Mia

Mia Nova is eighteen, and she’s tired—tired of being quiet because the world has never made space for her voice. Tired of hiding her identity behind layers of silence, of pretending that the stares, the slurs, the subtle exclusions don’t sting. Tired of walking through life like a ghost—seen, but not truly seen. She’s Lebanese. She’s a lesbian. She’s brilliant, observant, and thoughtful in all the ways people tend to overlook. At school, she’s the quiet girl with a camera. At home, she’s the adopted daughter who never fits the mold her parents tried to press her into every day. She’s spent most of her life on the outside looking in, asking questions no one has answers for—about belonging, about love, about whether she even deserves either.

Her sanctuary is photography. It’s the only place she feels real. Through her lens, she captures the world with a rawness that feels safer than speaking it aloud. Every shot is a confession, every frame a question she’s too scared to ask. But beyond the art, beyond the quiet exterior, is a girl who’s been carrying pain for so long it’s etched itself into her skin. The kind of pain that doesn’t come from one bad day—but from years of rejection, betrayal, and never being enough. She wears long sleeves even in summer. Not for fashion. Not for modesty. But because some stories are too painful to explain.

Mia doesn’t want to be fixed. She just wants to be held. Seen. Chosen. Mia has spent years walking this lonely path, convinced that no one would ever truly understand her. That no one would even try.

Until Cambria Jones walked into her life.

Cambria is everything Mia isn’t—bold, loud, unapologetically herself. With sunlit blonde hair, brilliant blue eyes, and a laugh that turns heads, she seems like the kind of girl who has it all—the type of girl Mia would never expect to notice her. But Cambria isn’t what she appears to be. Beneath the bubbly energy is a soul both fierce and tender. She’s sarcastic without being mean, confident without being cruel, protective without ever treating Mia like something broken.

She just stays.

Cambria becomes Mia’s first real friend—the first person who sees her, not as a project or a pity case but as someone worth knowing. Worth protecting. Worth loving. Whether Cambria is straight, bisexual, or something else, it doesn’t matter. What matters is this: she chooses Mia. Not out of obligation. Not out of curiosity. But because she sees her completely.

But in Mia’s world, kindness is rare and never comes without a cost.

Enter Vivian Sanders. Eighteen. Beautiful. Vicious. The queen bee of their high school, with a smile that cuts deeper than any razor blade. She not only bullies Mia in the loud, obvious ways people expect but… she has a more calculated side—unexpectedly so. Sometimes subtle, sometimes sharp, but always deliberate. She knows exactly how to destroy someone with a glance, a whisper, or a well-timed reminder of the past. With money, popularity, and a flawless image, Vivian wields her power like a weapon. She sees every vulnerability Mia tries to hide—and she never misses a chance to exploit them—not once.

And then there’s Brittany. Soft and quiet, whereas Vivian is sharp and malicious. She works part-time to save money for a life she hopes will feel more like her own. Her family doesn’t understand her either—another lesbian in a world that keeps asking her to explain herself or stay hidden. With Brittany, Mia finds something she didn’t know she needed: stillness and understanding—the gentlest kind of hope. Brittany never pushes. She just exists beside Mia, wanting to learn more about her, and sometimes… that’s the bravest kind of love.

This isn’t just a story about high school. It’s about the pain we don’t talk about—the kind that sits with you when the lights go out. It’s about the ache of being misunderstood. The desperate hope that maybe, just maybe, someone will look past the silence and stay. It’s about survival. About the small, quiet acts of resistance—getting out of bed, putting one foot in front of the other, answering a text, saying “I’m fine” even when you’re not.

It’s about how friendship can be the beginning of healing. About how love—real, soft, complicated love—doesn’t fix everything, but it makes the darkness less lonely.

This is Mia’s story—Book 1 of the Mia Series.

It’s a story about scars that don’t always show. About learning to breathe again when it feels like you’ve forgotten how. About the people who walk in when everyone else has walked out. If you’ve ever felt alone, invisible, or like your story didn’t matter—this book is for you.

Thank you for being here.

Let’s begin.