I may be cringe but I am free

Anyway, I know some people think he was trying to initiate an actual relationship or exclusivity, but I really don’t. His dad was still alive at that point, that just wouldn’t have occurred to him as an option. I think the most realistic option is that he was trying to move them from “this is just a one-night stand that somehow keeps happening over and over again” to friends-with-benefits. He’s talking about girls like “I have relationships in my life where we’re friends who also fuck, do you have relationships like that? We could have a relationship like that, maybe.”

This makes me think about an idea for a canon divergent story that I will probably never actually write because IDEK I’m allergic to angst, but:

Ilya does a slightly better job of explaining that he just wants them to be friends who fuck. He says something about how it seems like Shane could use more friends. Shane doesn’t freak out and leave. Shane still meets Rose, doesn’t try to date her but does get papped hanging out with her and Ilya texts him like “???” and Shane says “I thought you said I could use more friends.”

So they continue on relatively the same, they text a little more, Ilya spends the night that next game in Montreal. Maaaaaybe (we’re in book canon here) Shane actually lets him come over to his actual apartment. All-Star weekend is business as usual, there’s no cathartic conversation about Shane being gay, them being more or Ilya’s reasons why they can’t do that. 

But then! After All-Stars, a reporter asks Ilya about playing on the same team with Shane for the first time. And Ilya is like “Rivalry has been going on for years, is boring. I think instead Shane Hollander and I are friends now.” And Ilya is just kind of swaggering his way through that being the new reality and Shane is like “Yeah … Rozanov is a great player” and wanting to murder Ilya a little bit but secretly not hating it. 

They want buckskin and face paint, drumming, songs in languages they can’t understand recorded for them but with English subtitles, of course. They want educated, well spoken, but not too smart. Christian, well behaved, never question. They want to learn the history of the people, but not the ones that are here now, waving signs in their faces, asking them for clean drinking water, asking them why their women are going missing, asking them why their land is being ruined.

They want fantastical stories of Indians that used to roam this land. They want my culture behind glass in a museum.

Every study I've seen has shown that the number one easiest most effective way to avoid racial discrimination in hiring is to blank out the candidate's names on their resume

If literary magazines actually want to fix racism or transphobia in publishing or the literary scene, they need to not require people give them information that will blatantly and unavoidably force many, many job candidates to reveal themselves as part of legally protected classes!!!

I have been in regular contact with Mohammed for almost 2 years now. Please help him and his family!The money will reach him quicker if you can donate through Paypal, which is managed by my friend who regularly sends the donations to Mohammed.

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