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

He yelled out Nick’s name and then kicked the snowbank and walked away.


I found the Hudson Bay on the map in my dictionary.


You go straight, then left, and then straight all the way to the water. It’s very far, but I don’t planon walking. I’ll take the train, same as Dad. I have three hundred dollars and forty-five cents in my school account. Mom needs to sign a paper, but that’s all right because I can almost copy her signature. Just need a little more practice, that’s all. I’ll go to the bank on Tuesday morning. That’s when Aunt Frannie is going to take Mom to fix her hair. Then I’ll buy a ticket. It’s easy, there’s a train station in the city. I know where the city is. I rode my bike there this summer.


Chapter 29