Brannan and Mark
Brannan is a hot mess of a high school senior, hiding behind a curtain of jet-black hair and repelling her classmates with bad behavior. Dogged by a past sexual assault and parental abandonment, she’s crafted a snarky, don’t-care façade to shield herself from human connection long enough to graduate and leave town. When Brannan isn’t swinging from a chandelier, she isolates herself to the abandoned shack in the woods, her one escape away from her shame and from her guardian uncle who blames Brannan for her mother’s alcohol-poisoning death.
However, when the owner of the shack returns to town from college and finds Brannan squatting in his cabin, she sees her one shelter from the world, and from herself, evaporate. But Mark doesn’t kick her out. Instead, he offers her unconditional, platonic friendship and encouragement, and free use of his cabin. Between Mark and Kim—Brannan’s annoyingly kind, Little Miss Sunshine classmate—her tough façade cracks. A spark of hope flashes in her heart, and she can finally see a brighter future, one that doesn’t see her following in her mother’s footsteps.
But when Mark crosses the friend-zone line and kisses her, Brannan’s world shatters. Unable to process genuine human affection, she shuts Mark out and falls back into her self-destructive cycle. Only this time, she crosses her one boundary, becomes entrapped by her druggie friends, and must find the courage to see her self-worth before she proves her uncle right and ends up just like her mom.
© 2025 Murphy Ellis
“I didn’t want to forget my dad. I needed to feel. The good and the bad. It was the only way to really move forward, to deal with my pain and fear. I need you to talk, Brannan.”
“But you had good. I don’t have any good.”
“You do. You’ve just forgotten. Because when we shut out the bad, the good gets lost with it. Once you deal with the bad, you’ll find so much good you won’t know what to do with it.”