How common are novels, animes, or mangas, that are both coming of age and thriller? What do you think of these kinds of stories? What are some examples?

Since when has Alissa wanted a piercing? I try to imagine what it would look like on her, a little ring through her eyebrow.

I thought this was just about a bet, but Alissa smiled at Miles the way only she could. Her boy-slaying smile.

Solve the puzzles.

What are some examples of unofficial acts by presidents?

When I get home, I turn the amp for my electric drum kit up high. Drumming always works, but not this time. Even after playing for half an hour, I still feel angry. I pull off my headphones.

“And who are you?” asks Miles.

And escape the room in 60 minutes.

What is your wildest experience in Bangalore that you haven’t told anyone?

The memory’s painful.

I follow Alissa’s gaze to Sky’s eyebrow piercing, which he had done a while ago. When he turned up at school the next day, the skin around the piercing was red and swollen. I touched my eyebrow, which also hurt for a few days.

At the door, Mint reaches for her keys, but the light in the hallway goes on and her mom opens up.

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“It’s almost time for your break, isn’t it? Come on, have some.” Seems the girl with the blue eyes knows not just my name, but my work schedule too.

All they need to do is get out.

“Where were you?”

My grandmother deeded me her house before she passed last year. Her son still lives there refusing to move. What steps should I take to have him removed?

I have no idea who my two best friends are talking about. Their conversations often pass me by, like I’m on the other side of a wall.

“Here.” The pretty girl passes me the box. As I eat my slice, I dare to take a closer look at her. There has to be something about her that’s disappointing, something that’ll help me to forget about her later.

“Alissa.”

Why am I sweating so much when I try to do anything?

“He’s gay. For sure.” Sky’s sitting on the backrest of the bench, right behind Alissa and me. It’s just the three of us. The rest of the park is deserted.

Mint

“Of course.”

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I’ve never talked to Miles, but whenever I go to meet Sky at work, I watch him from a distance.

It's simple.

Can I feel other people’s pain? Is that possible? It feels supernatural, weird. And if anyone finds out, I’ll get even more of a reputation for being crazy.

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Miles

Did Sky tell her my name?

Alissa, Sky, Miles, and Mint are ready for a night of fun at the Escape Room.

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Sky’s handsome too, but his rough-and-tough exterior scares a lot of people off. Which seems like a great idea to me.

Choose their game.

“Did it hurt?” I hear Alissa ask. I’m back on the bench in the park. What were they talking about now?

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A few minutes later, a scooter with a big blue trunk on the back drives into the park.

I can see part of her bare neck.

I swallow the pizza. “And who are you?”

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One night, when Dad was on duty, four people died in a fire, including one of his fellow firefighters. A beam burned through and collapsed on the guy’s head.

Alissa. Every pizza I deliver for the rest of the evening, I’m thinking about her. As I ride my scooter home, I can still see her bare neck.

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“To get the piercing?”

“Nice.” Mint went so pale as the needle sank into my nose. It was like she was the one who was suffering.

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Absolutely none of it was his fault, but the accident still changed him. Dad stayed home from work, wandering around the house like a ghost. Even the firefighters who’d been with him that night couldn’t get through to him.

Mint’s mom gives me a quick nod but then turns back to her daughter. “A deal is a deal.”

“Where’s that pizza?” Alissa asks impatiently.

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At home, I sometimes stare at myself in the mirror. I don’t dare get a tattoo, but how about a piercing? Once I put a dot on the side of my nose with a Sharpie. The thought of a stud in my nose instantly made me feel stronger.

Miles

My heart skips a beat when I see that nothing’s changed. The sidewalk is lower in one place, where I could always ride over it on my bike without bumping the back wheel.

What is the gayest experience you have seen in prison?

Alissa likes him.

“One pepperoni pizza?” The boy takes out a pizza box. The scent of melted cheese makes my mouth water.

Dad used to scream the whole house awake. Nightmares, Mom said, but that was an understatement.

“Don’t think so.” Alissa takes out her wallet. “How much do you want to bet?”

The situation with Dad seemed to be going on forever, but at a certain point, it gradually started to get better. They gave him medication to calm him down. He saw a psychologist and, with the help of the other firefighters, he was even able to go back to work for half days.

