**shortlisted for Wattys2017** Technically speaking, I died when I was seventeen. What should have been just another typical day out on the water with my friends, turned ugly fast when a freak storm came out of nowhere and I was thrown overboard. Had it not been for my damned dress, I could have swam to safety, but no, every day had to be a fashion show, and my dress got caught on rocks, holding me down until I drowned. I thought right before I died I would at least get to see a montage of my fabulous life, all the parties and romantic dates with my perfect boyfriend, Asher, but nope again. Instead, all I saw was a hideous sea monster smiling to me as my lungs filled with water. When I woke up in a cave in the middle of the ocean, that sea witch made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I could go back to my perfect life, and my adorable boyfriend, all I had to do was give the sea witch two years of my service, and then she'd free me from my fate. It seemed easy enough at the time, but can the price to live actually come at too high of a cost? Highest rank #5 in paranormal

*WARNING: Written in 2008, some content may be offensive* Stasee is your typical shy, quiet teenage girl until the night her brother's best friend Damen Hurtz decides to finally acknowledge her existence. In a desperate attempt to gain his acceptance she allows him to take the one thing every girl values most...her virginity. After that night, Damen constantly begins accepting her while they're alone and then rejecting her in front of his peers. Stasee's frustration and confusion continues to grow, as do her feeling toward the man who continues to break her heart. He claims that he cares for her, but will his need for his peer's acceptance prevent him from ever treating Stasee the way he should? And if he finally realizes the stupidity of popularity over love, will Stasee still be waiting for him?