Submerged

These butterflies have rushed up from my stomach to my chest and have taken shelter there. I know, without a single doubt, that they aren’t going anywhere. Sometimes the bad-boy really is just a bad guy, and sometimes your best friend can be so much more than that. Sixteen-year-old Abby Henderson thinks she’s found the one in Harlow Academy’s star football player Dennis Whitmore. Being a student at McFall High, she’s only ever seen him once on the field and a few times at the grocery store she works at. Nonetheless, she’s been crushing hard for years. When he suddenly asks her out in her checkout line, she quickly accepts.On the surface, seventeen-year-old Dennis is everyone’s dream boyfriend. Beneath that, he’s quick to layer on the charm. As their relationship blooms, Abby begins to notice he has a frightening dark side. First, he kisses his ex-girlfriend on the football field during a game but claims it was just out of habit - they’re over. Next, he punches her best friend Matt after he’d accused Dennis of cheating on Abby. Then, slowly, other things happen. Like catching him in a lie, falling down a staircase after he’d let go of her arm, and being ridiculed for her outfits. After everything, Dennis vows his love for Abby and promises to get control of his anger and jealousy. Abby gives him chance after chance, eventually realizing this isn’t the way things are supposed to be.Then there’s Matt. Dennis filled Abby’s head with the idea that her best friend is in love with her. After an awkward confrontation with her BFF, she’s left confused and lost. How did she miss this? How did she not notice her best friend of ten years had these feelings for her? How did she not realize sooner she has them back? After everything Matt has been through because of her broken relationship with Dennis - from being punched in her driveway to getting into a fist fight with her boyfriend because he’d been enraged after Dennis was rough with her - can he still love her the same? Can they ever be more than best friends?When it’s time for the homecoming dance at Harlow with Dennis, things take a terrifying turn.And that’s only the beginning of this story.