The Atrocity of the Broken Smile | A Novel

Let me ask you this: Have you ever been so in love that you felt as though you no longer needed oxygen? Like that person could just keep you going forever and ever and there is nothing else on this planet you need except for that person snoring softly beside you on a late Sunday morning? They're your best friend, your soul mate, your everything. There is nothing you would not do for them just to see their smile. They make you feel complete and safe and like you're the luckiest person on the planet. Every cliche movie and song suddenly doesn't seem so cliche to you anymore, because you understand it all. And no one else matters. It's just them. They consume you in all the best ways. It's the most painfully beautiful thing you've ever experienced.

Now let me ask you this: Have you ever lost that person?

***

Savannah Taye thought she had her life planned out perfectly. She had just graduated high school, was going to be attending university with her best friend in the fall, and had plans with the love of her life, Dakota Smith. Spending all four years of high school with someone kind of makes you fond of them. He was perfect in her eyes (and in many ways, he was perfect), and she would have laid down her life for him.

It's a good thing a bullet never came their way.

Betrayed and broken, Savannah suddenly finds herself lost in a whirlwind of memories and what-could-have-beens instead of kisses and future plans. She has to learn life's most painful lesson the hard way: love never comes without a price.

But maybe, just maybe, Savannah can discover herself and discover a new love... Maybe.