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of there. Fast.
    And yet, for some reason, I hesitated as I saw his face for the first time. There was something familiar about him. It was like I should know him, but just . . . didn’t. Most of his face was obscured by the beginnings of a beard, too long to be mere stubble, like he hadn’t shaved in weeks. Most of the guys on the Farm didn’t bother to shave. Still, not many guys our age could grow anything like a beard. Some of the Collabs were older, but he obviously wasn’t one of them or he would have been wearing the blue uniform. I studied his features, looking for some hint as to why he seemed so familiar. His nose had a funny little bump in it, like it had been broken.
    I pushed back his hoodie to reveal dirty blond hair. A single lock of hair flopped back into place to drape across his forehead. Recognition rocked me back on my heels.
    He must have moved the second I took my eyes off him. He sprang up, flinging me flat onto my back, covering my body with his own. My head banged against the floor, and I squeezed my eyes shut against the pain. The impact knocked the breath out of me.
    There was nothing groggy or slow about his movements. Obviously he’d only pretended to pass out. I’d fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book. And as if that weren’t bad enough, I felt the cool edge of my shiv press into the skin at my throat.
    Damn it!
    Could I make any more mistakes today? How had I been so careless as to let him get my weapon? My shiv!
    I swallowed hard against my frustration, bumping my chin up a notch to relieve the pressure against the blade.
    Slowly I opened my eyes to stare up into familiar blue ones.
    I forced a smile. “Hey, Carter. Long time no see.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    Lily
    Carter and I had gone to school together back in the Before. Despite what teen novels everywhere would have you believe, sitting beside a hot guy in ninth-grade biology is not the basis for eternal love—at least, not the requited kind. And, yeah, I admit it, in my more romantic moments, I imagined that I alone saw through his tough, bad-boy exterior to the wounded soul inside. Carter had been the kind of guy who ran hot and cold. One day he’d be all charming smiles, the next brooding glares. Some days he’d flirt with me; others he’d ignore me completely. What can I say, that charming, bad-boy thing he had going was like catnip to a geeky girl like me. And, yeah, my predictability disgusted even me. I’d spent the first two periods of every day reminding myself not to be an idiot—because a guy like Carter didn’t even exist in the same social universe as I did—and I’d show up to class ready to banish my crush forever, only to have him flash me one of those crooked smiles that made me melt inside.
    Then one day, he’d pushed his parents too far by driving his dad’s Lamborghini to school. I still remembered when the police had come to arrest Carter. I’d been standing outside of English, books clutched to my chest, when they marched him down the hall, his hands cuffed behind his back and an I-don’t-give-a-crap grin on his face. He’d flicked his shaggy blond hair out of his eyes with a shake of his head. When he met my gaze, he winked at me.
    I hadn’t seen him since then.
    Now, he levered himself off of me and sat back on his heels.
    My heart pounded inside my chest as I waited to see what he would do. Carter Olson—who I hadn’t seen in years—was alive. He was here at the Farm. And he’d just tackled me. Oh, and I’d tried to kill him.
    A second later, I pushed all those emotions aside with more determination than I’d ever managed in the Before. I wasn’t that fifteen-year-old girl anymore and I had bigger problems than a hopeless crush.
    Carter had seen the pills. He’d followed me back from the quad. He’d disarmed me and winded me. He had every advantage. If he wanted to destroy me, there were about a dozen different ways he could do it.
    But instead he held out a hand to help me sit