Grief, love, trauma, addiction, survival—and the stories we write when everything falls apart.

In 1989, I was six years old, wearing cut-off dungarees and listening to New Kids on the Block on my shared Walkman, convinced that Jordan Knight might just fall in love with me. This is a story of 80s bubblegum dreams, Polly Pockets, Rollos as romantic currency, and the heart-shattering betrayal that only a sticky-handed schoolboys can deliver.