Good Kids: A Novel

by Nugent, Benjamin

  “Asshole,” I heard Allison mutter under her breath as they ran.

  Rachel went after them. Maybe I should have gone and helped with the emergency, too, but I was very tired, suddenly, overwhelmed. I considered the situation. My father and Allison had been married now for ten years. Given the age of the girls, they would have to hang tough another twelve. Longer than my father and my mother had endured each other. And, when I was a child, my parents, preferring whispering and occasional violence, had traded overtly hostile words like this only on very special occasions: the shattering of Paquette china, the disparaging of my mother’s meditation teacher. The life that these girls had been drawn into, the air they would breathe in this largely wall-free apartment—there was no predicting anything.

  Lucia marched in and interrupted my reflections. “You hiding?” she asked. “We going to do another show. Grown-ups have to watch.”

  To express urgency, she tugged on my black Marc Jacobs cardigan, an old gift from Julie, streaking it with the white frozen yogurt that now covered her fingers and much of her person. The commotion, I suspected, must have started when she discovered my father’s used frozen yogurt bowl on the coffee table and dragged it to the floor by pulling on the tablecloth.

  “Wait,” I told Lucia. “Hold still.” I squatted, as I’d seen harried parents do in the streets of Los Angeles, and extracted some folded paper napkins from my wallet: Tom, Myra, Julie 2. I soaked them in my glass of water and applied them to Lucia’s face and hands.

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks so much, Brant Rumble, Claudia Ballard, Kyle McCarthy, Linda Baker, Conn Nugent, Annie Baker, Curtis Sittenfeld, Michelle Huneven, Allan Gurganus, Peter Orner, Rachel Reilich, David Gorin, Leslie Jamison, Andy McNicol, Holly S., Elizabeth Cunningham, Lan Samantha Chang, Elizabeth McCracken, Uncle Rory and the rest of the Baker and Nugent clans, especially Jack, Danny, Molly, Isabelle, and Kati. I’m grateful to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Yaddo, Southern New Hampshire University, Beth’s Cabin, and the people at Scribner and William Morris Endeavor I rarely or never see, such as Nan Graham, Susan Moldow, Ian Dalrymple, and my copy editor. And to those who offered affirmation when it was much needed: Rob Spillman, Aisha Muharrar, Amy Williams, Edward Carey, Connie Brothers, Melissa Flashman, Greg Walter, Blake Fronstin, Hanna Rose Shell, Amie Barrodale. And to Khadijah Britton for the use of her name and nothing else.

  © ANNIE BAKER

  BENJAMIN NUGENT’s essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Time, and n+1, and his fiction has appeared in Tin House. He was an Iowa Arts Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Director of Creative Writing at Southern New Hampshire University, he teaches fiction and nonfiction in its MFA and undergraduate programs. He grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, and lives in Boston.

  For more on this Author:

  authors.simonandschuster.com/Benjamin-Nugent

  MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT

  SimonandSchuster.com

  JACKET DESIGN BY JASON HEUER

  JACKET ILLUSTRATION BY JASON HEUER, BASED ON A

  PHOTOGRAPH BY JAN COBB/GETTY IMAGES

  COPYRIGHT © 2013 SIMON & SCHUSTER

  ALSO BY BENJAMIN NUGENT

  American Nerd

  We hope you enjoyed reading this Scribner eBook.

  * * *

  Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Scribner and Simon & Schuster.

  CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

  or visit us online to sign up at

  eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

  SCRIBNER

  A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2013 by Benjamin Nugent

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Scribner Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

  First Scribner hardcover edition January 2013

  SCRIBNER and design are registered trademarks of The Gale Group, Inc., used under license by Simon & Schuster, Inc., the publisher of this work.

  The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2012027692

  ISBN 978-1-4391-3659-1

  ISBN 978-1-4391-5433-5 (ebook)