You & Me at the End of the World
Page 27
I owe so much to all the theater technicians and dancers I’ve worked with. You are the most passionate, badass people I have ever met. Thank you to the ethereal ballerina Antoinette Brooks-Daw for checking over a few ballet facts for me—any inaccuracies regarding dance are entirely my fault.
To the city of Houston: Thank you for being so lively, diverse, and tough as nails. The Houston in these pages is a slightly altered, fictional version of the city, but imagining a girl walking barefoot down the real I-10, not a car in sight, was the image that inspired this story.
Endless thanks to Richard and Terry Bourne. You are the absolute best parents-in-law a girl could ask for. I’m so grateful for all the ways you support us and this writing dream of mine.
To my parents, Dara and Dennis, and my darling grandparents Jo and Elton: Thank you for giving me an extraordinary childhood and for always making me feel so loved. Mom, thank you for taking me to the library so often, for letting me read under the table at Red Lobster, and for not locking up your romance novels. (Although perhaps you should have!)
To my daughters, Lila and Mina: You are such gorgeous, amazing people. If not for you, this book would have only ever lived in my head.
To my very own once-in-a-lifetime love story, Henry Bourne: It would take me a thousand words to write all the things I need to thank you for. You are the most incredible person. Thank you for loving me.
And lastly: Thank you, reader. For picking up this book and coming on this surreal trip with Hannah and Leo. I hope you’ve had a blast.
Brianna Bourne works as a stage manager for ballet companies around the world when she’s not writing. Originally from Texas, she grew up in Indonesia and Egypt and now lives in England with her rock musician husband and their two daughters. You can find out more about her at briannabournebooks.com.
Copyright © 2021 by Brianna Bourne
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bourne, Brianna, author.
Title: You & me at the end of the world / Brianna Bourne.
Other titles: You and me at the end of the world
Description: First edition. | New York : Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., 2021. | Audience: Ages 14 and up. | Audience: Grades 10–12. | Summary: For five days teenager Hannah Ashton has been living a nightmare because Greater Houston is devoid of people and totally silent, but then she finds Leo Sterling, a boy from her school whom Hannah considers to be both hot and trouble; together they set out to explore their city, and their own emotions—but above all they need to find out what has happened to their world, or risk being separated forever.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020038805 (print) | LCCN 2020038806 (ebook) | ISBN 9781338712636 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781338712643 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Teenagers—Juvenile fiction. | Interpersonal relations—Juvenile fiction. | Accident victims—Juvenile fiction. | Near-death experiences—Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: Interpersonal relations—Fiction. | Love—Fiction. | Near-death experiences—Fiction. | Traffic accidents—Fiction. | Houston (Tex.)—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.B682 Yo 2021 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.B682 (ebook) | DDC 813.6 [Fic]—dc23
First edition, July 2021
Jacket design by Maeve Norton
Jacket art © 2021 by Michael Heath, other art © Shutterstock.com
e-ISBN 978-1-338-71264-3
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication 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 the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.