She's spent a long time in a bubble. In an
odd turn of events, Corinne is taken out of boarding school and plunged into
high school where bullies reign and nice guys come in last.
But this is after she's already fallen in
love with Abel over the summer.
Abel is trapped, with friends he secretly
hates, but has chosen to stay with the status quo. It's just high school,
right?
What do you do when the person you love
sees the very worst part of you? And how do you help them when they discover
their life is a hoax?
Excerpt...
"I watched the whole thing through that urine
colored cafeteria window, I could almost hear the cracking and crumbling as the
world around me fell to pieces. Abel was
there, looking on as those people he called friends pushed, prodded and picked
on the frail boy, knocking him back and forth around the circle like a
childhood game of hot potato. The bile
and soggy lunch rose in my throat as I came to grips with the scene. Abel, the
kindest, gentlest, most loving person I’d ever known was a part of this. He wasn’t participating, but by standing
there while it happened meant he was on the team but sitting on the bench. It made everything that happened during the
summer seem like a lie, like deceit, like artifice. The Abel that I knew and fell in love with—it
was all a hoax." Corinne