Dante and Shay sit together on the stoop of Shay's childhood home as Brooklyn hums with its familiar sounds and rhythms.

Shay's father gets into his car and drives off toward North Carolina to get a head start on the move.

A moving truck belonging to the new tenants immediately pulls up and parks in the spot Shay's father just vacated.

Shay begins rubbing a pencil eraser into Dante's arm to permanently brand him with her initial.

Earlier that day, Dante helped Shay's father carry the family's boxes out to the moving truck.

Shay tells Dante she is moving to Wilmington, North Carolina.

Shay explains her dream of becoming a marine biologist, saying she is glad Wilmington is close to the ocean.

Dante jokes that he will buy Shay an airplane so the two of them can keep seeing each other after she moves.

The new tenants begin pushing past Dante and Shay on the stoop without excusing themselves or acknowledging the couple.

Dante and Shay are shoved step by step to the very edge of the stoop as the tenants keep moving back and forth.

Dante stands and makes a pointed remark to the tenants about their lack of courtesy; the tenants say nothing at all.

Shay's mother comes downstairs and is visibly annoyed to find the new tenants already bringing belongings inside.

Dante and Shay share a final kiss before Shay's mother gets into the car.

Shay's mother's car barely squeezes past the new tenants' double-parked truck as the family drives away from Brooklyn.

Dante stares at the completed tattoo on his arm and notices the wounded skin looks white where it was once brown.

Dante and Shay sit on the stoop of Shay's childhood home as her family prepares to leave Brooklyn forever, displaced by wealthy new tenants who have bought the building. Shay gives Dante an eraser tattoo of her initial as a permanent keepsake while the two talk about their futures and their feelings for each other. The new tenants begin moving their belongings in before Shay's family has even left, repeatedly pushing Dante and Shay to the edge of the stoop without acknowledgment. Dante grows visibly angry at the tenants' rudeness while Shay tries to keep the mood light, distracting him with shared memories and jokes about staying connected after the move. Shay's mother eventually comes downstairs, and after a final kiss, Shay and her family drive away — barely squeezing past the tenants' double-parked truck. Dante is left alone staring at his fresh tattoo, noting that the raw skin looks white where it was once brown, a wound that mirrors the transformation overtaking his neighborhood.

The headline events of Shay and Dante's last moments together in Brooklyn.

Shay takes out a pencil eraser and prepares to rub her initial slowly and deliberately into Dante's skin.

Dante asks Shay to let him tattoo his own initial on her arm, but she refuses, saying her father would be furious.

Dante remembers that he and Shay have been inseparable best friends since they were five years old.

Dante recalls Shay patiently teaching him to tie his shoelaces and kissing his scraped knees every time he fell.

Shay's mother cried on and off throughout the entire moving day, unable to accept leaving a home she had lived in for twenty years.

Shay and her mother spent the day cleaning and packing the apartment while Dante helped move the heavier boxes.

Shay begins the eraser tattoo, and at first the rubbing on Dante's arm produces no pain at all.

Shay tells Dante that someone has to care for the beautiful living things underwater that most people never see or understand.

Dante jokes that he will become a famous bridge builder and construct a bridge all the way from Brooklyn to Wilmington.

Shay glances at the curve of the S she is tracing on Dante's arm and notices that it looks just like a frown.

Dante tells Shay the eraser is really starting to hurt as the rubbing wears deeper into his skin.

Shay and Dante laugh together as she retells the story of the clumsy, awkward moment he first declared his romantic love.

Shay's mother pauses before getting in the car and looks at Dante and Shay with an expression of both loss and love.

As Shay's mother drives away, Dante calls after Shay and tells her to phone him the moment she arrives safely.

Dante knows the burning pain from the tattoo will eventually fade, but the scar it leaves will stay with him forever.

While the main plot unfolds on the stoop, a quieter layer of the story builds through personal memories, small gestures, and overlooked details that reveal how deeply rooted Shay and Dante's bond truly is. Dante's request to mark Shay's skin in return is refused, and their shared childhood — shoelace lessons, kissed scraped knees — flashes through his mind as the eraser digs deeper. Inside the apartment, Shay's mother spent the whole day weeping while packing, mourning two decades of life in a home now sold out from under the family. On the stoop, Shay tries to carry Dante through the pain with laughter, reminding him of the fumbling moment he first said 'I love you' as something more than a friend. The new tenants continue their wordless intrusion, and Shay's mother pauses on her way to the car to look at the couple with quiet grief. Dante tells Shay to call when she arrives, and then watches her go — left with nothing but the permanent sting of a scar that, he knows, will outlast the pain.

The supporting moments and memories that deepen the pain of Shay and Dante's goodbye.

Shay notes that a kiss makes a sound like something sticking together and then slowly coming unstuck.

Shay's mother has a vivid flashback of infant Shay scribbling her name on the bedroom wall before slipping into her parents' bed.

Dante realizes mid-conversation that he still does not know the name of the city Shay is actually moving to.

The eraser rubbing escalates from harmless friction to a burning sensation that Dante can no longer push aside.

Shay mentions casually to Dante that there is a real chance the two of them will eventually break up after she moves.

Shay keeps telling stories and cracking jokes specifically to keep Dante's mind off the worsening pain in his arm.

Dante is reminded of the exact moment in ninth grade when he told Shay he loved her as more than a friend.

Shay admits she felt the same love at the time but was too frightened to say it, blurting out only 'No doubt, homie.'

The new tenants pass back and forth on the stoop repeatedly without once speaking to or even glancing at Dante and Shay.

Dante and Shay finally realize they have been crowded to the very edge of the stoop and stand up to leave their spot entirely.

Dante speaks directly to the new tenants about their lack of basic courtesy and the tenants hear him but say absolutely nothing.

Shay's mother remembers the plants she tended for years that must now be left behind in the space bought out from under them.

Shay cries during the goodbye while Dante holds back tears and responds only with impossible plans for their future together.

Shay echoes her old deflection one last time, answering Dante's 'I love you' with 'No doubt, homie' as the car pulls away.

Dante connects the white skin of his fresh wound to the white faces that have replaced the people of his neighborhood.

Beneath the surface of a teenage goodbye, a series of quiet revelations expose the emotional distance between Shay and Dante and connect their private grief to something much larger. Early signs appear that Shay is already letting go — she refuses a permanent mark, hints at a possible breakup, and even kisses Dante in a way that sounds like something coming unstuck. Dante, meanwhile, has spent weeks avoiding the reality of the move, not even bothering to learn the name of the city Shay is leaving for. As the eraser burns deeper into his skin, a painful shared memory resurfaces: the ninth-grade moment Dante first said 'I love you' romantically, and Shay's fearful, deflecting response. The new tenants press closer and closer, eventually forcing the couple off the stoop entirely — a miniature enactment of the gentrification consuming their neighborhood. By the time the car drives away and Dante is left staring at his white-skinned wound, he understands that the erasure on his arm and the erasure of his community are one and the same scar.

The hidden revelations and emotional turning points that give the story its lasting weight.

Jason Reynolds

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