Hide Your Fires

"Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see."
- Shakespeare

People make mistakes. People break rules. People even break the law. Sure, we aren’t perfect creatures but the thing about people is that we usually have pretty good reasons behind those bad decisions. And another thing about people is that they tend not to care about reasons as much as actions.

Hallie Rhodes has found this out the hard way. No, she’s not proud of the decisions that she’s made that may have put her at odds with the law, but she had her reasons. Not that anybody cares about reasons. The way Hallie saw it, she had no choice except to forge the documents to get herself and her two younger brothers out of an abusive foster home.

She has had a lot of tough breaks in her life. She’s only eighteen but she already has custody of her two younger brothers and to make ends meet, she’s taken on a full-time job along with balancing her senior year of high school. Strong, determined, and mature- Hallie is ready for whatever life throws at her.

Except for Tate Conner, who is the exact opposite of Hallie. Lazy, entitled, immature, and cocky. Fresh out of reform school and on parole, he is the epitome of a bad influence, which is why Hallie is outraged when she notices that her younger brother is starting to befriend Tate. As they continuously but heads, Hallie starts to wonder just how put-together she really is.