Quiet and imaginative, Derek O'Reilly spends a lot of time watching a movie in his head. His fiancé Nathan wonders why Derek hasn't taken any interest in their wedding planning, and Aunt Fran -- his spiritual guru -- would like to know when her guilt-tripping nephew became a kept boy. When she drops Derek's childhood journal on his lap, he's forced to remember the name he's been trying to forget since he was twelve years old. Nicolai Lund. Nick was Derek's neighbor ... and first love. Weeks before Derek's engagement party, a chance meeting with Nick catapults Derek into the past. But Nick isn't that seventeen-year-old rebel anymore. He's a man hardened by invisible scars. A man struggling with grief. As Derek reads through his childhood diary, he realizes what Nick was to him, still is today, and yet might be ... NOTE: This edition has been expanded and substantially edited.

Split

Boone is my best friend. He’s a Lund kid. The Lunds are our neighbors. We share the same yard. They’re from Norway. That’s a country near Sweden where it’s all mountains and blue lakes. There’s three kids in the Lund family and Boone is the middle one. He’s been in my class since kindergarten.


Their father is a locksmith, that means he opens doors when you need a door opened and you forgot the key.


Dad is, well, was an electrician for a company called mothahumpinasslicor, but he was laid off last fall. That’s probably why he was upset when Mom said you were coming.


You were supposed to come in August, but you came in July. Like me.


July is a good month to have your birthday. You can have a pool party. If you have a pool. We don’t have a pool, but we have a sprinkler. It belongs to the Lunds, and they let us use it sometimes.


It rained on my birthday, so we didn’t get to use it. Anyway, I’m twelve. I shouldn’t be playing in a stupid sprinkler.


Chapter 3