Auden's life has been anything but easy. With a mother who acts more like a friend, and an absentee father, Auden's no stranger to poverty and neglect.
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When her mother meets a new boyfriend, Auden suddenly finds herself far away from her hometown in Arizona and forced to go to school in an all new town in California. Now she's living amongst the wealthy, navigating all new territory, a life she is completely unfamiliar with.
By chance encounter, she meets charming, popular, Hunter, who, sure, can be arrogant, assertive, and a bit full on, but is more than happy to welcome Auden to the town and introduce her to his friend group. Hunter is different from anyone Auden has ever known. He's magnetic and compelling, yet, also dangerous. Being with him makes Auden forget about everything else, especially her issues at home. Her relationship with Hunter happens fast, and Auden's unsure if he's too good to be true.
But Auden isn't alone in struggling with her homelife. There's also Ender. The closed-off, myserious boy living not far from her house who she can't deny the intense pull she feels towards him. He understands her and knows exactly what she's going through. Their bond may be a bit too intense to ignore.
As Auden is torn between the two, she begins to realize everyone's lives are infinitely more complex than they first appeared. The facades are beginning to wither, leaving behind brutal truths. Love isn't supposed to hurt like this, is it?
This story contains: alcohol, drugs, partying, swearing, abuse, domestic violence
Alone. A simple word that has always held many meanings to Ella, and starting her senior year at a new high school, solitude had seemed the easiest way to go.
A week passed, bland and unnoticed, before her plans quickly get thrown overboard.
Losing one of her most priced possessions, she finds herself making a rather simple deal with someone from school. His name, for her book.
There's only one little problem; she has no idea who this person is.
Laughs and tears, friends and heartbreak, and the past that comes knocking on the door. Ella faces it all as she takes on the search to find her secret admirer.
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"I can't believe him after the texts, the letter, the flowers. All these months and he just tells me 'we'll talk later'", I told him, feeling absolutely frustrated. I am so damn stupid, thinking this was gonna be something special or whatever.
"It isn't him", he suddenly spoke and I just rolled my eyes. He doesn't even know what he's talking about, the imbisile.
"It is, you don't even know what you're talking about so shut up", I cried out, walking forth and back for the hundredth time.
"Listen, I do and it isn't him", he yelled this time and I stopped walking, angrily turning to him. Can he stop just pissing me off even more? "Oh yeah? And how are you so sure?"
"Because it's me"