sofiatheveryfirst12
In a small Montana mountain town in 2016, June Adams and Augustin Hale live two lives that never overlap-at least not where anyone can see.
At school, June is invisible by design. Quiet, smart, and constantly targeted, she keeps her head down and counts the hours until she can go home. Augie is the opposite: football captain, admired, untouchable. The kind of boy people assume has everything figured out. What no one sees is what happens behind closed doors, or why he spends so many nights in the guest room across the street instead of his own house.
They've been neighbors for years. Before high school made things complicated. Before labels mattered. Augie knows how bad June's depression gets. June knows what waits for him at home. They don't talk about it much-they don't have to. Their bond is built on presence, on showing up without questions, on protecting each other in ways no one notices. At school, they pretend not to exist to each other. Outside of it, they're each other's safest place.
But when Augie gets a Division I offer from Ohio State, the future stops being something they can ignore. He finally has a way out. June doesn't. And what started as survival becomes something harder: figuring out who they are without each other, and whether love can exist when one person leaves and the other has to stay.
A story about quiet loyalty, shared damage, and the kind of connection that forms when two people are the only ones who really know the truth.