Introverted, socially awkward Jay Kirkman, known to his Grams as “Jay Bird,” is riding the ups-and-downs of youth while living with overbearing parents and dealing with the pressures of being a senior in high school. A month away from graduation, Jay hopes to flee the small upstate New York town of Milton for a life anywhere but in his dead-end hometown. He wishes for more than he has now: scholarly, eccentric parents, and watching Grams, the closest person to him, slowly dying before his eyes. His equally withdrawn but edgier best friend Rocco has a hearty appetite for drugs, alcohol, and promiscuous sex. When the law comes knocking, asking questions about a crime Rocco may or may not have committed, he finds himself in big trouble and turns to Jay for help. Is Jay and Rocco’s friendship strong enough to sustain life’s tough obstacles as they navigate the highs and lows of growing up together?

Jay Bird

Midway down the hall, about to open my bedroom door and rush inside, I heard my father coming out of the bathroom, burping, swearing, and rambling on, coming this way.


I turned the knob and opened my bedroom door quietly, stepping into the stuffy, smelling atmosphere of my room, and shut the door slowly behind me. I leaned up against it and exhaled. The floorboards groanedout in the hall as my father gallantly sauntered by and stumbled back into his world of old folk sex.


Stop thinking, Jay, I told myself. I didn’t want to picture the two of them going at it. Not at their age.


Peeling off my sour-smelling T-shirt for a semi-clean polo from the gathering pile of clothes on the floor, I reached for my iPod on my messy desk and stuffed the buds into my ears for protection.


Skipping a shower and jumping into an unmade bed with sheets that hadn’t been washed in two weeks, I drowned my thoughts in Lady Gaga’s soulful voice.


Chapter 9