The Long Run

Set in the small South Jersey town of Moorestown, the novel follows two high school seniors across a single school year as they forge an unlikely bond that forces both to confront who they are and who they want to become. Told in alternating first-person chapters, the story traces the parallel lives of Bash Villeda, a biracial track star performing a constant identity for the people around him, and Sandro Miceli, a towering, self-conscious field captain hiding nearly everything about himself from a family too chaotic to notice.

In mid-August, Bash works a shift at the Rte. 130 Diner, describing himself as cansado, a word from the Spanish word-a-day calendar his late mother left as an eighteenth birthday gift. The calendar was an inside joke: Bash never learned his absent father's language. He lives with his stepfather Del Branch, with whom he can barely hold a conversation. Known as Bash the Flash, the fastest runner in the Tri-State area, Bash maintains a different version of himself for every audience. His coworker and supposed best friend Matty Silva, a brash track co-captain, goads him into a fight with rival athletes. Before the brawl, Bash notices Sandro waving from a parking lot, a large kid in a neon green cast, and ignores the wave. Sandro narrates the same day from his doctor's office, where he learns his broken foot has not healed because of all the walking he has been forced to do. His parents Gio Sr. and Claudia work multiple jobs, his older brothers Gio and Raph are dismissive, and Sandro functions as unpaid caretaker for the household. He broke his foot falling off his roof, where he secretly retreated for solitude, and kept the truth hidden out of fear of his family's ridicule.

Eight days later, Bash impulsively buzzes off the curls his mother loved and regrets it instantly. A conversation with Lucy Jordan, his ex-girlfriend and lifelong next-door neighbor, reveals how far he has retreated: Lucy observes that Bash is "shrinking." That evening, Bash encounters Sandro hobbling on crutches and offers him a ride to Matty's Beer Olympics party. At a trailhead, Sandro draws MEXICO on Bash's white shirt with a Sharpie, steadying him with a hand on his back, and their debate over Wildwood versus Atlantic City draws out a genuine, coyote-like laugh from Bash unlike his usual performative one. The party spirals out of control. Police arrive, and Bash and Sandro flee into the forest. Sandro leads them to a hidden ditch, a man-made depression in a clearing where he goes to think. Under the stars, they share a beer and talk honestly for the first time. Sandro describes his dream of opening a sandwich restaurant called Bumpin' Grinders. Bash, unable to articulate what he wants beyond running at Rutgers to honor his mother, is struck by Sandro's certainty. Then Sandro kisses Bash.

Both boys spiral the next morning. Sandro scrubs himself in the shower and vomits, replaying the aftermath: Bash pulled away in shock, then grabbed Sandro's neck and kissed him back before abruptly stopping. They drove home in silence. Sandro reveals he came out to himself freshman year, alone in his bathroom mirror, and has never spoken the words to anyone. Bash processes the night through obsessive running, insisting he is not gay but admitting the kiss felt good. He tracks Sandro to the trail near the ditch. Sandro, furious and frightened, accuses Bash of being another track bro who might weaponize his secret. Bash tells him he did nothing wrong. Sandro then tells Bash he is gay, the first time he has come out to another person. Confused by his own impulse, Bash kisses Sandro again. Sandro shoves him away, demanding to know whether Bash is gay. Bash cannot say the word but admits he wants to keep talking. Sandro softens, and Bash offers to drive him to the library: the quiet beginning of their friendship.

As summer turns to fall, they develop a daily routine of meeting in the ditch to read, talk, and eat, bonding over their assigned AP English novel Daniel: Last Forever. Bash narrates his evolving self-awareness through a private set of "New Rules": he experiments with his attraction to men, establishes boundaries to protect Sandro, and maintains the cover story that they are workout partners. His guiding rule becomes: "If he's affecting you, let him." Sandro joins an informal band called Everything All the Time with Phil Reyno, a senior who was publicly outed as gay sophomore year, and Ronny DiSario, a wealthy ex-lacrosse captain, finding people who genuinely want to spend time with him. When Bash needs his wisdom teeth removed, he asks Sandro to drive him home rather than risk revealing secrets under anesthesia around Del. Downstairs, Sandro meets Del, who reveals Bash has not had a friend over since eighth grade and asks if his stepson is okay.

