Mrs. Fletcher

This chapter is in first person and adopts Brendan’s perspective. Brendan feels apprehensive about starting college; after the long build-up, he is anxious about starting over in a place where no one knows him. Brendan heads out to dinner with Zack, two other jocks Will and Rico, the more sensitive Dylan, and Sanjay, “a skinny nerd” (19) with high test scores and an ambition to be an architect. Brendan immediately judges that Sanjay will not be part of their friendship group and pays attention to the other guys, who try to impress each other with stories of excess eating and drinking. During the meal, Becca texts him, requesting a Skype session. Brendan, who does not miss her, inwardly groans but reluctantly acknowledges that he ought to clean up the confusion after he broke up with her, drunk-sexted her, and accepted her parting gift of oral sex.

Although Brendan asks Zack for privacy while he is making the Skype call, Zack hangs around and makes sexually explicit gestures. Brendan, who prioritizes bonding with Zack over Becca, does not tell her that he is still in the room. Becca admits that she watched a YouTube video on how to give oral sex. She asks Brendan to come for the weekend, or whether she can visit. Brendan intends to apologize to her and reinforce that they have broken up, but he cannot think straight with Zack in the background. Before saying goodbye, Becca lifts her breasts to the screen, and Zack is delighted. Before going to sleep, Brendan texts his mother that college is awesome. Zack tells Brendan that his mother is a “MILF,” an acronym for “Mom I’d Like to Fuck” (28). Brendan cannot let himself admit that Zack is behaving creepily. 

This chapter is in third person, from Eve’s perspective. Eve struggles to adjust to the changes in her life since Brendan’s departure. As executive director of the Haddington Senior Center, Eve is successful professionally, but she has a difficult day when she must tell George Rafferty that his father, Roy Rafferty, has been forbidden from the Center for masturbating in the women’s bathroom. Later, Eve finds herself “staring into the abyss of Labor Day weekend, three blank, desolate squares on her calendar” (33), and regrets that she has not made any plans. Eve longs to hear from Brendan, but her ex-husband Ted calls instead. Ted claims that he is not worried about Brendan’s copious drinking, terming it typical behavior for a college student. That night, Eve is woken up by a text from an anonymous caller who calls her a “MILF” and asks for a naked picture. She is at first “deeply disturbed” by the message but judges that it is from an anonymous prankster.

This chapter is written in first person, from Brendan’s perspective. Brendan spends most of his orientation week with Zack: partying, doing athletic activities, and chatting up girls. He meets with his academic advisor Devin Torborg, who asks him about his ambitions. Brendan says that he wants to be an Economics major and work his way into a job and a six-figure salary. At the end of their meeting, Devin asks Brendan whether he knows about sexual consent. At the Activities Fair, Brendan meets Amber from the Autism Awareness Network. Although Amber, who “looked like a farm girl, freckles and a blond ponytail, and big shoulders, almost like a guy” (45) is not Brendan’s usual type, he finds himself attracted to her. Both Amber’s brother and Brendan’s half-brother (his father’s son, Jon-Jon) have autism. That night, when Brendan hears Zack masturbating, he decides to “join the party” (48) and begins masturbating while he thinks of Amber. 

This chapter is written in third person, from Eve’s perspective. Eve takes a Gender and Society evening class at Eastern Community Centre, which is delivered by Margo, a transgender woman. For Eve, the topic is less important than the fact that she is “making her world bigger instead of hunkering down, disappearing into her own solitude” (50). The class participants are of diverse ages, genders, and ethnicities; however, there are several middle-aged white men who wound up in the class by default. On the way back to the parking lot, Eve is accompanied by Barry, a misogynist bartender who talks disparagingly about the effects of childbearing on women’s bodies. Eve goes home, and after losing time to Facebook, winds up thinking about pornography. While to date, Eve has shunned pornography, she finds herself watching endless videos of MILFs; women of maternal age having sex in front of a camera. She begins to become obsessed with this pursuit.