Excerpt from All We Have Left by Wendy Mills, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"Jesse, you need to hurry!" Nick's standing in the alley below me, his hood pulled over his dark hair as he stares up at me.

I told you she was all talk," Hailey says. "She's chickening out. I told you she would."

I look down at the two of them and have the almost uncontrollable urge to squawk like a chicken, but I know it's just nerves.

I pull out the first spray paint can. My fingers are so cold I can barely hold it. It may be the end of March, almost spring, but tonight it still feels like the cold, dead middle of winter.

I push my feet into cracks between the bricks, take a deep breath, and sweep the paint can down the wall. The smell of paint clouds the air around me.

I finish the first letter, N, and it's big and bubbly, the way Nick does it. Stretching one foot over to the right to find another foothold, I start on the next letter. My arm is already shaking, but this one's easier, and soon I have the O. As I move over for the next letter, my rope jerks, and I immediately grab for the wall, the paint can falling to the pavement with a loud clatter.

I clutch at the bricks, feeling their coldness seep into my numb fingers. A dog yaps, but no one comes running outside yelling, Hey, what are you doing up there? Moving slowly, I look up and see that one of the carabiners making up my anchor is dangling loose.

"You can do it," Nick whispers, and when I look down at him, I see the promise in his eyes from late last night when I'd shown up crying at his house: No matter what, I won't leave you hanging. Get it? Hanging? He'd laughed, and I'd felt hurt, because I needed him to be serious. He'd pulled me in for a hard kiss and said, "I won't leave you. Ever." I'd been so upset with Nick after what had happened after the pep rally, but at that moment he was the only one who understood the anger that was burning me from the inside out.

Excerpted from All We Have Left by Wendy Mills. Copyright © 2016 by Wendy Mills. Excerpted by permission of Bloomsbury USA. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.