Breaking Free

Alyxis Dasher had it all. Great friends, perfect grades, and an almost unparalleled talent for dance. A strategic planner, her future is set: graduate top of her class from the Hilliard Ballet Academy, and join a prestigious ballet company that tours the world and would ultimately gain her international stardom.
But when the unthinkable happens, destroying Alysix's innocence, self esteem, and trust in everything around her, things change. Her whole world caves, leaving her bitter and broken. Unable to move past it, Alyxis ends up on a downwards spiral and her dreams become simply that: useless dreams.
Worried about her wellbeing, her parents send her to live with her Aunt Sadie, hoping the change from her hectic city life will do her good. But will a new scenery and break from constant high expectations be enough to bring back the old Alyxis? Or will the weight of what she has suffered prove too much and swallow the last fractured pieces of her soul, leaving nothing but emptiness and resentment behind?

Axl Swanson is as cynical as they come thanks to years of disappointment from a consistently absent father and countless betrayals by a selfish mother.
End result: a mental armour so thick he considers himself immune to people's empty promises, lies, and deceitful behaviour. Such a blatantly flippant attitude ensures that he has no real friends, something that Suits Axl just fine as it means nobody can get close enough to hurt him. Determined to remain untouchable, he does his best to ignore the New York transfer student Alyxis Dasher whose haunted eyes and skittish tendencies pique his curiosity.
But when a unexpected encounter with Alyxis in the school gym leads Axl to believe she is facing some pretty big demons of her own, things change. He has a decision to make. Will he break his well honed anti social habits to get closer to the one person who could potentially end up hurting him the most? Or will seventeen years of injustices and the fear they've i