About
Sixteen-year-old Earl Layman is going stir-crazy. Secluded with the flu inside the four walls of his home and only the escape of his video games to help him through, Earl is struggling to keep his sanity.
That is until he notices the boy next door, seventeen-year-old Rex Chambers, raking leaves in the adjacent yard.
Earl’s summer is about to change. Before another torrential rainstorm hits the small upstate New York town of Betham County, they meet during an awkward cell phone exchange. As they start to connect through occasional texts, Earl and Rex enter the throes of adolescent lust.
In the early stages of forging a lasting connection, their family situations threaten to destroy all they are working for.
Tags: coming of age, grief, harassment, high school, hurt/comfort, LGBTQIA+
Warning: physical abuse, emotional abuse, deceased family member, alcoholism, stalking, homophobia, self-harm, cutting, pet death
That is until he notices the boy next door, seventeen-year-old Rex Chambers, raking leaves in the adjacent yard.
Earl’s summer is about to change. Before another torrential rainstorm hits the small upstate New York town of Betham County, they meet during an awkward cell phone exchange. As they start to connect through occasional texts, Earl and Rex enter the throes of adolescent lust.
In the early stages of forging a lasting connection, their family situations threaten to destroy all they are working for.
Tags: coming of age, grief, harassment, high school, hurt/comfort, LGBTQIA+
Warning: physical abuse, emotional abuse, deceased family member, alcoholism, stalking, homophobia, self-harm, cutting, pet death
Publication
NineStar Press (2021), 171 pages