Haunted. Terrified. Alone.
Those three words seem to be the only emotions that seventeen year old Gabriel Adams knows how to feel. At the age of thirteen, when other boys were chasing after pretty girls and playing in the dirt, Gabriel had been kidnapped and molested. Now, several years later, Gabriel still can't return to the normal life he'd lived before the Incident. He's terrified of the dark, and even the daytime gives him anxiety attacks. Gabriel hates being touched. A simple brush against him will set him off into spasms while panic quickly takes over his mind. It seems as if nothing will relieve Gabriel from the constricting, painful claws of the man who'd done him harm, and Gabriel is becoming desperate.
That's when Evan Ricci steps in. Evan, a stubborn yet surprisingly selfless teenager, moves to the small, quiet town of Clydesdale Heights. When Evan sees a small, awkward blond haired boy carrying pop boxes across the street while he's bringing moving boxes into the new house, he decides to help him. Things don't go exactly as planned, though, and their relationship begins with a rather rough start.
The two eventually learn to bond, and Evan helps Gabriel learn to deal with the psychological consequences of being molested, which eventually blooms into an understanding so deep they can't imagine themselves with anyone but the other. A hint of infatuation sparks up, but not quite yet will the love blossom out like most. Their love will take time. And lots of patience and persistence, too.
After George accidentally outs himself in front of the popular and homophobic guys of the school everything seems fine at first. However, that soon changes when he receives weird and hurtful messages online, this soon escalates from just one message to something much more serious.
Meanwhile, Clay is closeted yet he has known he likes boys for a while now after falling for George. However, he can never seem to find the time to talk to anyone about this as he has to constantly help his sick mum and sister.
With the cyber bullying all becoming too much, George becomes extremely overwhelmed, while Clay finds himself taking more and more medication to calm himself every day. This soon escalated from a small issue into something unimaginably worse.
TW's:
-Usage too much medication
-Homophobia (usage f-slur)
-Suicide attempt/thoughts
-Mentions heart disease
-Burnout/depression
-(Cyber) bullying
-Mental abuse
-Overdose
-Abuse