The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise

by Colleen Oakley

“I don’t know,” Louise said. “Sometimes it just feels like we still spend so much time trying to teach the house not to catch on fire, instead of teaching the arsonist not to light it.”

Once, it had seemed like her only option. Like life was only supposed to go one way. Like there was one road on a map she was expected to follow, and when she got knocked off it, she’d scrambled so hard to try and get back on it, she couldn’t see all the other routes available to her.

In life, there were two kinds of friends: friends who would wish you well on your journey to battle, and friends who would jump in the trenches with you. The latter were much more difficult to come by,