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

ISBN-13: 9781662543401 (digital) Cover design and illustration by Erin Fitzsimmons Cover image: © oorka, © Angelina Bambina, © desing hub 57, © NataliaZa / Shutterstock 1kitap1.com/en For the ones who try and try again 1kitap1.com/en CONTENTS 1 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR 1kitap1.com/en D o not faint. I take a deep breath and force myself to focus on the slides. On the data projected across the screen, all the numbers I spent so long gathering and formatting and triple-checking. On my manager’s face as she scrutinizes my work, her features hard and unyielding, withholding approval.

Don’t you dare faint, I will myself, even as the numbers swim before my vision. Not right now. Just wait until this meeting is over. “Any questions?” I ask, and I’m glad my voice holds firm, even as my knees threaten to give out beneath me. It’s hard to tell if I’m lightheaded from exhaustion or hunger or a fun mixture of both.

I’ve slept a grand total of two hours in the last couple of days; it’s been a nauseating blur of back- to-back meetings, no lunch breaks, not even water breaks. I left my chair only to sprint to the bathroom and back. I existed outside the office only to take the bus home and shower. “Many,” my manager says, and my heart sinks.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 3d21d30eb680ad81
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 5,288,823 bytes (5.044 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781662543401
• Pages: 40
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 59.73 minutes
• Total Words: 11,947
• Total Characters: 65,031
• Average Words per Page: 298.68
• Average Characters per Page: 1625.78

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