I know I should go, but somehow I find myself taking off my helmet and sitting down beside her.

Fenna would climb into my bed, terrified, whenever Dad started screaming. I’d hold her until she fell asleep.

The girl smiles. “Want a slice?”

“Stop it.” Alissa quickly straightens her T-shirt. It’s a small gesture, but I can tell she’s nervous.

Alissa gives him a shove and he nearly falls off the back of the bench. “Stop! You’re going to scare me out of it.”

So they’re talking about Miles, who works at the pizzeria with Sky. I’ve never seen him before, but Alissa’s mentioned him a few times.

“Sky’s paying for the pizza,” I say. “And the tip.”

I curse to myself.

It’s only then that I notice the other girl on the bench. She’s leaning forward slightly, with her straight hair hanging over her face like two curtains. She doesn’t quite seem to belong.

“You think?” Alissa looks at the boy. “Hey, Miles.”

Miles puts the last bit of pizza into his mouth and stands up. “Got to go.”

My stomach’s churning, like I’m about to take an important exam.

Get locked in a room.

Boys like to check me out, and it drives me crazy. Andreas is the last boy I kissed, and I did like him. But after our kiss, I heard him bragging about it like I wasn’t even a person, just some “hot” girl.

But her voice sounds like she’s singing. Her eyes are an endless blue. And she smells like autumn sunshine.

Sky’s voice brings me back to the present. “Let’s bet for a pizza,” he says. “And Miles can deliver it. Perfect.”

I hesitate because I need to get going, but something about her voice makes me stop.

Miles stands out, not because he’s good-looking, but because he doesn’t seem to want to be. It’s as if his looks torment him somehow. And that’s something I recognize.

“Are you gay?” Sky asks.

After a few months, he went back full-time and seemed to have forgotten it all.

But I haven’t forgotten.

In the window of number 39, there’s still a line of wooden cows on the ledge. I used to spend ages looking at them when I was a little kid. Dad stood patiently beside me as I counted them and gave them all names.

At first, I thought it was a coincidence, but then when Alissa broke her wrist in the gym, mine was painful for weeks too.

“Miles has half an hour to get here. After that, the pizza’s free.”

Miles shakes his head irritably. “No, I’m not gay.”

I pick up the photo and hold it close to my face. There’s a small worn patch where I sometimes press my lips to it. We’re standing close together, our arms touching.

Sky

I’m not sure I want to forget her.

Alissa

“Now?” Mint smiles. She knows I have no patience. When I have an idea, it has to happen right away.

My dad’s already in his firefighter uniform when I come into the hallway.

But there was no one else there. We were the only ones in the classroom.

I get why the teachers say he’s direct. He’s like a bulldozer sometimes.

These days I do sleep, but never very deeply.

She came up to my desk that first morning and asked if the seat next to me was taken. Alissa was the kind of girl who could have sat anywhere. She was so incredibly beautiful. Her eyes were the color of the sea on the Italian coast, where I’d spent the summer. I looked around suspiciously. Where were her giggling friends, laughing at me from a distance because I’d fallen for it?

“He’s on his way, so now we just have to wait and see.” Sky puts his phone in his pocket and casually rolls a cigarette. He never has actual packs of cigarettes. Sky always does everything just a little bit differently from everyone else.

I don’t like it when people know my name and I don’t know theirs. Feels like I’m down 1–0.

Sky grabs my wrist and looks at my watch. “Bang on time. Typical Miles. You see? He’s a punctual gay guy.”

Now and then I watch the documentary again. I see the dark circles under my eyes, which look anxiously into the camera.

We’re sitting so close that Miles’s leg is touching mine. He’s looking at me as if he hopes to find something in my face. His eyes scan every inch of my skin.

How is that possible? All this time, I’ve never gone the wrong way. I settled into our new place immediately.

Even now, I still feel that scared sometimes.

Why can’t I shake it off?

What would it feel like to kiss that soft bit of skin?

Alissa waves a five-dollar bill around. It reminds me of the first day of junior high. I thought Alissa had made a bet then too.

