Like a Storm, Like Love

Sometimes you have to go through the storm to find yourself again — and to learn the difference between love and possession.

In a small town on the shore of an ancient glacial lake, seven teenagers are tangled in relationships — of love, of friendship — that don’t always make them happy. Ayla and Albert call themselves best friends, though Albert has wanted more for years. Bia and Ben are celebrating three months together, wrapped so tightly in each other that everyone else has started to disappear. Keyla finally has a boyfriend — one who never misses a chance to make her feel small, then charm his way back into her good graces. And over breakfast, Diana reads another message from someone calling himself Ad4m: attentive, adoring, and nothing like what he seems.

Then the storm no one quite believed in arrives — a lake tsunami that tears through the town and through every fragile balance holding these seven lives together. As the water rises, so does the truth: about who really loves them, who is using them, and who they need to become once the storm has passed.

A story by Book on a Tree