EVER by Jessa Russo (Plot Summary + First 500)

PLOT SUMMARY: 


Torn between loving two boys, seventeen-year-old Ever Van Ruysdael has no idea that more than just her heart is on the line. Until she discovers a countdown for her soul.

Ever’s love life has been in purgatory since the car accident that took the life of her best friend – and secret crush – Frankie, but spared hers. For the past two years, she’s had to wake up every day to Frankie’s ghost, making it impossible to mourn him or move forward with her life. But that all changes when Toby moves in next door. His honest interest in Ever makes her feel like the only girl in the world, and his relaxed confidence is hard to resist.  Faced with choosing between an exciting new relationship with Toby, or the deep, comfortable love she feels for Frankie, Ever must make a decision. 

When an ex-girlfriend enters the picture, hell-bent on getting Toby back, Ever learns that losing her heart is the least of her worries. She’s not only put her very own soul in danger, but Frankie’s soul as well. 

EVER is a YA romance with a ghostly twist, complete at 90,000 words. 


FIRST 500: 

I've lived next door to Frankie my entire life. We played together when we were little. He pulled my pigtails. I tattled; he teased. 

He's the best friend I've ever had.

I've been in love with him as long as I can remember. 

He's been dead for two years. 

Today is the second anniversary of his death. Its been exactly seven-hundred and thirty days since the car accident that took his life, and didn'ttake mine. Seven-hundred and thirty days since the only guy I've ever loved died in my arms, followed me home from the hospital, and never left my house again.

I'm in love with a ghost who has absolutely no idea I feel this way, and worse - probably still sees me like an annoying kid sister. No. Big. Deal.  

I mean, sure, it took some getting used to, but eventually I had to accept the fact that he's here for good. There's no mourning him and there's no moving on with my life. 

Two years. Two years since my life as a normal teenager went right out the window. Two years since Frankie became nearly invisible. 

Looking at him now, leaning up against the antique roll-top desk my mom insists is proper living-room decor, he's beautiful, even in death.

I watched him die. I held onto him as the last breath left his body. I cried and screamed, but no one came in time.

No one heard me. No one even knew we’d swerved off the road until an hour or so later when I pulled myself from the overturned Chevy, and crawled to the top of the hill. 

Frankie was by my side the entire time. My hands and knees were bloodied and filthy from the climb. He kept telling me to keep going when all I wanted to do was close my eyes. At the time, I’d convinced myself he was a figment of my traumatized mind. I knew his body remained pinned under the steering column. I knew he couldn't possibly be walking with me, urging me to survive. I figured that I’d just simply been unable to let him go yet. Maybe I just needed time.

Turns out he couldn’t let me go either.

I can’t tell you what it was like. I can’t tell you in words that will properly justify the earth shattering feeling of losing him … or the shock of finding out he was still here. There are no words.

I haven’t touched him since he died. We haven’t hugged. He hasn’t held me. I see him every day. I wake up in the same house with him every morning. But still, I can’t touch him. And he can’t touch me.

I know it sounds crazy, talking about my dead best friend like he’s still here.

But he is. And I’m not the only one who can see him.
When I look at him now, two years later, I feel a sense of longing that I just can’t shake. 

Thanks sooooo much to Sharon Bayliss, Krystal Wade, and Curiosity Quills for this wonderful contest! Good luck to everyone who has entered!