Dream On, Ramona Riley

walking in on Olive making out with Ethan Townes in her bedroom when she was sixteen, and a conversation about condoms, which ended with Ramona setting a box on Olive’s nightstand while her sister fled into the shower.

Still, in all her excitement over Olive’s future, she had to admit, facing an empty nest at the age of thirty-one was a bit overwhelming.

April’s words, DNA-altering sex.

Also, she had such a hard time finding unique pieces to fit her plus-size figure—her boobs in particular—she designed most of her own clothes back then.

“Oh, it’s true,” Marion said. “The movie is one of those ‘love is love’ stories, so you two ought to like that.”

both she and April devouring any queer romance they could get their hands on.

a Black trans woman who had started transitioning when she was only sixteen and living with her supportive widower father in south Georgia

She fired Vance, fired her assistant, and spent the next six months locked up in her house eating delivery food and reading multiple novels a week, consuming anyone and everyone’s story except her own, and feeling ridiculously sorry for herself.

Ramona’s chest tightened. Everything April was saying was essentially true—she did have dashed dreams and she had deferred her career plans, all of which Olive knew about—but she never wanted Olive to feel as though she was second place or a backup plan or, even worse, had ruined Ramona’s life.

Dylan shifted to look at her, eyes so dark brown, they seemed fathomless. And freckles. Ramona had so many freckles—Dylan never knew she liked freckles, but god, she did. And paired with Ramona’s long lashes and pert little mouth, Dylan was having a hard time focusing.

First—Of course, yes, right, ninth grade, how could I forget, wink-wink.

“I’m fine,” Dylan said.

Ramona wasn’t sure how to process that. She’d always assumed Olive did in fact tell her everything, because that’s the way she and Olive had always been. They were Lorelai and Rory from Gilmore Girls, complicated parental issues and all, granted without the teen pregnancy and Lorelai’s constant horrible decisions.

DTR