How common are novels, animes, or mangas, that are both coming of age and thriller? What do you think of these kinds of stories? What are some examples?

Miles puts the last bit of pizza into his mouth and stands up. “Got to go.”

“You think?” Alissa looks at the boy. “Hey, Miles.”

Alissa

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I’d like to cut everyone else out of the photo, but this way Alissa can come into my room without realizing what’s up. There’s no need to worry about Mint. She spends half her time floating in another dimension.

“Now?” Mint smiles. She knows I have no patience. When I have an idea, it has to happen right away.

So when a documentary maker asked me if I’d interview the effects of the fire on our family, I said yes immediately. The documentary was broadcast on a kids’ channel, and I hoped I’d be able to help someone, even if it was just one person.

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The people who lived in the house were in the bedrooms on the second floor, and no one could reach them. Dad tried to get through, but it was too dangerous. In the end, all he could do was stand and watch helplessly as the whole house burned down.

I follow Alissa’s gaze to Sky’s eyebrow piercing, which he had done a while ago. When he turned up at school the next day, the skin around the piercing was red and swollen. I touched my eyebrow, which also hurt for a few days.

Choose their game.

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“Where to?"

Absolutely none of it was his fault, but the accident still changed him. Dad stayed home from work, wandering around the house like a ghost. Even the firefighters who’d been with him that night couldn’t get through to him.

Get locked in a room.

It’s been over a month since I stopped taking sertraline but why do I still feel side effects like brain zaps and anxiety mood changes? The root cause of anxiety it’s your thinking and I perfectly master that better than before so it’s hard lately.

I hesitate because I need to get going, but something about her voice makes me stop.

I’m startled by my thought. After Karla, I made up my mind never to feel anything for a girl again. It’s easier to reject them all than to let anyone get close. Because when they get close, they start asking questions. Questions I can’t answer.

I know Mint’s mom can get, like, totally panicky, but it still shocks me every time. She talks to Mint like she’s a little kid. My younger sister’s nine, and not even she gets treated that much like a baby.

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Even now, I still feel that scared sometimes.

I’ve never talked to Miles, but whenever I go to meet Sky at work, I watch him from a distance.

Sky’s handsome too, but his rough-and-tough exterior scares a lot of people off. Which seems like a great idea to me.

Id ea voluptatem rerum temporibus expedita facere.

I don’t like it when people know my name and I don’t know theirs. Feels like I’m down 1–0.

Certainly not since last Christmas.

He kisses me on the forehead and closes the front door behind him. I watch through the glass as he rides his bike out of the front yard.

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Miles shakes his head irritably. “No, I’m not gay.”

“Sky’s paying for the pizza,” I say. “And the tip.”

She came up to my desk that first morning and asked if the seat next to me was taken. Alissa was the kind of girl who could have sat anywhere. She was so incredibly beautiful. Her eyes were the color of the sea on the Italian coast, where I’d spent the summer. I looked around suspiciously. Where were her giggling friends, laughing at me from a distance because I’d fallen for it?

What are some cute stories with your crush?

There's no getting away from this unputdownable thriller about teens being held captive in an escape room where the stakes are all too real. Perfect for a spooky season!

I curse to myself.

What would it feel like to kiss that soft bit of skin?

Why do guys on dating apps often just first message "hey" or "hey how are you" instead of being more creative and unique? How do they think being a copycat will stand out?

Alissa doesn’t have a clue that I only started dating Caitlin to divert attention.

I pick up the photo and hold it close to my face. There’s a small worn patch where I sometimes press my lips to it. We’re standing close together, our arms touching.

“Stop it.” Alissa quickly straightens her T-shirt. It’s a small gesture, but I can tell she’s nervous.

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Miles

The memory’s painful.

Miles

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Alissa

“What’s that in your nose?”

Alissa, Sky, Miles, and Mint are ready for a night of fun at the Escape Room.

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When I get home, I turn the amp for my electric drum kit up high. Drumming always works, but not this time. Even after playing for half an hour, I still feel angry. I pull off my headphones.

I’ve seen this girl before. She meets Sky after work sometimes. I noticed her immediately because she had the same blue eyes as me. Dad used to say I was the only one except him with blue peepers like this, but he was wrong. This girl’s eyes are hypnotic.

