Ardy doesn't do this. He doesn't let people in, doesn't let himself want things, doesn't notice the way certain people look in the early morning light on an empty track. Except that James Rhys is very hard not to notice.

Ardy Alves arrives in Portland, Maine as a freshman engineering student - careful, self-contained, and expert at keeping the world at a comfortable distance. James Rhys is a junior, the best distance runner on the USM track team, warm and easy with everyone, and hiding something that only the very observant would notice.

They begin running together in the early morning dark. Just two laps of silence, then conversation. Just friendship, probably.

Except that it isn't. Not really. Not for either of them.

Set against the salt-aired streets and quiet winter mornings of Portland, Maine, The First Mile is a deeply felt love story about two young men who find in each other something neither knew they were looking for - and must decide, one careful step at a time, whether to be brave enough to keep it.

For anyone who has ever stood at the edge of something and wondered whether to step forward.