The Happiness Project

Nineteen-year-old Bruno has a secret he can never tell. The sort of secret that means he can never have anything more than sort of friends. Never get close to anyone. Never have a random hook-up or even a kiss—apart from that one time in a club when some beautiful guy wearing luminous wings and neon bangles up his arms, kissed him.

His secret means getting fired from job after job washing dishes, until delivering mysterious packages around London is his only way of making any money. His secret means his life is, at its heart, a lie.

Bruno thinks he can live that lie. Alone in his empty, furniture-less flat, he thinks he has to. Until the lonely boy next door throws up on him and they get stuck in a lift together. But that’s the problem when someone starts to care about you, your secrets get harder to hide. And as he and Alexei gets closer, Bruno realises that his only real choice is between hiding his heart and trusting it.

Alexei is confused. About everything. Hiding out in a room in his cousin's flat, he tries to convince himself that’s where he needs to stay. Bad things happen outside. Things that might make his world grow even darker. Things he doesn’t think he can deal with. He doesn’t want to have feelings for Bruno. Feelings terrify him. But when he starts to understand Bruno has his own troubles, helping him becomes the only thing Alexei wants to do.