// 2019 FICTION AWARD WINNER //
While good-natured Ashton's day-to-day life is carried out with a smile, the ill-fated Valentine exists in hell.
Valentine Nauru is known as a head-turner, somehow mixing brains and beauty like it was macaroni and cheese. Though, inside, she is internally battling with the worst type of demon: herself. And taking in someone who is quietly charming, happy, and bold enough to see what lies beneath the mysterious Valentine, the six-foot foreigner Ashton Irwin is ready to move through his last days of high school as quickly as possible, but Valentine and her enigmatic charm set him on fire, prompting him to unravel the secrets of her madness.
Through emotional love, new-found friendships, and fatal circumstances, Valentine needs to learn how to escape the horrors of herself to prevent from hurting everyone she loves, or the madness awaiting her will drag her beyond the depths of despair.
Luke Hemmings is on the football team and is very popular among his fellow students. He is smart, but he has his flaws. He doesn't associate often with people who he finds to be 'lower' than him; this being based on social status.
Ashton Irwin loves attention. He likes to start drama, and this makes him less liked and at the bottom of the high school food chain. Soon enough, when senior years starts and people start drifting from him he begins to self-harm to pull them back in. He would show them his cuts, but people weren't having it. They knew his game.
But Luke didn't.
One day Luke would see these cuts on Ashton's wrist and Luke becomes determined to help the boy who doesn't really need it.
**Short Story**