Tensions surface as Bash's multiple personas collide. When Matty mocks Sandro's body in the weight room, Sandro snaps and hoists Matty into the air. That night, Sandro confronts Bash about ignoring him in public, something Sandro's own family does daily. Bash drives them to his mother's favorite spot, a dead cornfield where farmers let a section of crop die because it is more useful that way. There, Bash opens up about a traumatic memory of his mother's seizure and the helplessness he felt being thrown out of her hospital room. They apologize to each other.

On Halloween, in Bash's empty house, they dress as each other, trace their histories with the slur "fag," and kiss. They have sex for the first time, a scene of mutual vulnerability as they confront their bodies and insecurities. Afterward, Bash feels genuinely happy with himself for the first time. By late November, Bash practices saying "bisexual" aloud and asks Sandro on a date, the first anyone has ever asked Sandro on.

The relationship fractures at a dinner with the Miceli family. Bash falls into his Flash persona, charming the parents and brothers while Sandro feels invisible at his own table. The evening unravels when Bash casually reveals that Sandro was sleeping on the roof when he broke his foot, a secret Sandro kept to avoid ridicule. The family erupts. Sandro flees, and when Bash chases him and grabs his shoulder, Sandro shoves him away. Bash trips backward and splits his eyebrow on the rusted mailbox. Sandro sees the blood and runs. At home, Bash breaks down crying in Del's arms for the first time since childhood.

Three months of isolation follow. Sandro, consumed by guilt, draws a parallel between his violence and his father's, who once split Sandro's own eyebrow by throwing a jewelry box. Convinced he will always hurt people, Sandro ignores Bash, drops out of the band, and retreats from all contact. Lucy finds him sobbing in the ditch and holds his hand. Bash copes through running and deepens his relationship with Del, who gently argues that wanting something is not enough: Bash must find "the right way to want something." He gets into Rutgers and struggles with a cryptic Christmas gift from his mother, an envelope containing seeds and a card reading "DAR." In March, Bash tells Lucy everything about his bisexuality and Sandro. Lucy tells him it changes nothing and reveals she found Sandro crying in the woods.

Sandro receives his Northwestern acceptance and confronts his mother, telling her about his injured foot, his invisibility, and his pain. He slams the letter on the counter and shouts that he is not stupid. Meanwhile, Bash solves his mother's riddle: dar is Spanish for "give, yield, show," her message to stop hiding. He runs to the Miceli house, where Claudia directs him to the roof. There, Sandro admits he wrongly thought Bash would fix him. Bash calls Sandro his lighthouse, the metaphor from their shared novel, and mumbles something like "I love you." Sandro responds, "Me too, bud."

In spring, the couple reenters the world. Lucy, Sandro, and Bash become an inseparable trio. At a dinner, Del casually mentions his brother Brett and Brett's husband Justin, revealing queer family Bash never knew about. Sandro apologizes to Phil and Ronny and rejoins the band. His mother comes to his room at 3 a.m. and reveals she has always known he is gay. They hold each other and talk until dawn. She asks if Bash loves him, and Sandro replies, "He loves me so much, Ma."

During five days of rain, Sandro proposes they both attend Rutgers. Bash gently tells him he has chosen Villanova for its stronger track program, a decision representing his own choice rather than his mother's wish. They count the hundred remaining days and commit to long distance. On Sandro's eighteenth birthday, Claudia orchestrates an empty house so Bash can pick him up for their first real date at a restaurant where no one will recognize them. Sandro voices his fear that long distance will fail. Bash counters that he has never seen a movie about guys like them; without a roadmap, they agree to try.

In the final chapter, they drive to the dead cornfield and plant the seeds from Bash's mother's gift. They plan their summer and map the fall: Bash will drive Sandro to Northwestern, and Sandro will return the favor at Villanova. They exchange tokens: Bash gives Sandro his prayer bracelet, on which he adds a bead each year for his mother's birthday, and Sandro gives Bash his gold chain. Lying in the truck bed under the stars, Bash listens for the highway echoes his mother always said sounded like the ocean. He feels summer coming and declares that their time together will live again.