#lynltp

what happens to it if he can't compete anymore?

Ok I actually have a headcanon for this I just didn't find a way to include it in the book.

So he finds out he's going to lose his scholarship in the same conversation in which his very baffled academic counselor informs him that his tuition for the semester has, nonetheless, already been paid by an anonymous donor.

And he goes home to have an argument with Alex about it because he just assumes it was Alex. But Alex is like, no?? I didn't even think about that. Why didn't I think about it? Who did?

But it remains a mystery and Eli starts saving his Youtube Money and is like, if that doesn't cover it maybe I'll let Alex help, we'll see. Except next semester rolls around and his tuition is paid for again. And again it wasn't Alex.

Alex's mom (and her whole family 2.0) more or less pretend that Alex doesn't exist since that's most convenient for them (less because he's gay and more because she'd prefer that she never had a wild youth and was the perfect housewife from day 1 with her perfect husband and kids who look just like him).

However, I do have a head-canon that Alex's baby half-sister Katie ("call me Kat or I will shank you") comes out as bisexual in high school and her parents had 0 prep and handle it badly, not in a "she's in danger sort of way" but in a "we're well-meaning but our response is deeply hurtful" way. And being a strong independent teenager, she's like well fuck that, I'm out.

So one day Eli opens the door and there's a furious teenage girl who's like, "whattup, I'm Alex's half-sister Kat, I've run away from home and I'm not going back and you can't make me; you have to harbor my fugitive ass because I'm queer and also sort of related to you. Do you have anything to eat?" And Eli is like, "how did you know where we live? how did you even get here?" and she says, with a degree of distain only a teenager can muster, "mom has your address so she can send her stupid Christmas card every year. And I got here on a plane, duh." And he's like, "well, you better come inside because the baby is going to wake up any second and also my southern upbringing dictates that I feed anyone who expresses the slightest indication of hunger."

It turns out she's crazy for itty bitty sleepy infants and he conveniently has one of those. So he gets her a healthy snack and leaves her cooing over their fresh spawn and franticly calls Alex from the other room (it's playoffs and he's on the road, naturally). Alex ends up having to call his mom for the first time in a decade. Long story short, Kat stays with them for a few weeks since summer vacation has just started and she's, you know, full of riteous fury. But after a couple weeks things simmer down and apologies are made. Because Alex's mom and her husband realize this isn't a phase they can talk their kid out of and they're going to lose her if they don't act right. So they actually start having productive, meaningful conversations with Alex and Eli and over the next several years their relationship drastically improves. Kat visits often and actually lives with them through college (she goes to the same fictional university Eli did in Houston) to save money on housing and help out with her nieces and they stay super close. So that relationship never fully heals, but it gets better. And it gives them Kat.

I also head-canon that during Kat’s junior year of college, when she's still living with them, Alex and Eli let a new rookie stay with them for a bit. Naturally, Kat and Rookie end up falling for each other which gives Alex a very fatherly existential crisis and nearly gives Rookie a heart attack when Alex catches Kat sneaking out of Rookie's bedroom one night.

The author copies have arrived! And Deacon is hard at work signing them (and bookplates).

I’ll start sending them out tomorrow in batches of 20 per day. But I’ve got 150 books to send (between LYNLTP and LRPD) so it will take a while to get them all out. I will email you once yours is sent and make posts on all my social media accounts at the end to make sure I haven’t forgotten anyone.

It’s Cover Reveal Day!!!

Like You’ve Nothing Left to Prove (book two in the Breakaway series) will be released spring of 2023 from NineStar Press.

⛸🏒🦮🥗😌🐐🌈🐈