cohenswritings
Falling 13
At thirteen, Shannon Buckley learns how to survive.
She learns how to stay quiet when the walls shake, how to make herself small when love comes with conditions, and how to endure a home that hurts more than it heals. Growing up in an abusive family teaches her one thing early: don't expect to be saved.
Johnny Vanderbilt has never had to learn that lesson.
The son of Juliette and Winchester "Chase" Vanderbilt-legendary football king, forever known as Thirteen-Johnny grows up surrounded by stability, expectation, and a future already written in stone. He's golden, untouchable, everything Shannon is not.
They aren't supposed to collide.
But they do.
In the spaces between classrooms, on quiet walks home, and in moments where the world softens just enough to breathe, Johnny becomes something dangerous to Shannon Buckley-something hopeful.
And hope, at thirteen, is the riskiest thing of all.