Chapter: Dad Made eggs on SundayNot the Saturday version — he hadn't been home Saturday, which was part of why the kitchen had been so quiet after Knox dropped me off. He'd come in late, after I was already upstairs, and I'd heard the particular sound of his keys on the hook by the door and his boots coming off and then nothing, which meant he'd gone straight to the office with the playbook and the cold coffee and whatever he'd been thinking about all day.Sunday morning. Eggs. Both versions of his face — coach and dad — doing the thing where they were both present at once and neither was winning.I sat down.He slid the plate across.I ate a bite and waited."Minnesota came back to me last week," he said, which was not the opening I'd expected because Minnesota was where we already were, and then I understood he meant the university, the flagship program, the one with the arena that held eight thousand people and the recruiting budget and the conference championship that every mid-major program in the region pointe
Last Updated: 2026-10-23
Chapter: The first real FightIt started three days after the library.Not immediately. We had three days of the careful version — warm but slightly surface-level, the conversations that stayed in the shallower water because both of us knew the deeper water was there and neither of us was quite ready to go in. Three days of Knox texting in the morning and me texting back and the exchange being fine and exactly fine and nothing more than fine, which after months of something much richer than fine was its own kind of information.On Saturday he picked me up at noon without a plan, which was how he handled things he needed to talk about — he showed up and drove and let the motion of the truck do something to the words that staying still didn't.We drove for twenty minutes.Then he pulled off onto the shoulder of a county road between two frozen fields under a white sky and cut the engine and sat with his hands in his lap and said: "I said yes."I had known it was coming. I had told him to say yes. I had meant it when
Last Updated: 2026-10-21
Chapter: The group Chat knows FirstIt was a Wednesday afternoon and I was in the library annex working on Elowen when the group chat exploded.Not unusual. The group chat exploded with some regularity — game results, drill complaints, someone's ill-advised food-related bet, the ongoing and apparently unresolvable debate about whether the Eagles' road jersey was better than the home one. I had learned to read the chat the way you learned to read weather — certain patterns meant certain things, and you got good at knowing which notifications required immediate attention and which ones were Torres losing an argument about something that didn't matter.This one was different.The first message was from a sophomore defenseman I didn't know well: CALLAHAN GOT THE OFFER. LAKEWOOD. FULL RIDE.Then the chat became what the chat always became when something significant happened — forty-seven people trying to express the same feeling simultaneously at volume. Caps lock. Exclamation points deployed without restraint. Three separat
Last Updated: 2026-10-21
Chapter: SubmittedThe email arrived on a Monday.I know it was a Monday because I was in AP Calculus at the time, which was my least favorite class on my least favorite day, and I had my phone under the desk in the specific way that everyone did and no one acknowledged, and I saw the subject line at 10:23 and read it twice before my brain processed what it was saying.Subject: Young Writers of the Midwest — Submission Confirmation.I stared at it.Then I read the body of the email, which informed me in the warm and slightly formal language of literary organizations that my submission — Chapter Nine of an untitled young adult fantasy manuscript, submitted by A. Okafor on behalf of A. Kane — had been received and would be reviewed by the panel in the coming weeks.A. Okafor.I put my phone face down on my knee and looked at the whiteboard where a calculus problem was happening that I was no longer tracking.A. Okafor on behalf of A. Kane.She had submitted it. Without telling me. She had taken Chapter Ni
Last Updated: 2026-10-02
Chapter: Hood of a TruckI noticed Finn was gone around eleven.Not immediately. There was a long stretch of the bonfire where the three of us had been together and then Knox had been pulled into a conversation with the coaching staff about the regionals draw and I had been talking to Lila about the raccoon story she'd apparently been saving additional installments of for the right moment, and somewhere in the middle of Lila's description of the second raccoon — a detail I had not known was coming and which raised more questions than it answered — I turned to say something to Finn and he wasn't there.His hot dog was gone. His cup was gone. He was just not there anymore, which with Finn was not unusual — he moved quietly through spaces the way he did everything else, without production — but something about the specific quality of his absence tonight sat differently.I excused myself from Lila mid-raccoon, which she accepted with the understanding nod of someone who had seen things from behind a café counter
Last Updated: 2026-09-25
Chapter: This is AveryIt happened the way the best things happened in Evergreen.Without announcement. Without buildup. Without the performance of a moment that knew it was a moment. Just Knox, moving through the crowd with his hand finding the small of my back so naturally it might as well have been gravity, stopping beside a group of people I half-recognized from the rink and the school hallways and the general architecture of a town that had been folding me into itself for three and a half months.He said: "This is Avery."Three words. No preamble. No she's my girlfriend or you guys should get to know her or any of the qualifying language that turned an introduction into a statement. Just: this is Avery. Like I was a fact of the universe he was referencing. Like I had always been there and he was simply making sure the introduction caught up with the reality.The group received it the way the group received everything Knox said — immediately, completely, without requiring additional justification. A wom
Last Updated: 2026-09-22
