Senior year is meant to mark a beginning. For Addie, it feels like something to survive.

Born with a cleft lip, Addie has learned to stay on the edges, carrying the lasting weight of being seen and misunderstood. Jackson faces his own reckoning, navigating grief, anxiety, and addiction in the wake of losing a parent. As the future presses in, both struggle with the stories they tell themselves to endure.

When their lives intersect, it is quiet but transformative. Together, they begin to confront what they have kept hidden.

A coming of age novel exploring cleft lip representation, men’s mental health, addiction, trauma, and loss, this story captures the fragile moment between adolescence and adulthood with honesty and restraint.