I didn't ask for the life I was given.

And I know what it sounds like. Privileged white girl, she should be grateful for everything she has.

And then, if you look at me, it gets worse.

Blonde hair and blue eyes. What a steal. People pay to look like this. To have naturally straight hair the color of the rising sun. To have a small waist and a pretty face, a thigh gap that you didn't have to work for.

And then, if you look at my parents, it gets even worse.

Not only are they two beautiful, talented middle-aged people living in Texas surrounded by their friends and family, but they are loaded. Rich beyond their wildest dreams. Our home, the one I was born into and the one that I've lived in my entire life, is so large that I still haven't visited every room in my entire sixteen years of life.

And then, if you look at my father's career, it gets...even worse.

Lincoln Carter. Former teenage pop star who was able to retire at the age of 25, with a wife, two kids, and another on the way. Current rock star, officially out of retirement for a year, since his youngest child turned 15 and his wife convinced him to go back to doing what he loved.

The word privileged didn't even being to describe my life.

And yet there was one thing I had consciously avoided for the first sixteen years of my life.

Dating.

Having a famous family was something that affected your life an immense amount. Paparazzi flashing in my face had become something of a routine. People at school asking me to get them my father's autograph was commonplace. When I was younger, a toddler into elementary school, I felt that I had true friends; little girls and boys who wanted to be friends with me because they had no idea of who my parents were.

By the time middle school rolled around, I was still convinced that people were interested in me, and not in my family. But in the sixth grade, I was confronted with a girl who was friendly to me for a solid week before inviting herself over to my house, and spending that entire day asking questions about my dad and asking why he wasn't home for her to meet.

Freshman year of high school brought something that I hadn't experienced up until that point: a girl I had been friends with for three years, and who had been at my house multiple times, was arrested for selling items from my home online after my mother discovered that a good deal of the records my dad had recorded for her were gone. The police found over $50,000 worth of items that this girl had been swiping for years; taking whatever she thought wouldn't be noticed by the rich and famous.

It was then that I stopped truly trusting anyone outside of my family or the Ward's, my parents' best friends and practical family. Jessica Ward, only one month my elder, was the only friend I felt I truly had, since she had no interest in exploiting me for my fame; her parents were already rich beyond their wildest dreams as well.

Dating was entirely new territory, and it was territory that I had never had any interest in breaching.

During middle school I had watched as Vera, my sister 5 years my elder, had brought home guy after guy, only to return home in tears a week later when they revealed that they were simply interested in her fortune and lineage. I had watched as Vera began to introduce herself as Vera Fawn instead of Vera Carter, opting to use her middle name as her surname in an effort to appear more normal. When I began high school I adopted the same practice, introducing myself as Samantha Greene. My parents even encouraged it; they only wanted a normal life for their children.

Vera was in college now, and engaged to someone who cared for her. My entire life I had based my decisions off of what I saw my sister do. And if she was able to find someone that could look past her fame and see her for who she truly was, then so could I.

And with that decision, my life without dating officially died.

<><><>

TWO YEARS LATER

Maybe it was all too much.

Maybe I shouldn't have made the decision, two years ago, to start dating. To put myself out there when I knew that all that would come of it was heartache, worry, and eventually, heartbreak.

It wasn't worth it.

Six guys in two years, and I thought I had finally found the one for me. The one who would become my all, my everything, my one companion and true love.

And now it was over. I was heartbroken again, with nothing left that could help me become the person I wanted to be. There was nothing left for me in high school, in life...everyone would continue to be the same, the same people bringing me down, the same people using me, the same people who were just there for the ride. The same people who only thought of how they could help themselves out by using an innocent girl who just wanted to be treated like everyone else.

A girl who didn't deserve this.

It was so easy to blame my father. It was so easy to think that if I had been born to any parents besides Lincoln and Olivia Carter, then my life would be normal. Controlled. Important. Better. That my life would, overall, be better.

But I can't.

Every time I see my dad go up onstage to perform, I know that it's his favorite thing in the world. I see my mother's face as she watches him, the pride and joy that she has while watching her high school sweetheart up there on that stage. The rush they both get from the fans pouring out to see him, from the girls who want to hear their story from my mother, the way they met and fell in love. Their fairytale.

I needed to accept that I would never get that fairytale.

I had accepted it when I was younger. When I had sworn off dating. And yet for some reason, I became weak as I got older, and I wanted to experience what everyone else was experiencing. But I couldn't. And I knew that now.

Falling in love was a stupid decision. Falling in love more than once was just about suicide. And falling in love for real, with that one person you thought would be there for you forever...well that was just delivering yourself to hell in a handbasket.

A/N: The trailer will be up soon and the next chapter will be up on Wednesday! It would be great if you guys could let me know what you think so far and try to let others know about the book. I love you guys and hope you enjoyed the prologue!

-Katherine