After their mother becomes more serious with her boyfriend, Emerald and her brother Ethan are now forced to live with three other boys they hardly know, as they are now family - or like family. The more Emerald gets involved with the boys, her life begins spiraling dangerously out of control: a murder just down the street from her house, a robbery at her new job, and if circumstances could get any worse, she had caught someone stalking her twice and is becoming afraid for her safety. The more she tries to make sense of everything, the more they try to hide from her, especially Matthew. He'd do everything in his power to keep her from finding out and being the cold, heartless person he'd learned to be he couldn't dare let her become involved in fear of her dissolving that wall or worse, him hurting her.
Luke has been in love with his best friend, Taylor, for too long now and it's getting difficult to be around him. He knows it's time to move on and find someone who can make him happy, but he feels like that will never happen, not with the way Taylor has his heart...
*****
Being in love with your best friend is hard. Luke Peterson knows this better than anyone else, as he's agonized over his feelings for Taylor Schofield for the past five years. So when he meets the handsome and confident Will Carson who wants to help him get over Taylor, it seems like the perfect chance for him to move on. But can Luke truly give Will a chance? Or will his heart always belong to his best friend?
Content and trigger warning: This story contains descriptions of suicide and homophobia.
[[word count: 60,000-70,000 words]]
Cover designed by Holly Thurston