Payton Hall Boy -

12:15 PM. Eats alone in the band room, where an old grand piano sits unused. He plays one chord—D minor 7—and lets it decay. That is his entire lunch period.

6:47 AM. Payton wakes before his alarm. Stares at the water stain on his ceiling that resembles a wolf howling. Does not move for four minutes. payton hall boy

7:12 AM. In the hallway of his own house, he passes a framed photo of himself at age 8, missing two front teeth, holding a fish he didn’t catch. He wonders who that child was. 12:15 PM

11:03 PM. He lies in bed, headphones on, listening to Sea Change by Beck. He is not sad, exactly. He is practicing for a future sadness he feels certain will come. That is his entire lunch period

8:30 AM. At school, he watches Margot laugh at something Liam said. The sound is a small, clean bell. He writes in his journal: “She laughs like she’s surprising herself.”