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 His equally withdrawn but edgier best friend Rocco has a hearty appetite for drugs, alcohol, and promiscuous sex.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

“Rocco is my friend, Mom. I like hanging out with him. He didn’t kill anybody.”


“I wouldn’t put it past him, son,” my mother said.


I stood. “Jesus! Listen to yourselves.”


“Watch your language,” my mother threatened.


“Jay, don’t talk to your mother that way.”


“That’s it!” my mother yelled, hovering over me and waving her fingers in my face. “You only leave this house for school. Do you understand me? You’re grounded until further notice.”


I rolled my eyes and kicked a trashcan filled with wadded tissues and a week-old apple core across the room.


“Clean up this room,” my mother demanded. “It smells like a landfill.” She slammed my bedroom door shut just as I picked up a tennis ball from the floor and hurled it at the closed door.


Chapter 15