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Aaron Starmer is the author of numerous novels for young readers, including The Only Ones and The Riverman. Spontaneous is his first YA novel, and is being developed into a film. He lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter.
AARON STARMER
Published in Great Britain in 2017 by Canongate Books Ltd,
14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE
This digital edition first published in 2017 by Canongate Books
Copyright © Aaron Starmer, 2016
First published in the USA in 2016 by Dutton Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
The moral right of the author has been asserted
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 78689 061 0
eISBN 978 1 78689 062 7
To the ones who feel like it could all come apart at any moment . . . and to the ones who comfort us and keep us together
Call the death by any name Your Highness will,
attribute it to whom you will,
or say it might have been prevented how you will.
It is the same death eternally—inborn, inbred,
engendered in the corrupted humours of the vicious body itself,
and that only—Spontaneous Combustion,
and none other of all the deaths that can be died.
charles dickens
Bleak House
Contents
Other stupid things that were done
A little further in the future
Drugs
What to do on a second date
You’re probably wondering
The benefits of cyberstalking
Another part of the story
A meeting of minds
Hate to break it to you
At the edge of dodge
What you have to understand
Sorry, not sorry
Because of that
At 10:31
Where our world was headed
The calm
The storm
Making an impression
What they did to us
Before we knew it
The showdown
The revelation
Just so you know
Thankful
Even more honesty for you
All the feels
What we did
Phew
Passing time
Well, not all of them
Let’s stop right now
Marigold and memoreasi
If only
Party hardy
How we got home
How we got it done
School redux
Evolution
Picture day
A stranger comes to town
The benefits of cyberstalking, part 2