Leaving the Station

Nina LaCour meets Alyson Derrick in this cross-country journey of identity, love, and friendships as Zoe tries to figure out her life, one train stop at a time. Zoe's life has gone off the rails. When she left Seattle to go to college in New York, she was determined to start fresh, to figure out what being a lesbian meant to her, to experiment with clothes and presentation away from home for the first time. Instead, she lost touch with her freshman orientation friend group, skipped classes, and failed completely at being the studious premed student her parents wanted her to be. But the biggest derailment of all? Her newly minted ex-boyfriend-and the fact that she had a boyfriend to begin with. When she met Alden, he made her feel wanted, he made her feel free. He made her feel . . . like she could be like him, which was exciting and confusing all at once. So, Zoe decides a second fresh start is in order: She's going to take a cross-country train from New York to Seattle for fall break. There, no one will know who she is, and she can outrun her mistakes. Or so she thinks until she meets Oakley, who's the opposite of Zoe in so many ways: effortlessly cool and hot, smart, self-assured. But as Zoe and Oakley make their way across the country, Zoe realizes that Oakley's life has also gone off the rails-and that they might just be able to help each other along before that train finally leaves the station.

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Jake Maia Arlow is a Stonewall Honor author, podcast producer, and (reluctantly) Amtrak's number one fan. They live with their girlfriend and loud cat in the Pacific Northwest.