Introduction [excerpt] My manuscript follows two dysfunctional and co-dependent best friends navigating their early twenties. The friends, Phoebe and Nat, are tied together through grief — they have both lost their mothers, and neither is fully willing to admit how the loss unraveled her life. Phoebe's loss occurs a few months before the manuscript's start. Her wounds are new and raw, and she is struggling with depression. Nat's grief is a decade old, and the impact of her loss is seen in obsessive behaviors....