The Things We Don’t Talk About Cover
Issue #76 August 22, 2024

The Things We Don’t Talk About

By Lily Scheckner
Edited By Patrick Ryan

$2.50

82 in stock

SKU: ots-76 Categories: , Tag:

Excerpt

The first thing I notice about Sam is that he has really thin, pink lips. He has the thinnest, pinkest lips I’ve ever seen on a boy, but I think it’s actually very attractive, and I tell him so one day during a pep rally. I’m wearing these new big hoop earrings and they’re weighing down my whole face so I can’t really smile.

Sam frowns at me and says, “Katherine, I can’t tell if that’s supposed to be a compliment.” I tell him it is. He doesn’t look convinced and for the rest of the pep rally, he keeps looking at me out of the corner of his eye and touching his lips like he is afraid they are going to disappear.

The second thing I notice about Sam is that he’s really funny, like the kind of funny you see on late night talk shows, even though people don’t watch those anymore. He does impressions, first of old presidents then of reality show contestants then of the football coach yelling “WE ARE TIGERS, HEAR US ROAR.” Everybody laughs. I’m the loudest.

Lily Scheckner

Lily Scheckner is a high school student residing in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her writing has been published in The Penn Review, The Incandescent Review, and The National Poetry Quarterly, as well as recognized by the Pulitzer Center and the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. In her free time, Lily enjoys matcha lattes, oxford commas, and listening to Sufjan Stevens.

Patrick Ryan on “The Things We Don’t Talk About”

Adolescence is a time of change—sometimes rapid change, the kind that brings on confusion. In that shape-shifting time, teens are supposed to be figuring out how to treat one another, and that can be a bumpy and sometimes painful process. Lily Scheckner’s “The Things We Don’t Talk About” quietly—and creepily—turns those bumps into mountains.

Katie is self-conscious about her body, and her sister Aleda’s mean comments don’t help. But Aleda’s body is undergoing changes far different from those of Katie or any other teen they know. Aleda’s changes, in fact, have altered the way she lives within their family. And Katie and Aleda’s parents aren’t big on discussing the situation.

Enter Sam: a boy Katie likes who seems to like her back. Or is it Aleda—a girl he’s never met but has heard about—whom he’s interested in?

The pace, deceptively relaxed tone, pitch-perfect dialogue, and charm of this short story make it irresistible, even while it takes some unexpected and disturbing turns. One Teen Story is proud to be publishing “The Things We Don’t Talk About”—one of the winners of our Teen Writing Contest, penned by emerging writer Lily Scheckner.

Q&A by Patrick Ryan

PR: Where did you get the idea for “The Things We Don’t Talk About”?
LS: “The Things We Don’t Talk About” had a variety of muses, both real and fictional. Certain themes were inspired by Grimm fairy tales. I had also recently finished reading Carmen Maria Machado’s short story collection Her Body and Other Parties, and that sort of feminist, gothic vibe definitely infiltrated my brainstorming process. As my friends, family, and bio can attest, I’m an avid Sufjan Stevens fan, and his songs, as always, were my backing track while writing.
PR: How long did the first draft of the story take you to write?
LS: I actually wrote the entirety of the first draft on November 27th, the deadline for One Teen Story. I discovered the contest on that day and knew I had to submit something, hence the furious typing in AP Biology. I’m thankful for the motivation, although I’m sure there were quite a few typos in the version I submitted!
PR: Were there any surprises for you in the writing process? Is the story that exists pretty much the story you first envisioned, or did it change?
LS: I can tell you this much—I am not a planner. No graphic organizers went into this story (or any of my work, really). I pretty much discovered the plot and characters while I was writing. I had no idea how it would end when I began drafting, but once I wrote it, I knew that was how it was meant to conclude. Generally, my writing is a little weird and a little genre-bendy, so it’s pretty consistent with my expectations.
PR: Do you consider “The Things We Don’t Talk About” a horror story? Or more of a mystery?
LS: Ooh, this is a hard question! I wouldn’t call it a mystery…maybe a horror-magical realism combo?
PR: One of the things I admire about the story is that it doesn’t attempt to explain how Aleda came to be in the condition she’s in—or even what the condition is, until near the end. (I’m trying not to give anything away here.) Were you ever tempted to say more about what’s going on with her? Were you ever tempted to give her backstory?
LS: Honestly, as I said, I didn’t really know how this story was going to end until it did. And when I read it over, I was like, “Wow! I did a good job of concealing the plot twist” (because I didn’t know what it was). So I decided to keep it that way, and I’m happy with the breadcrumb clues I gave the readers. I hope that they form their own ideas about Aleda’s backstory, as that’s always a fun thing for me to do as a reader!
PR: What did you do when you found out you were one of the winners of the One Teen Story Writing Contest?
LS: I was in Chicago after waking up at 4:00 AM to catch a flight. I was totally exhausted, basically falling asleep over my third coffee of the day. I was sitting in a café with my dad and literally shrieked when I got the email, “MY FIRST WRITING CONTRACT!” And then I went to go take a college tour, haha.
PR: What are you working on now?
LS: Mostly college applications. But also, some new (equally weird, equally gothic) short stories! Stay tuned…
PR: What’s the best piece of advice about writing you’ve ever heard?
LS: “Keep writing. You’ve got this.” From my first writing mentor, after I got a slew of rejections over the summer.