At first glance, nobody would be able to tell that Nathaniel Jean had a problem. Or second glance, or third, or fourth. After all, he had everything. He was a captain of his school's soccer team and one of the top players in the state. He had a big house and money to spend. He had family, he had friends, he had fun, he had faith. He never meant for it to happen. He never wanted to look at another man in the way he should have been looking at a woman. The idea had disgusted him for most of his life - living in a heavily Catholic town with heavily Catholic parents, homophobia was the only response he knew. That didn't change when he first realized that he didn't like girls. No, Nathaniel Jean was still homophobic. He hated the idea of a man sleeping with another man. He was raised on the notion that all gays went to hell, and he believed it. He despised them, and so he despised himself. Nathaniel Jean was more fortunate than most, because help did arrive for him. Help by the name of Lucas Morgan, they boy he'd always known but never known. The boy with big dreams and bigger talent. The boy that changed Nathaniel's life over the course of their thirty-six week long senior year.

No matter how much she doesn't want to admit it, Vanessa Dawson is still having a hard time accepting the tragedy that has been weighing her down for the past few years. The painful wounds and haunting memories inflicted upon her are still fresh and have not yet completely healed; and as indifferent and heartless she makes out to be, the cracks in her mask are slowly beginning to reveal her broken soul, piece by piece. [ book one of the pieces series ] [ beautiful cover by @XantheRowds ]