If We Break Up

by Cheyanne Young

Genres: YA Contemporary Romance

Synopsis

Honey Blackwell’s high school sweetheart is getting on her nerves. Like everyone else in their small town, Luca thinks he and Honey should take over his family business and live happily ever after. Honey wants more. That’s why she secretly applied to her dream college in Colorado. When she gets in, Luca is devastated. After the biggest argument of their lives, Honey discovers a scientific journal that claims people find their true soul mate after being in five relationships. She poses this experiment to Luca, and soon they’ve made a pact to break up, go on five dates with different people, and then decide if they’re truly meant to be together forever. It’s science, after all, and science has never let Honey down.

Finding people to date is awkward, exciting, and a little futile. None of Honey’s dates are soul mate material, which is starting to prove Luca’s hypothesis—that they are already soul mates. When the rest of STEM club comes down with food poisoning, Honey finds herself at the weekend science convention with Mason, her mortal enemy. Mason, the guy who also got into her dream college. The guy she just accidentally kissed.

She likes him. But she loves Luca. As she struggles to choose between the picture-perfect future she already has and the temptation of the unknown, she learns that love isn’t a scientific equation. It’s a choice. And now Honey must make hers.

 

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Release date: March 8, 2022

Publisher: Quinnova Press

Print pages: 247

Sample

Chapter 1
 
"We are failing the Bechdel test right now."
At the sound of my voice, my best friend tears her gaze from Shawn Beck's backside, an act that is frankly a miracle, because she's just spent five minutes telling me all about how sexy those Varsity butt cheeks look in track shorts. Maggie lifts an eyebrow. "The what?"
A warm gust of wind blows my hair all in my face for the hundredth time since we sat down. I wanted to suggest that we study in the library, or at the snow cone place off Main Street, but today is a track meet day. Track meet days are always spent on the bleachers next to Maggie. I'm here to cheer on my boyfriend and she's here to check out the athletic eye candy. It's a tradition. You can't skip tradition. The foundation of my entire life is built upon traditions.
"The Bechdel test," I say, nudging her textbook with my knee to draw her attention back to the task at hand. The book is open on her lap, but she hasn't actually looked at it since we sat down ten minutes ago. "It's a theory that points out how in movies, every time there are two women together, they always talk about a guy. They're never talking about anything of substance, like quantum physics or curing cancer or something. It's always a guy. We're better than that, Mags."
"But talking about guys is so much more fun than physics... or homework." Her thick English accent is more pronounced when she's complaining. She sneaks one last glance at Shawn's butt as he leaps over a hurdle before reluctantly looking at her textbook, her bottom lip poking out in protest. "This stuff is so easy, love. Why do we have to keep going over it?"
"Because your smart techie brain understands all of this computer programming crap and my pathetic brain doesn't."
"Hey look! We're not talking about guys anymore." Maggie wiggles her eyebrows, throwing back her shoulders in this haughty way as her chin tilts toward the sky. "We have passed the Bechdel test."
"And you just ruined it by bringing up guys again!" I flatten my hands on top of my textbook. "Quiz me on the vocab words and then we can quit for the day."
"Fine."
We go through the vocabulary list ten times until I finally have it memorized. Our computer programming class was supposed to be an easy A elective class to fill out my senior year schedule, but it turned out to be less playing on the computer and more memorizing technical terms, thanks to the two jackass football players who poured an energy drink on the computer lab keyboards for their internet fans.
Maggie is not only one of the greatest teenage makeup artists on Instagram, she's also naturally skilled at all things technical. If she didn't study with me before most tests, I'd be nowhere near passing this boring class.
"Okay, where is that gorgeous boy..." Maggie says after she shoves her textbook into her backpack. She leans forward, her eyes narrowing as they scan the track in front of us, searching for Shawn Beck. Today's track meet is smaller than usual, with only three nearby schools competing in the track and field events.
"He's in line for the boy's relay," I say, nodding toward to the field where Shawn stands next to Luca. They're both varsity track stars, in nearly all of the same events together, and they've been friends since junior high when Shawn moved here from Houston. I think this is part of the reason Maggie has such a huge crush on Shawn. He's Luca's best friend. And she's my best friend. It's a proximity crush.
"I need you to promise me something, Honey." Maggie rests her chin in her palm while she stares longingly at the tall, dark, and handsome object of her affection. "If school ends and I still haven't gotten the courage to ask him out, I need you to pull some strings. Maybe hint that I like him or something. I can't go off to NYC without having at least one date with him. He's gorgeous, Honey."
Her head tilts to the side and she's in full on boy crush mode. I expect her insides to come melting out of her any second now. "Can you imagine our little mixed-race children? They'd be so freaking cute. What if they got my curly dark hair and his perfect cheekbones?" She breathes in deeply and sighs, shaking her head slowly.
"So ask him out, already! Nothing's going to change if you don't make a move."
"It's not that easy." She shakes her head. "I'm not sure he even likes me? He's always making fun of my accent."
"I think that's just playful teasing, love," I say in my best imitation of her English accent. "Everyone thinks it's cool, Mags. You sound more sophisticated than the rest of us small town Texas darlin's."
I say that last part with a thick southern drawl that I definitely don't have in real life, and it makes her laugh. Maggie moved here two years ago when her dad was promoted at a nearby architectural firm. In a town as small as Stonebrook, where everyone knows everyone and we're all just teeming with Southern Charm, a girl from England was a pretty big deal. It was the most exciting thing to happen in my sophomore year, and we all thought she was cool as hell. I still think she's cool as hell. I've never exactly had close girlfriends until Maggie came along.
Maggie's fingers wrap around my arm and she rests her head on my shoulder. Her massive curly hair most definitely gets in my mouth and I try to spit it out without her noticing. "You should ask Luca to put in a good word for me."
The aluminum bleachers wobble as two of our friends climb up to where we're sitting. Aidyn and Leigh are on the girl's track team, so they're dressed in matching Wildcats uniforms—dark blue shorts and silver tank tops with a large, ragged paw print on the front.
"Oh my god," Aidyn says as she drops down one bleacher seat below and turns to face us. "Jacob from Wimberly High is here and he is so freaking, unbelievably, undeniably, ridiculously, hot."
"Does anyone ever pass the Bechdel test?" Maggie asks, but I'm the only one who seems to notice.