Chapters 12 and 13 function as a mirror of each other. In Chapter 12, Ray is alone and scared of losing Josh, even as he resents him for being upset that Ray is trying to make other friends. He knows he is technically right, but he senses  he is breaking an unspoken deal. It’s true. They both feel it, the way Josh offers too much help and too much time, how he acts in ways that would be sweet in a grown partner and are excessive in a teenage friend. How Ray  accepts this silent worship, half...

this is the one you were waiting for...

The nearly full moon guided him through the dark and got him home in the end, chilled and exhausted. Even in June, it got cold fast once the sun went down and he hadn’t dressed for it. His parents had gone to bed, as anyone with any sense would have. He’d have liked someone to receive him in the cold kitchen, it was all. He’d have liked someone of his own. Someone he wasn’t borrowing and always knew he had to give back. Was that why Ray didn’t get it? What he meant to Josh? Only he did  know,...