The real world skins you alive. It's a hazard of growing up in rural Suffolk... or possibly, it's a hazard of growing up. Either way, the Dorian Andrade and Isaiah Matalon who run into each other at a party in Oxford have become equally disenchanted imitations of the boys who used to spend summers eating stolen apples on the riverbank. Dorian has retreated so far into his shell he doesn't remember what human faces look like, whilst Isaiah has strayed so far out he doesn't know where the rest of him is. They had a plan, had it since they were kids. They'd study hard, be the best in their year to ensure admission to study composition and literature at Oxford respectively, and the moment they dotted the final full-stop of their last A-level, they'd "get out". They'd leave Halsett for good and never look back. Six years later, neither has stepped foot into their childhood town and both are about to finish their master's at Oxford. The only difference is, they've done so separately. Maybe that's the reason - or maybe it's because the concept is naïve - but running away turned out not to solve a single problem, and now, they don't even have each other to make life an easier pill to swallow. [man×enby] [literary fiction romance] featured in lgbtq: ManxMan (NA/Adult Fiction) featured in FreeTheLGBT: Diverse Literature featured in WattpadLitFic: Novels featured in WattpadMulticultural: September 2023 Reads of the Month