S. I. ’s Reviews > Unloved > Status Update

“I know my mom is gone. But she is here, in me. In my softness with Ro. In Archer’s love of me. In Elsie’s vibrant green eyes. I can feel her everywhere, even when I’m not looking for her.”

Ughhh hallelujah NO THIRD ACT BREAKUP actually they didn’t even break up like ugh my unproblematic queens and no misunderstandings?? Miscommunication?? Don’t know her

“Her name is Elsie. Elsie Rose Shariff.”
Ro rolls her eyes at the middle name, but I’m beaming. Named my favorite girl after the two most important women in my life.
And she’s a Shariff. Like her mother. Like me, because I’d taken Ro’s last name after we married. My mom wasn’t a Fredderic. The only father figure I truly knew, Archer, wasn’t a Fredderic.
🥲

“But it won’t make you feel any better. Trust me.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“I’m serious,” Toren says, jerking me again. “I’ve been doing this for years.”
“And?”
“And what? Still feels like I got shot in the fucking stomach and I’m bleeding out.” He lands a hit square to my abdomen, but I tense, seeing it coming. “It never stops, and it never hurts less
Idc I love him he js misunderstood🥲

“Sometimes the people we love most hurt us the easiest, even if they don’t mean to.”
I pause, struck a little by the statement.
“And do you forgive them?”
“Yeah. At least… for her. I’ll always forgive her.” He grips the steering wheel harder. “Don’t think I could hold a grudge against her if I tried.”
Bennett ik ur book gonna hurt

“A few times—when I’ve had to go away for the whole weekend or miss a tutoring session for a two-a-day practice, and especially when studying for an upcoming exam—she sends me audio files to go over the missed topics. I’m sure the guys on the team bus think music is thumping through my ears. But it’s the voice of my favorite girl in the world”

She’s so thoughtful ☹️

Matty. It pours over my skin like warmth and comfort. Home.”
His mommy used to call him that☹️

“Accusing you of not applying yourself? God—I’m insulted for you. To fight me on that? They don’t know anything about you.”
Ro swings back toward me, finger wagging toward my face. “Don’t listen to a single thing they said. You’re so smart and kind and I’m proud of you, so… So screw them! You’re better than all of them anyway, Matty. Smarter, too.”
I should laugh, but I can’t breathe.
🥲

I think this is not only a viable option for Matt, but I believe it is the only option this school can offer without bringing an internal investigation in the handling of learning differences and accommodations that have not been reported, nor offered, in this case.”
The entire room stretches in the silence, while my joy feels almost tangible.
No one, since my mother, has defended me so fiercely”
TUH

“Seven, lifts his head from the bed before stepping gently over someone in Bennett’s bed.
My eyebrows shoot up—because Bennett doesn’t date or even sleep around, from what I know. And I’ve known Bennett Reiner for going on four years now.
His service dog pads toward him with a whine and nudges his hand with a wet nose. Bennett whispers, “Go back to her,” so quietly I can barely hear him”

BENNETT

“Do you? I think. Because it’s looking like he spent all summer feeling up some blond Yale genius when you were supposedly dating.
“And I score on defended nets all the time.” Freddy shrugs, then leans across the now-too-short table to peer up at me with playful eyes and a pretty smile. “The goalie makes scoring more difficult, not impossibl”

MWHAHAHAHA