If I Had To Perish Twice

Alice Whittle just graduated college and works at the newly-built movie theater in Runswick, The Grand Castle Theater, while trying to figure out her future. She wants to consider a practical, well-paying job that her parents might be proud of (after she's already disappointed them so many times), but her heart longs to be an actress in Hollywood someday. For now, filling popcorn buckets will have to do.

Margot Collins has done everything in her power to get out of the suffocating Runswick, but sure enough, she's right back where she started at her parent's house. It doesn't help that her more popular older brother, Henry, survived an overdose last year and has skipped town since then, leaving Margot to answer everyone asking where he went when even she doesn't know. She has little else to do except shadow for her childhood friend Edward at his job and complain about what her life could have been.

For Edward Richardson, there might be more to life than running the front desk at the devastatingly underfunded and under-ventilated local library, but he's not sure what exactly it is yet. For now, he's just happy he has an excuse to be surrounded by books and information all day, even if he spends most of his time explaining to elderly people how to save a file on the computer. His only friend, Margot, bothers him while he works, and as frustrating as he finds her presence to be, she's all he has for friends anymore.

And then there's Forrest Pierce. He's everybody's favorite barista-slash-baker in town, even though nobody seems to know where he's from or how he got to Runswick. It doesn't help that he's a quiet guy that can barely be heard over the grind and churn of espresso machines and blenders. But he's keeping secrets that he can't avoid forever...

A devastating fire in will unite these four twentysomethings as they navigate love, heartbreak, and secrets untold, and what life has to throw at them might be more than they can handle alone.