20 parts Complete MatureIn a crumbling high school where cruelty hides in every corner, Kai Monroe has mastered the art of disappearing. Sixteen and numb, he drifts through the halls of Southfield High like a shadow-haunted by secrets, scarred by rumors, and unwilling to let anyone close enough to hurt him again.
Enter Ezra Callahan, the new kid with bright eyes, lavender hair, and a heart too soft for a place like this. Seventeen, nonbinary, and unapologetically themselves, Ezra is everything Kai isn't-open, expressive, full of light. But Southfield doesn't take kindly to different, and it doesn't take long before Ezra feels the sting of that truth.
When their paths collide behind the gym in silence and stolen glances, something begins to crack in both of them. Ezra sees past Kai's armor-and Kai, for the first time in years, lets himself wonder what it might feel like to be seen.
But healing is not linear. And love, in a world like theirs, is anything but easy.
Told in lyrical prose and quiet heartbreak, When the Quiet Burns is a dark, emotional, and deeply tender story about two teenagers surviving in the wreckage of what's been done to them-and slowly, stubbornly, discovering what it means to feel alive again.
Trigger Warnings: self-harm, bullying, depression, emotional abuse, suicidal ideation (handled with care and depth).
