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

“Good night,” he whispered into my hair.


The dog jumped up on the mattress, making a nest of blankets for himself at my feet.


“Good night.” I closed my eyes, listening to the two of them breathing in sync.


This morning, Nick was gone. Didn’t leave a note. And didn’t call all day.


But really, Bump, did you think he would?


Today, Nathan and I tried to be civil to each other, but that didn’t work very well. I walked on egg shells around him, while he permitted himself to criticize, patronize, and condescend to me to no end. I told him that he was behaving just like his father. He didn’t like that one bit. We spent the rest of the day avoiding each other, until things came to a head.


“You were in there for thirty minutes,” he said, as I stepped out of the washroom.


Lately, I’d been spending a lot of time in the bathroom. I sat on the closed toilet lid and watched the wall. I’d run the faucet or shower to drown out the noise of the TV and sit there thinking.


Chapter 72