Everyone at college knows Ethan Carter's name — and everyone knows to stay away from him. Abandoned by both parents at twelve, raised on promises that were never kept, Ethan turned his pain into the only language he trusted: anger. He's the boy who starts fights before anyone can hurt him first. The boy with the reputation nobody dares challenge. The boy everyone has already decided he is. Then Claire Bennett looks at him and sees something no one else has bothered to find. She isn't afraid of him. She isn't fascinated by his reputation either. When she tells him — quietly, without judgment — "I think you're angry," it's the first time in years someone has looked past the fists and the fury to the wound underneath. Forced together as project partners, Claire and Ethan build something neither of them expected: an unlikely, stubborn friendship that slowly becomes the one steady thing in Ethan's unsteady world. An umbrella shared in the rain. Late-night texts that end in laughter. A truth about his parents that finally gets spoken instead of buried. But healing isn't a straight line, and love doesn't erase old wounds — it just means you don't have to face them alone. As Ethan fights to become someone worth staying for, and Claire fights her own fear of getting close to someone the world has already given up on, they'll discover that the boy behind the anger was never the problem everyone thought he was. He was just a child who needed someone to stay. A slow-burn, emotional coming-of-age romance about first love, generational wounds, and the quiet, stubborn courage it takes to let yourself be known.