i_am_nuella
Perfection is a cage.
Love is the key.
But some doors are too dangerous to open.
Elma Hartley has everything a girl could dream of-money, beauty, popularity, and parents who give her anything she wants. On her 18th birthday, they gift her a brand new Mercedes AMG, a symbol of the perfect life she's always been expected to live.
But perfection comes with rules.
As the only child of two powerful and ambitious parents, Elma has spent her entire life being molded into the daughter they never had the chance to be. Her grades must be flawless. Her image must be spotless. Her future must be exactly as planned.
There's just one problem.
Three days before her birthday party, a new girl walks into Brooklyn High.
Xena Carter.
Confident. Unpredictable. Different.
Xena is used to living in the shadows of expectations too. With a Black American father, a British mother, and two overachieving older siblings who've already set impossible standards, she's always felt like the one struggling to keep up. Moving to the U.S. was supposed to be a fresh start.
She never expected to find Elma.
The quiet girl behind the perfect smile.
The girl who looks at her like she's discovering something forbidden.
One birthday party.
One unexpected connection.
One feeling neither of them were prepared for.
Because liking girls was never part of the plan.
Not for Elma, the school's golden girl.
Not for Xena, whose parents already expect too much.
But some feelings refuse to stay hidden.
And when two hearts begin to fall in a world that demands perfection... the biggest question isn't do they love each other?
It's do they dare?
Or will their love remain exactly where everyone expects it to be-
locked inside the closet.