Page 260 of Scoring the Player

---

Ipop the cake onto a rack to cool.

I know this moment where everything in my life is good, perfect even, won’t always stay.

My brother is upstairs sleeping, Blue and Sim are over there on the couch, and my parents are good.

Blue sometimes needs to go away, even when we’re in the same room, but he always comes back.

All I can do is love him and give him the space that he needs.

I’m learning to trust.

Trust that I can let go.

Trust that, even if it isn’t within my control, it just might turn out all right.

After all, life has taught me that with an ounce of courage and a sprinkle of fate, you just might end up scoring the man of your dreams.

EPILOGUE- ARNAZ

Zuri told me that my homework is to try to talk to you. We’ve been sitting with you more. She asked if I felt ready to talk. I told her I’m not sure there’s a point.

Plus, you probably won’t hear me because you’re hiding in the corner of the room.

You can come out whenever you want, you know.

Zuri says you may need some convincing.

I asked her how I’d do that, and she said to sit with you. She said that if I can’t speak to you, maybe I could write to you.

We were always too nervous to sit still long enough to read back then.

I guess that’s not my problem. All I can do is try.

I won’t bullshit you. The next twenty or so years are shit for you.

Externally, it looks like you’re winning at life, but inside, you’re as lost as you are now…angrier too.

But you survive.

Anaïs survives too.

She even figures out what’s causing her pain every month, and she gets surgery. It’s not a cure, but it helps. You can stop crying over that now.

Them? They’re still around.

I know that matters to you because no matter how shitty they were to you, you were always so terrified of them leaving.

They don’t leave. But they’re also never there. Not for the years that mattered anyway.

But they live.

And you…

My pen pauses.

I just went to flex my feet, but there’s a seventy-pound dog stretched across my legs. He loses his shit whenever he sees you.

He howls for you.

---