WATTPAD ORIGINAL EDITION Adrift after a failed suicide attempt, golden boy Everest can't find anything worth living for - until he meets Beverly, a loner determined to prove him wrong. ***** For a boy who seemed to have it all - wealth, good looks, popularity, a wide circle of friends - Everest Finley becomes the ultimate social outcast after failing to take his own life. Dejected and alone, he starts his last year of high school by acting out, determined to ruin his golden boy reputation after his best friend and girlfriend both turn on him. But to his surprise, resident loner Beverly Davis reaches out and tries to befriend him. Ever the optimistic, her empathy and persistence eventually convinces him to spend time with her, and the two slowly bond over their complicated family lives and a love of singing. But even as their budding friendship begins to hint at something more, Everest continues to struggle with depression and unhappiness. Can a simple pact between the two truly encourage him to find something worth living for? Content and/or Trigger Warning: this story contains mentions and descriptions of depression and self harm. -SKY

⭐️ 2016 Watty Award Winner ⭐️ Willa Grainger is your average twenty-four-year old with one exception - she never left her university. A year after she graduated she still remains employed with Professor Paige Grimsby, acclaimed author of the popular Simeon Lee series. Her struggles to find a boyfriend, find a job, and write the next bestseller seem like a walk in the park when it comes to her volatile on-again, off-again relationship with her friend Cynthia Smoak, one-third of their best friend trio. But Cynthia's always been competing against Willa in a game Willa didn't even know she was playing. When she does something unforgivable, Willa's forced to examine her life and her friendships, leading her to a new romance with an unlikely young man - a former student who's convinced Paige stole his undergraduate novel idea. Willa's never been comfortable with change and the experiences she's encountered during her extended internship with Paige makes her question who she is and what happens when the people you're friends with aren't the people you like.

-1997- Willow Monroe and Kennedy Danes have been best friends since drawings were assignments in school. They've been joined at the hip for years. They love riding bikes together, smiling for real, and laughing, even at the wrong times. Once their senior year of high school comes around, Kennedy becomes terminally ill. Though he has plans that don't involve sadness, he still needs to find a way to tell Willow he only has six more months to live. Willow and Kennedy can never say the word 'goodbye'. They have this agreement to say Hello up until their last time spent together. The sixteenth of August in the year of 1997 is when Willow and Kennedy say Hello for the last time. -2006- Nine years later finds Willow in the smallest hospital of Chicago, working as a registered nurse. There she meets Wyatt Blanquette, a curmudgeonly patient with untapped wisdom and heart, beneath a stony exterior. When they agree to be nice to each other instead of abundantly rude, Wyatt eventually shows the fact that he sees a light in Willow that cannot burn out. Everything changes once Wyatt reveals to Willow his heart-wrenching secret. Willow's thoughts bicker and she has to determine whether she should suppress the feelings she's afraid of reliving, or to let them be seen - with her heart wide open. #10 in General Fiction | hit the featured list