Above Zero (wlw) (gxg)

Before the rivalries.
Before the medals.
Before the ghosts.

There was Irina Ivanova and Isabelle Rossi.

It starts in 1989, in a town where winter lingers a little too long, and silence says more than people ever do.

Irina Ivanova is the new girl. Quiet. Observant. The type who's used to arriving, never really staying. She's spent her life moving, learning how to take up less space, how to disappear when things get too loud.

Isabelle Rossi is the opposite. Impossible to ignore. Popular. A little reckless. Everyone knows her. Or at least, they think they do.

No one expects Isabelle to notice the new girl.

But she does.

And once she does, Irina gets pulled into something she never imagined for herself.

What starts as friendship turns into something deeper. First love. First tears. A small, private world made of late drives, open windows, shared cigarettes, rooftops, and summers that somehow feel longer than winter ever did. Songs Isabelle only ever sings for Irina. Things she never lets anyone else hear.

They become each other's firsts.
And in a lot of ways, each other's center.

Above Zero is a story about love before everything fell apart. About a time before grief shaped what came after. About how one connection can echo through years, through daughters, through everything that follows.

Because some loves don't disappear.

They become the reason everything else exists.

PS: This is a prequel that can be read as a standalone. It is not book one, but it can be read on its own. It follows the series on my profile. This is book 0 of the ZERO Series.