The Girl I Was Before: The Falling Series, Volume 3 (Unabridged‪)‬

I'm the selfish one. I suppose that's the nicest thing people say about me. I've heard the other things, too: "Paige Owens is a pretty girl with nothing else to offer. She's just a good time at a party. She's stupid, heartless, cold, and useless. All she cares about is getting a guy to look at her. Why would anyone want to be her friend?"

Some of those things are true...They're all hurtful.

None of it matters.

I'm ready to make the hard choices. I'm ready to face the consequences.

I'm ready to be the girl I was before, and I'm done being the one who lost her way. I'm ready to become the girl Houston Orr sees when he looks at me.

Houston isn't a star athlete. He doesn't play in a band. He's never going to be president, and his life is so far away from simple and easy it isn't even funny. He wasn't part of my plan. But I'm starting to think plans are overrated, and maybe our stories are what we make them. And mine depends entirely on me, and the choices I make...starting now.

Houston is my fairy tale. He's perfectly imperfect. He's poetry and life. He's truth and heartbreak, all rolled up in a tall body with dark hair, broad shoulders, and green eyes that lull me into submission. He's nothing I ever thought I wanted but the very thing I need. He's the only guy I've ever really loved, and he thinks I'm a princess. I fell into him, and now I'm holding on.

But sometimes, life takes away our ability to choose. Sometimes, things aren't in your control. Sometimes, it hurts to be selfless. My only hope is that when it comes time to choose, I get it right.

Welcome to my once upon a time and wish for happily ever after.