Cut Here

Not an editorial direction. The title of the piece. Time to start telling the truth.

Of course none of this would have happened if I were better at math.

It’s summer and the dark, unfamiliar hallways of Lawrence High School intimidate me at age 13. But summer school is for dummies like me. And him.

I’ve loved this boy since the 6th grade.

That first autumn of junior high school, I arrived back in Kansas just a few days before classes start…