sayeed_campbell
Sixteen-year-old Amari Blake has survived Cedar Ridge High by refusing to make himself smaller. He is feminine, openly gay, quick with a comeback, and always camera-ready. People may laugh at his lip gloss and the way he walks, but Amari has promised himself that nobody will ever see him break again.
Dandre Morgan has built his entire reputation on making sure nobody looks too closely. To Cedar Ridge, he is a footballer, fighter, rule-breaker, and the closest thing the school has to a badman. He is the boy teachers watch and students move out of the way for. But beneath the anger is a frightened son, a gifted artist, and a secret he would rather fight the whole school than admit.
Their lives collide when Amari accidentally records Dandre during the most vulnerable moment of his life.
Dandre wants the video deleted. Amari wants an apology. The dean wants Dandre to complete thirty hours of service with the Dance and Drama Club, where Amari happens to be the student choreographer.
Arguments become rehearsals. Rehearsals become late-night messages. And somewhere between school taxis, football matches, family pressure, anonymous gossip posts, jealous friends, and one dangerous dare, the boy everybody watches begins falling for the boy everybody fears.
The problem is not whether Dandre loves Amari.
The problem is whether he will still claim that love when the whole school is watching.
A slow-burn Jamaican boys' love story about reputation, masculinity, friendship, betrayal, healing, and the painful courage it takes to stop living as somebody else's secret.