Given Our History: A Novel

by Kristyn J. Miller

I had a mood board on Polyvore and everything.

me writing 1d fanfic

“Good. I think the instructor for women’s lit is going to be a real stickler about MLA, though. She made us all go to the Purdue website and popcorn read the guidelines.”

literally did this last week

“Read some smut, maybe. I have a whole reading list I can send you.” “Anything with vampires?” I ask through a mouthful of potato chips.

ME

For old times’ sake. Practically the magic words, though I’m not sure he knows it. Everything about him is always so nostalgic and sticky-sweet, and that’s exactly why rekindling our friendship is a bad idea.

I want to get the answers right, bickering with Teddy over Jane Austen characters and the invention of penicillin.

But it occurs to me that I am very much in danger of the thing I’ve been most afraid of: loving a man who knows better than to open his heart to me again.

His eyes crinkle at the corners and even after he looks back down at his work, the smile lingers. And I’m suddenly, acutely aware of just how much I’ve missed him.

“People don’t change, really. But I think that’s one of the worst things about us. Here we are, with entire histories at our fingertips, answers to all your questions only a Google search away, but the reality is that people never learn a goddamn thing.”