This isn't weird.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR (UPDATED 08/05/2023)

UPDATE (08/05/2023): WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING HOW IS THIS THING OVER 242,000 WORDS NOW HOLY SHIT!!! I can't believe I've written this much and I REALLY can't believe there are people actually reading it!

Thank you so so so so so so much to all of you gorgeous, crazy people who have decided my story is worthy of your time and attention! I never could have made it this far without you.

Extra special thanks to those of you who have taken the time to vote and leave comments—looking at you especially, emmafordie8, GrayWasLost, Daisy_wastaken, imvibin69, and mattgirlllll! 

 Whenever I'm feeling paralyzed with writer's block and I get a notification letting me know that someone out there is watching Ben and Millie's story unfold, it always sparks my inspiration and gets me back on track. These characters live because of you!

EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA special thanks to blonde-o-sonic, who has engaged with my story more than anyone! You have no idea how many creative slumps and bad days you've pulled me out of. So if you're ever having a bad day, please remember that your kindness has made an incredible impact on this writer's life that will never, ever be forgotten!

I love you guys so damn much I'm gonna cry if I keep thinking about it. I hope you've enjoyed this latest batch of updates, and I'll do my best to have more ready for y'all ASAP!

P.S. "A Very Not Weird Holiday Special" is officially canon so if you're looking for it, it's been moved to its chronological position in the table of contents!

****************************************

UPDATE (03/10/2023): Hot damn! I've officially been working on this bad boy for a solid year! 176,000 words and counting! I never believed I was capable of writing a full length novel. Turns out, I just needed Ben Schwartz to motivate me—and you guys! The support and engagement I've received from my little audience here has changed my life more than you can imagine. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I'm sorry about the long stretches of times between updates. I've realized the norm on Wattpad is for writers to upload new chapters on a regular scheduled basis, but I'm perpetually afraid of jumping the gun again and creating continuity errors that will hold up the whole story, and I like to think it's more satisfying for the reader to get a nice meaty 10-15k word update to binge all at once! 

We've still got a ways to go, but the end is in sight. I haven't made a firm decision about the ending yet—I have a few potential endings in mind, but I don't think I'll really know which one it will be until I get there. That said, I'm receptive to feedback if any of you want to weigh in on what you want or hope to see! 

Thanks again for joining me on this wacky little journey.  I'm working very hard to make sure it's worth your while!

****************************************

UPDATE (11/06/2022): Holy shit, it took months, but rewrites are finally done and I can focus on moving forward now. I have a great deal of material written already, but I desperately want to avoid having to do another slew of rewrites, so I'm trying to get it as perfected as possible before I put it up. 

Thank you so much for your patience! I'm not sure how long it's going to take to get the rest out, but rest assured that I still work on this project every day and I fully intend to see it through to the end. 

****************************************

A warm hello to the, like, 3 people who are actually reading this story.

First of all: YOU ARE AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL HUMAN BEINGS! Thank you so much for reading my silly story!

When I started writing this, it was intended to be some short, silly fluff with like, a maximum of 5 chapters.

As you can see, I completely lost control of the bus and it has grown into a freakin' full length book chock full of drama!

Over the next week or two I'm going to be going back to the early stages and adding a few extra chapters to fill in the gaps between some of the big time skips that happened near the beginning.

They'll mostly be pretty cute, light hearted romcommy stuff--the current place we're at in the story is pretty dark, and I desperately need to give myself a break from the heavy stuff!

I initially wrote Millie to be a sort of "blank slate" character with minimal description so that the reader could insert themselves a bit, but her story has become complex enough that I think she deserves a little more development.

I may also finally give some characters last names, which I conspicuously avoided doing in the beginning.

So expect to notice some of the chapter numbers changing pretty soon. I'll be putting asterisks on the titles of the new chapters to make them easier to spot.

I'll be making some small edits to the existing chapters to smooth out a few minor continuity issues and improve a some of the more awkward bits of dialogue. They won't be major changes, so you won't be missing much if you can't be bothered to re-read them.

Anyway, I just wanted to give y'all a heads up to avoid confusion.

Please feel free to comment with any errors you've noticed, or just general feedback of how you feel about the way the plot and relationships are developing or what characters you'd like to see more (or less?) of.

Thank you so much for your support. I love you all to death!