Gottaluvapril ◆ <FULL>

Now, at 4:47 PM, the sky had turned the color of a week-old bruise. The wind had teeth. And Leo was standing in the parking lot of a grocery store, shivering, holding a single bag of frozen peas—not for dinner, but for the egg-sized lump forming on his forehead.

Then he put the car in reverse, drove home, made mac and cheese, and ate the cantaloupe he’d nearly died for.

It wasn’t even ripe.

He typed back: “Just ate pavement in a grocery store parking lot. Shopping cart came out of nowhere. It had a death wish.” gottaluvapril

The story: a rogue shopping cart, a patch of black ice that had no business existing in April, and a physics-defying face-plant into a concrete wheel stop. He’d been trying to rescue a lady’s runaway cantaloupe. The cantaloupe, naturally, was fine.

Three dots appeared. Then: “Was anyone filming? Could be your big break.”

He started the car. The heater wheezed but tried. He sat there for a long moment, frozen peas melting against his throbbing head, snow falling on daffodils, and he thought: Yeah. Gottaluvapril. Now, at 4:47 PM, the sky had turned

Leo stared at the screen. Then at the sky, which had started spitting sleet. Then at his own pathetic reflection in the rearview mirror—forehead lump, runny nose from the cold, a smear of mud across his cheek.

Leo gave a thumbs up so sarcastic it should have required a permit.

His phone buzzed. A text from his sister: “First allergies of the season! My eyes feel like they’re full of sand. gottaluvapril” Then he put the car in reverse, drove

He’d left his jacket at home.

He laughed. It hurt his face. He laughed harder. The sleet turned to actual snow—fat, wet flakes that melted on his windshield and made the world look like a shaken snow globe. April, everyone.