A Bad Joke and a Metaphor

By Keiara Scranton

Having just tragically lost her mother and him dealing with heartbreak, Belle and Julian spend their summer after high school grieving rather than being free of responsibilities and planning celebratory parties. Belle thinks the easiest thing for her to do is to remove the event of her mother's death from her thoughts and put her energy into moving forward. She doesn't want to talk about it much, to her father's dismay.

Torn between wanting to be strong for herself and wanting to be open and emotionally available for her father, it takes all of Belle's strength to hold herself together. Not wanting to spread the sorrowful energy of her family's tragedy onto her friends, she decides she'd be better off grieving alone.

Julian just got accepted to his first school of choice for practicing medicine. Despite such a big win, he is plagued with his own sadness due to the abrupt split with his girlfriend. Unable to think of anything else but his pain, Julian spends most of his time talking to anyone who will listen about his breakup. His mom and younger brother entertain his dramatic handling of the situation, offering kind and encouraging words in an attempt to get him to focus on himself, but it proves to be not so easy.

When Belle and Julian eventually cross paths in a graveyard, they learn from each other how to properly handle their losses and heal from them.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1684569338
• ISBN13: 9781684569335
• Release Date: April 2019
• Publisher: Page Publishing
• Length: 122 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"