“You belong with me,” I say quietly to the photo. “You just need to see it.”

While emptying a house, have you ever seen something in it that blew your mind?

“Miles has half an hour to get here. After that, the pizza’s free.”

I fall back onto my bed and look at the group photo on my nightstand. Having it there makes it hard for me to sleep, but it’s even harder without it.

Sky grabs my wrist and looks at my watch. “Bang on time. Typical Miles. You see? He’s a punctual gay guy.”

I’m not sure I want to forget her.

I can see part of her bare neck.

The girl smiles. “Want a slice?”

Now and then I watch the documentary again. I see the dark circles under my eyes, which look anxiously into the camera.

Can I feel other people’s pain? Is that possible? It feels supernatural, weird. And if anyone finds out, I’ll get even more of a reputation for being crazy.

My heart skips a beat when I see that nothing’s changed. The sidewalk is lower in one place, where I could always ride over it on my bike without bumping the back wheel.

I know I should go, but somehow I find myself taking off my helmet and sitting down beside her.

Alissa waves a five-dollar bill around. It reminds me of the first day of junior high. I thought Alissa had made a bet then too.

Find the clues.

Sky lights his cigarette. “No need to get pissed. Gay people are cool.”

My dad’s already in his firefighter uniform when I come into the hallway.

It got loads of positive reactions from all kinds of young people, which pulled me through that tough time.

“You coming?” I ask Mint as she gets on her bike.

I get why the teachers say he’s direct. He’s like a bulldozer sometimes.

How is that possible? All this time, I’ve never gone the wrong way. I settled into our new place immediately.

Since when has Alissa wanted a piercing? I try to imagine what it would look like on her, a little ring through her eyebrow.

Sky

One night, when Dad was on duty, four people died in a fire, including one of his fellow firefighters. A beam burned through and collapsed on the guy’s head.

Alissa. Every pizza I deliver for the rest of the evening, I’m thinking about her. As I ride my scooter home, I can still see her bare neck.

The situation with Dad seemed to be going on forever, but at a certain point, it gradually started to get better. They gave him medication to calm him down. He saw a psychologist and, with the help of the other firefighters, he was even able to go back to work for half days.

So they’re talking about Miles, who works at the pizzeria with Sky. I’ve never seen him before, but Alissa’s mentioned him a few times.

I thought this was just about a bet, but Alissa smiled at Miles the way only she could. Her boy-slaying smile.

Caitlin’s in our year at school. If I squint, they even look a bit like each other. But Caitlin’s blue eyes don’t match up to the real thing.

But I haven’t forgotten.

I swallow the pizza. “And who are you?”

“Are you gay?” Sky asks.

“Mom . . .” Mint blushes.

Did Sky tell her my name?

A few minutes later, a scooter with a big blue trunk on the back drives into the park.

After a few months, he went back full-time and seemed to have forgotten it all.

But what happens if the Game Master has no intention of letting them go?

“He’s on his way, so now we just have to wait and see.” Sky puts his phone in his pocket and casually rolls a cigarette. He never has actual packs of cigarettes. Sky always does everything just a little bit differently from everyone else.

“Nice.” Mint went so pale as the needle sank into my nose. It was like she was the one who was suffering.

“Don’t think so.” Alissa takes out her wallet. “How much do you want to bet?”

But her voice sounds like she’s singing. Her eyes are an endless blue. And she smells like autumn sunshine.

A few minutes later, we’re riding our bikes into the upscale neighborhood where Mint lives. The first time I went to her house, I couldn’t believe my eyes. But Mint’s dad is a lawyer, so he earns way more than my dad, who works for the fire department.

I have no idea who my two best friends are talking about. Their conversations often pass me by, like I’m on the other side of a wall.

“Yep. It’s for us.” Then Sky points at Alissa. “She’s paying.”

“And who are you?” asks Miles.

In the window of number 39, there’s still a line of wooden cows on the ledge. I used to spend ages looking at them when I was a little kid. Dad stood patiently beside me as I counted them and gave them all names.

Sky’s voice brings me back to the present. “Let’s bet for a pizza,” he says. “And Miles can deliver it. Perfect.”

Sky points at his eyebrow. “So much gunk came out! I could have made it into a smoothie.”

Solve the puzzles.

