JT: You know, it’s funny, my ex-girlfriend said something to me a while ago—
PJ: The same ex-girlfriend who was involved in your car accident? Have you reconciled with her?
JT: I’m flattered you remember, Patricia.
PJ: We have a fact-checker, if you recall? Please continue.
JT: Right before I left to come here, I told her, “I’ll see you on the other side.”
PJ: Okay.
JT: And she said . . .
PJ: Yes?
JT: “There is no other side.” She was right.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to my mom, for reading early drafts of this story, for proofreading my blog entries and thank-you notes, and for endless encouragement. And to my dad, for never being “standard.”
I am so lucky to work with Suzie Townsend, who saw so many versions of this story—the good, the bad, and the weird—and always had helpful advice and hope for it. Thank you, Joanna Volpe, Kathleen Ortiz, Pouya Shahbazian, Danielle Barthel, Dave Caccavo, Chris McEwen, Jaida Temperly, Jackie Lindert, and Jess Dallow.
Endless thanks to my editor, Rosemary Brosnan, for giving me so much guidance and inspiration, for caring about the characters, and for helping me discover the best way to tell their stories. And thank you to Jessica MacLeish, for lending her brilliance. Thank you to everyone at HarperCollins: Bethany Reis, Valerie Shea, Olivia Russo, Andrea Pappenheimer and her sales team, and Kim VandeWater. Thank you to Kate Engbring and Joan Quirós for the gorgeous cover.
Whatever I write, Jeanmarie Anaya, Shelley Batt, and Tanya Spencer are the first ones to see it. I don’t see this changing in a hundred years. I am so grateful for our little corner of the universe.
Thank you to the writing community for their unwavering support, especially the Class of 2k15 and the Fearless Fifteeners. Thank you to all the Northern California writers. Our lunches and dinners and events together are always so inspiring and so much fun. You are all so talented.
Thank you to all the generous readers. Shout out to the book-clubbers: Brienne, Anne, Erin, and Jo.
For keeping me sane, I send thanks to my family and friends: Jeanmarie Anaya, for listening to all my far-out ideas for this story in an NYC café, and for having the best sense of humor. Virginia Boecker, for long hilarious chats, for having the same taste in hashtags and the same brain, and for being such an amazing friend. Lea, for reading early drafts and giving Henry her stamp of approval (and insisting he was a soccer player). Rowdy, for bringing Post-its and for being the Monica to my Rachel. Karisa, for always being the right person to know, my favorite non-publicist publicist. Brittany, for calling my books babies. Kelsey, for quoting Under the Tuscan Sun when I was having an off writing day: “Terrible ideas are like playground scapegoats. Given the right encouragement, they grow up to be geniuses.” Justin, for answering the random questions I asked during revisions even though they, admittedly, didn’t make any sense, for always coming home with jelly beans, and for loving this book.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PHOTO © TERI FODE PHOTOGRAPHY
ALEXIS BASS, the author of Love and Other Theories, grew up in Washington and currently lives in Northern California, where she works in marketing and writes novels for teens. You can visit her online at www.alexisbassbooks.com.
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BOOKS BY ALEXIS BASS
Love and Other Theories
What’s Broken Between Us
CREDITS
Cover art © 2015 by Felicia Simion / Trevillion
Hand lettering by Joan Quirós
Cover design by Kate J. Engbring
COPYRIGHT
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
WHAT’S BROKEN BETWEEN US. Copyright © 2015 by Alexis Bass. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.epicreads.com
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bass, Alexis.
What’s broken between us / Alexis Bass. — First edition.
pages cm
Summary: “A teenage girl must heal and learn to love again when her brother returns from jail after causing a drunk driving accident that changed their lives forever”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-06-227535-6 (hardback)
EPub Edition © October 2015 ISBN 9780062275370
[1. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 2. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 3. Probation—Fiction. 4. Family problems—Fiction. 5. High schools—Fiction. 6. Schools—Fiction.] I. Title. II. Title: What is broken between us.
PZ7.B29255Wh 2015 2015005959
[Fic]—dc23 CIP
AC
* * *
15 16 17 18 19 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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