Getaway Car [HS]

Acknowledgements

I don't even know where to start.

So, before everyone grabs their pitchforks just know this is always how I have planned to end this story. Harry has to die saving her to fulfill his arc and, essentially, undo what he did to ruin her life. It was always how it was going to be. That being said...I am so emotional writing this right now.

The idea for this book first came to me in October of last year. I was listening to Getaway Car by Taylor Swift, and, suddenly, Harley walked right into my mind. I flipped open a notebook and planned the entire story from beginning to end. Some small details changed along the way, but, for the most part, it was the first book I sat down and planned before working on a draft. I have always wanted to write an ending like this before. Most of my favorite stories—Titanic, Portrait de la jeune fille en feu, Romeo and Juliet, and Atonement—end tragically, and I've always found that there's something about those kinds of endings that sticks with you.

Although Harley is different from me in many ways, I poured so much of my personal experience and trauma into her character that it leaves her very close to my heart. I wrote the second half of this book throughout the healing process of leaving inpatient psychiatric care and entering outpatient therapy as I confronted trauma I'd always repressed. Using this book to process all of that was truly a blessing for me. I don't know what I would have done without an outlet to freely express myself.

Thank you to rcsewrites and allthestarsshine for always supporting me as both a friend and writer (and always listening to me go on and on about my stories), I love you two so much! And, of course, thank you to everyone who has ever clicked on this book and chose to take a chance on it. This story has always lived within me, and I am elated beyond words to know that it's finally out and finished.

Until next time.