“Sure.”

Nothing’s changed here, and yet everything has changed.

And escape the room in 60 minutes.

Dad tries to look stern, but then he bursts out laughing. “I think it’s cool. Hey, your mom will be home soon. Ruben and Koby are upstairs. Will you give Fenna a hand with her math homework?”

Miles stands out, not because he’s good-looking, but because he doesn’t seem to want to be. It’s as if his looks torment him somehow. And that’s something I recognize.

Why can’t I shake it off?

A girl with blond hair and a red scarf around her neck comes jogging into the park. As she passes us, she flashes me a quick smile.

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I turn my face from left to right. “Do you like it?”

When I was little, I used to spend hours awake in bed, waiting for my dad finally to come back safely from work. I didn’t dare close my eyes until he was home. Sometimes I didn’t manage to stay awake. Then I’d wake up with a start in the middle of the night and run barefoot to my mom and dad’s room. When I saw the lump on his side of the bed, I’d sneak back to my room, feeling relieved.

“Of course.”

Is he leaving because Sky asked that question? I realize that I’m riled up. I want Miles to look at me again the way he just did. It was like he could see much more than my exterior.

Mint

Alissa gives him a shove and he nearly falls off the back of the bench. “Stop! You’re going to scare me out of it.”

It’s only then that I notice the other girl on the bench. She’s leaning forward slightly, with her straight hair hanging over her face like two curtains. She doesn’t quite seem to belong.

Mint’s mom gives me a quick nod but then turns back to her daughter. “A deal is a deal.”

Boys like to check me out, and it drives me crazy. Andreas is the last boy I kissed, and I did like him. But after our kiss, I heard him bragging about it like I wasn’t even a person, just some “hot” girl.

“One pepperoni pizza?” The boy takes out a pizza box. The scent of melted cheese makes my mouth water.

A couple of weeks ago in Textile Studies, we had to make dresses out of garbage bags. Alissa pulled hers over her head, grabbed hold of it on one side, and shot a staple through the plastic. Then she paraded around the classroom like she was on a catwalk. Some of the boys started whistling. Even in a garbage bag, she was stunning.

Dad used to scream the whole house awake. Nightmares, Mom said, but that was an understatement.

“Did it hurt?” I hear Alissa ask. I’m back on the bench in the park. What were they talking about now?

All they need to do is get out.

I don’t realize where I am until I’m almost at the front door. This is my old street.

It's simple.

“What do you think?” I ask yet again when we’re both on our bikes.

At home, I sometimes stare at myself in the mirror. I don’t dare get a tattoo, but how about a piercing? Once I put a dot on the side of my nose with a Sharpie. The thought of a stud in my nose instantly made me feel stronger.

I hated that Fenna had to go through that. I wanted to do something to help, but I didn’t know what.

Fenna would climb into my bed, terrified, whenever Dad started screaming. I’d hold her until she fell asleep.

These days I do sleep, but never very deeply.

Miles breaks in front of our bench and gives Sky a wave. When he lifts the visor of his helmet, I see two bright blue eyes, like Alissa’s. But there’s something cold about these eyes. They have nothing to do with the Italian sea but are more like icy water. I get a weird feeling that I can’t quite identify.

But there was no one else there. We were the only ones in the classroom.

We’re sitting so close that Miles’s leg is touching mine. He’s looking at me as if he hopes to find something in my face. His eyes scan every inch of my skin.

At first, I thought it was a coincidence, but then when Alissa broke her wrist in the gym, mine was painful for weeks too.

“Where were you?”

My stomach’s churning, like I’m about to take an important exam.

“Alissa.”

“To get the piercing?”

“He’s gay. For sure.” Sky’s sitting on the backrest of the bench, right behind Alissa and me. It’s just the three of us. The rest of the park is deserted.

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“Where’s that pizza?” Alissa asks impatiently.

At the door, Mint reaches for her keys, but the light in the hallway goes on and her mom opens up.

“It’s almost time for your break, isn’t it? Come on, have some.” Seems the girl with the blue eyes knows not just my name, but my work schedule too.

Alissa likes him.

“Here.” The pretty girl passes me the box. As I eat my slice, I dare to take a closer look at her. There has to be something about her that’s disappointing, something that’ll help me to forget about her later.