THE PICK-UP

Two skittish teenagers discover true love through a chance encounter on a ride share.

Seventeen-year-old Mari is a Southerner from Tennessee, visiting Chicago and staying with her dad, stepmother, and stepsister, Sierra. On their way to the Lollapalooza music festival, the girls share a ride with two brothers, and Mari unexpectedly falls for the hunky T.J. The couple hang out together at the concert, and their attraction grows intense as they dance together, but they lose each other in the mosh pit. After a humorous and highly public Twitter search, they come together again—somewhat diffidently, as Mari distrusts romance. T.J.’s natural shyness (he is self-conscious about being an 18-year-old virgin) and Mari’s unwillingness to commit to relationships (the result of anxiety provoked by her parents’ recent divorce, which her emotionally volatile mother is not coping well with) set up a constant game of advance and retreat. The story traces Mari’s personal growth from a place of distrust to a desire to be her own person and follow her gut. Although she resents her father’s betrayal, she warms to her stepsister, whom she describes as one of the best things in her life. The narrative is highly contemporary, with many current pop-culture references, and the sexual content is interlaced with the need for consent. Most characters present White; Sierra is openly bisexual, and her partner is a Black girl.

Edgy, exciting, and grounded in respect.