Page 1 of Starstruck

prologue

july 2023

I was going to die in the middle of fucking Clapham.

Clapham.

My body couldn’t do me the courtesy of packing it in somewhere decent, could it? No, not in some posh corner of South Kensington or smack dab in Canary Wharf where someone might actually clock what’s going on before I’m left to rot. No, that'd be too fair on me, wouldn’t it? My body's got a flair for the dramatic, like it’s bent on some tragic Shakespearean exit.

And in fucking Clapham of all places.

I suppose in moments like this I had to look on the bright side. At least it wasn't Milton Keynes. I had that to be thankful for.

I only knew it was Clapham because I saw the sign for the common—right before my eyes rolled back and I passed out. And no, it’s not like I chose to nearly die here. I didn’t exactly plan on getting shoved out of a car by people I thought were my friends, then smacking my head on the kerb as I tumbled out.

But believe me, if I did have the choice of where I was going to die, Clapham would be the last fucking place I’d take my final breath.

As the thought crossed my mind on everywhere else I’d rather be right now, my head grew heavy, as my spine melted into the tarmac below me, soaking my already soaked clothes with the rain that had fallen during the miserable excuse for a summer’s day. My brain was caught in a vice, its grip relentless, tightening with every second that bled into the next, until I thought it might shatter under the pressure.

The world around me was slipping into darkness. The faint orange glow from the few working streetlamps and the scattered stars above were the only things left to cling to. My breathing faltered, shifting between ragged gasps and barely there whispers of air. I was chained to the road, my life falling through the gaps between my fingers like the finest grains of sand.

That was when it got serious in my head. When I realised what was happening. I’d felt like I was dying the second I was dragged into the car and had my things stolen, but only now did I realise just how close my body was to giving up for good.

I couldn’t tell if it had started raining again or whether I was crying. I couldn’t tell if I was screaming or if someone had found me and they were screaming. I couldn’t bring myself to guess whether the breath I was struggling with would be my last or if I’d be lucky enough to get another.

My eyes fell closed, the heavy things clamping shut as my lungs began to cave in on themselves. But as I let my head sink into the road, what was left of the world to see lit up red and blue. I saw shadows, or what I think were shadows, and I felt hands on mine that were thrown by my side.

And then things went black. Not a star in sight.

chapter one

what are you doing here polly pocket?

september, 2023

I was positive that I wasn’t going to survive the night.

But it wasn’t fear that gripped me, nor a reluctance to be here. Itwas the opposite, in fact. I was so full of excitement that it twisted in my stomach, causing a smile that no doubt made me look like a child wandering into Cinderella Castle for the first time. Although the concert hall we’d just skipped into was nothing like a castle, it was more like the dungeon ruins that had gone untouched for centuries.

But I didn’t care. I was here because I wanted to be here. By no oneelse’s choice but my own.

And being somewhere so crowded would normally make me miss the feeling of being tucked up in bed, reading about eight-foot-tall faeries with ten pillows stacked behind me that did nothing to help my bad posture. But, as I entered the room, the dense cocktail of tobacco and stronger things that mingled in the air, and the smoke that hung low over the crowd made me feel free. And that wasn’t a feeling I’d ever fully experienced before.

“You do know that your shoulders arevisiblyshaking, right?”

I turned to face Cora as her laugh faded out. Her all-black outfitand smoky eye look perfectly complemented her jade eyes, blending her into our surroundings with little effort. Not to mention her midnight bob, which made her look like her picture would be under the definition of ‘mysterious’ in the dictionary.

My smile widened as I looked at her. “I’ll calm down, I swear—I’mjust excited!” I glanced around the concert hall, trying to take it all in—the sea of black-clad bodies, the dim lights—and felt myself drifting into a hazy blur.

I watched as Cora’s eyes fell down on me, my white cotton dressmaking me stick out like a green grape in a bunch of red’s. But then she smiled at me. “You don’t have to do anything but enjoy it, Goldie. What did we talk about before we got here?”

I slowly blinked at her, our conversation from before we left our dorms ringing in my ears.

I have my life back. I can live my life how I want. My free time ismine and I have the whole world in the palm of my hand now. Thing’s are normal again.

Just thinking about everything that had to fall into place for me to be here—at a concert with my friends, the night before my first day of college, studying the major I’d chosen, working toward my dreams—had me grinning like a total loon.

Cora’s smile hiked higher when she saw the realisation on my face.

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