She wanted to be real.

He wanted to be understood.

Their journey is full of misunderstandings, paved with good intentions, and lit with dreams.

Kamaria Thacker left a normal life before she was old enough to know what that meant. For nearly sixteen years, she’s lived between never-ending pageants, photoshoots, and traveling. She has never had a chance to just to be herself. Finally, on the night of her eighteenth birthday, she escapes and travels to the other side of the country to attend Anderson University. She puts on a scarf, a mask, dresses down, and gets a taste of normalcy. For the first time, she’s just Kamaria, and she’s hooked.

Then, she sees Tiernan Van Altena at the first party of the year. There’s something about him that captures her attention, but before the feelings of attraction can turn into something more, he calls the campus police on her under the impression she has forcibly occupied his room.

Even though they start off on the wrong foot, she quickly finds that the scruffy, drunken goof who wouldn’t stop banging on her door at 3 AM isn’t actually that bad. He’s an oddly honorable bad boy, and soon, she learns that she isn’t the only one at Anderson looking for a chance to become who they were always meant to be.

The closer they grow, the more they begin to see beyond their masks, but can she trust him with her secrets? Will he trust her with his? Is this the start of something beautiful or the road to disaster?