Is he leaving because Sky asked that question? I realize that I’m riled up. I want Miles to look at me again the way he just did. It was like he could see much more than my exterior.

Find the clues.

Certainly not since last Christmas.

He kisses me on the forehead and closes the front door behind him. I watch through the glass as he rides his bike out of the front yard.

It got loads of positive reactions from all kinds of young people, which pulled me through that tough time.

Miles breaks in front of our bench and gives Sky a wave. When he lifts the visor of his helmet, I see two bright blue eyes, like Alissa’s. But there’s something cold about these eyes. They have nothing to do with the Italian sea but are more like icy water. I get a weird feeling that I can’t quite identify.

A few minutes later, we’re riding our bikes into the upscale neighborhood where Mint lives. The first time I went to her house, I couldn’t believe my eyes. But Mint’s dad is a lawyer, so he earns way more than my dad, who works for the fire department.

“Mom . . .” Mint blushes.

A couple of weeks ago in Textile Studies, we had to make dresses out of garbage bags. Alissa pulled hers over her head, grabbed hold of it on one side, and shot a staple through the plastic. Then she paraded around the classroom like she was on a catwalk. Some of the boys started whistling. Even in a garbage bag, she was stunning.

“You coming?” I ask Mint as she gets on her bike.

Sky points at his eyebrow. “So much gunk came out! I could have made it into a smoothie.”

Caitlin’s in our year at school. If I squint, they even look a bit like each other. But Caitlin’s blue eyes don’t match up to the real thing.

“Yep. It’s for us.” Then Sky points at Alissa. “She’s paying.”

But what happens if the Game Master has no intention of letting them go?

I turn my face from left to right. “Do you like it?”

“What’s that in your nose?”

Dad tries to look stern, but then he bursts out laughing. “I think it’s cool. Hey, your mom will be home soon. Ruben and Koby are upstairs. Will you give Fenna a hand with her math homework?”

I’m startled by my thought. After Karla, I made up my mind never to feel anything for a girl again. It’s easier to reject them all than to let anyone get close. Because when they get close, they start asking questions. Questions I can’t answer.

I fall back onto my bed and look at the group photo on my nightstand. Having it there makes it hard for me to sleep, but it’s even harder without it.

Nothing’s changed here, and yet everything has changed.

A girl with blond hair and a red scarf around her neck comes jogging into the park. As she passes us, she flashes me a quick smile.

Alissa doesn’t have a clue that I only started dating Caitlin to divert attention.

When I was little, I used to spend hours awake in bed, waiting for my dad finally to come back safely from work. I didn’t dare close my eyes until he was home. Sometimes I didn’t manage to stay awake. Then I’d wake up with a start in the middle of the night and run barefoot to my mom and dad’s room. When I saw the lump on his side of the bed, I’d sneak back to my room, feeling relieved.

I’ve seen this girl before. She meets Sky after work sometimes. I noticed her immediately because she had the same blue eyes as me. Dad used to say I was the only one except him with blue peepers like this, but he was wrong. This girl’s eyes are hypnotic.

“You belong with me,” I say quietly to the photo. “You just need to see it.”

“Where to?"

I don’t realize where I am until I’m almost at the front door. This is my old street.

I know Mint’s mom can get, like, totally panicky, but it still shocks me every time. She talks to Mint like she’s a little kid. My younger sister’s nine, and not even she gets treated that much like a baby.

I’d like to cut everyone else out of the photo, but this way Alissa can come into my room without realizing what’s up. There’s no need to worry about Mint. She spends half her time floating in another dimension.

“What do you think?” I ask yet again when we’re both on our bikes.

“Sure.”

I hated that Fenna had to go through that. I wanted to do something to help, but I didn’t know what.

Sky lights his cigarette. “No need to get pissed. Gay people are cool.”

So when a documentary maker asked me if I’d interview the effects of the fire on our family, I said yes immediately. The documentary was broadcast on a kids’ channel, and I hoped I’d be able to help someone, even if it was just one person.

Alissa

~~ Amazon Books

The people who lived in the house were in the bedrooms on the second floor, and no one could reach them. Dad tried to get through, but it was too dangerous. In the end, all he could do was stand and watch helplessly as the whole house burned down.