The final part of my short story! Ellipses The best times are the simplest: leaning towards each other over the counter, teasing and being teased by Nora. Sprawling out on the couch with a bowl of white cheddar popcorn, talking about books for hours, piling up phone bills. Him catching me as I walk down [...]

Here’s Part Nine! Comma It’s a role reversal. Others constantly tried to make me laugh, like it was some sort of game they were going to win. I loved that, but not as much as I love those rare occasions when I’ll say or do something and he will actually laugh out loud. The only [...]

Here is part eight of my short story!! Colon I erupt finally, and I get the feeling he’s hiding a grin, “Why don’t you just make me a list of all the things you think are lame and then you’ll never have to tell them to me again!” He smiles that half smile that used [...]

Ampersand I know that Dad still doesn’t like him. Yes, he was rude to him the first time they met, but I would have thought that of anyone Dad would understand the need to protect yourself through words. But being glib isn’t the best way to get on Dad’s good side, and when Dad finally [...]

Part Seven! Hyphen Other than that one time with the 2,507 miles (his front step to mine, a moment I replay again and again), he never talks about the future. I tell him about working in D.C. someday, about being a speechwriter. I tell him about all the places I want to visit and the [...]

Part Six! Parentheses Books start disappearing from my shelves, but I’m not worried. They’re always returned soon—usually the next day, though how he can be with the family he’s visiting and manage to read Housekeeping all in one day is beyond me—with notes scribbled in the margins, and I smile. Some books have more notes [...]

Part Five Backslash He is the whole world.. He’s adventure and books I never would have thought of reading and movies I would never watch and ways of looking at things that I couldn’t have imagined. Not everybody sees what I see. And maybe he’s the bad boy, but he’s going to be a good [...]

Part Four Quotation Marks I like the way he says my name, rolling the syllables around on his tongue. He knows the weight of every word, but when he says this one, I feel as though it has more weight or meaning than any other word in the world. I have a lot of dreams, [...]

Part Three Exclamation Point After running in the rain, Sarah develops a crush on him, and I am giddy over all the teasing I get to do. I spend time thinking of new quips to make—things about his “crazy” clothes and how he and Sarah are a perfect couple since he almost never talks and [...]

Part Two: Asterisk Looking back, it seems inevitable, as though I knew from the first time he entered my room and trailed his eyes over my books with a sort of reverence that belied his caustic comment that we were meant to be together. I’m not the type to say things like that; I’m much [...]