Chapter: Chapter 82It was nice to see someone fight part of the fight for her, but why wasn’t Carl doing it? Why wasn’t she considered in his decision? He seemed to have put her on a shelf and moved forward, trying to figure out what to do as if it were just him. Mandy inhaled deeply. Why was she blaming him? The guy was trying to step up to the plate. She had to respect that.“I realize that, but this is my life. It’s my decision, and being a good dad is more important than anything to me. You have to understand that.” Carl turned his attention back to his brother. Mandy stood and walked toward the edge of the patio. “I’ll see you guys later. I’m going for a run and all that good stuff.”“Mandy... stay with us.” Carl stood. “Yeah. Let’s make dinner and hang out.” Mark turned. The sympathy in his gaze was too much. “No thanks. I’ll see you both tomorrow.” She turned and jogged toward her place as tears slid over the rims of her eyelids, burning a trail down her cheeks. Carl’s decision not only chang
Last Updated: 2026-10-27
Chapter: Chapter 81Yeah, but I should have known better.” He shrugged and took a sip of his coffee. “I wish I could say that I understand, but I don’t. My sister married my ex, and even though it’s weird as all get out, I still wouldn’t chew her out for talking to Carl. It’s a trust issue more than anything else.” Mandy sat back and crossed her legs. “I’m not sure it’s going to matter for much longer anyway.”“What? Why is that?” True concern brushed across Mark’s features, making her like him all the more. “Because he has some shit going on in his life, and I guess he thinks that pushing me away is the best choice right now.” She shrugged, and forced down the hard emotions that accompanied the conversation. “I’m just going to be as supportive as I can until he figures out what he wants.”“You’re being horribly cryptic,” he smirked. “I know, right? I just feel like it should be his news to share with you. Hopefully that’s okay.” “Yeah. Just shows what a classy lady you are. I hope you guys move past
Last Updated: 2026-10-23
Chapter: Chapter 80Her alarm woke her the next day, which was a bit of a downer seeing as how it was the weekend. With only two days to sleep in, she was annoyed she had lost one. Good thing she liked Carl’s brother, Mark. The e-mail from Carl late last night had been quick and informal: ‘Pick Mark up for me? I’m tied up in the morning.’He better have meant tied up due to business and not something sexual with Annette. The thought caused her stomach to turn. She had to have resolution soon on things with him or she might go bat-shit crazy. It was starting to feel more and more probable. She had hoped it was all a bad dream and she’d wake in morning and have a laugh over it. Guess that wasn’t going to happen.The drive to the airport went quick, and she found Mark standing with his bag just outside the departures pickup for his airline. She waved, and he smiled, getting in and slipping his bag between his legs in the front seat. “I wasn’t sure if you or Carl were coming, but if I was a betting man...”
Last Updated: 2026-10-21
Chapter: Chapter 79His question caught her off-guard, but she found her footing quickly. She laughed, the double shot of a drink with Gina giving her that slightly giggly liquid courage she needed. “I wanted to be a dancer, but I gained a bit of weight as a teenager and dance became a thing of the past.” She shrugged, not quite sure why she shared the truth with him. She could have pulled from the hundreds of lies she’d used in the past to save herself the humiliation of reliving her childhood. “I can’t picture you heavy. I’m sure you were very cute.” He tilted his head and smiled warmly. “What caused you to gain weight? Some teenage boy break your heart?”“Donuts and Cheetos. They are the devil. I’m convinced.” She gave him a cheeky grin and turned to the waitress, ordering a glass of red wine. He ordered and turned his attention back toward her. “And I assume you lost the weight during college?”“Lost the weight? No.” She let out a short chuckle. “I’m still trying to lose the weight, which is anothe
Last Updated: 2026-10-21
Chapter: Chapter 78This isn’t about me. It’s about Carl.” Mandy sighed. “He’s trying to decide if he needs to get back with Annette and work things out. I don’t think he wants to be a dad from afar.”“What? Oh, hell no. Annette is the worst thing in the world. She’s a man-eater. A rich bitch with three chips on her shoulder.” Gina’s voice grew loud as she let her emotions fly. “It’s not for me to decide. If Carl wants to try to make things work out with her for the sake of the kid, then what say do I really have? I can’t stop a man from stepping up to the plate and being responsible.” Mandy pulled the snack menu toward her, but decided against it seeing as how her dinner with Nicholas was only a few hours away. “He’s making a mistake if he comes to that conclusion. Being with her would be so much worse for the kid than being raised in two households, Mandy. They did nothing but fight when they were together. I don’t even think Carl has a clue as to what a good, wholesome relationship looks like.” She
Last Updated: 2026-10-02
Chapter: Chapter 77You ready?” Gina’s voice pulled Mandy from the report she was trying to edit. She couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes, but who would be able to? Carl was in the next office, probably trying to decide if their relationship was over due to knocking up his ex. Could things get any worse?“Yeah,” Mandy mumbled and picked up her purse. “I need something strong.”“Like a man, or are we talking good liquor?” Gina smiled and walked out into the hall. “Both, maybe. Who knows?” “Sounds like you got a new story to tell me.” Gina pressed her shoulder against Mandy’s.“Only if you want to be depressed with me.” Mandy gave her friend a tight smile and held the door for her. “That’s not good. Spill.” They got into the elevator with a crowd of people from the office, and Mandy simply gave her a look. “At the bar.”After making their way through the large crowd of suits trying to get out to the street, they decided on trying a new bar. It was just a block from the
Last Updated: 2026-09-25
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