After high school graduation, best friends Matt and Cole strive to put behind them the school shooting they survived in first grade and really begin to live. Told in two voices.

Eleven years ago a shooting rocked the small town of East Ridge, New Jersey and left eighteen first graders dead. Newly graduated, Matt Simpson and Cole Hewitt are still navigating their guilt, especially the absence of their friend Andy. Cole is "the boy in the picture" but remembers nothing about the shooting; Matt was absent that day. Will Cole and Matt ever be able to truly leave the ghosts of East Ridge behind, and move into a future where they can truly begin living? -- adapted from jacket