Born months apart to lifelong friends, growing up Benji Hartkainen and Duncan McKerracher developed an inseparable bond as strong as any brotherhood from spending so much life together. Understanding and accepting that he was different early in his teens, Duncan has a clear picture of what he wants and needs from life: Benji. For Benji, however, it is a world of confusion, using a one-foot-in, one-foot-out approach to matters of the heart. Through the mixed signals, Duncan's greatest hope in landing the guy of his dreams lies in that he knows his friend's heart and mind better than anyone, or so he hopes. Navigating the push and pull of peer pressure and social acceptance in everyday teenage suburban life while testing the limits of their friendship, each must find the inner strength to reconcile their own desires and fight for their dreams as they grow into themselves and discover who they really are, in order to become who they want to be In This Cruel World. JADEN LANE lives in Hamilton, Canada with his two dogs Ghost and Willow, and his cat Domino. www.jadenlane.ca