After Midnight: Stories from Coughlin Hall

By Alexander Prevost

"Midnight, to me, is that moment in a person's life when they finally get over the hill. After having an important revelation, the clock's arms come into alignment. It is during that time that we go on an adventure of self-discovery."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alexander Prevost
• Release date: Jul 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781737535614

Book preview

prologue: Eleven-Fifty Nine

I

It’s eleven fifty-nine

And I’m going out of my mind

We’re on the cusp of midnight

Of growth

Of change

Of making sense of this stupid crock that was my youth

But I don’t think it will come to light

After four years of mess after mess

I’m still just as faithless

You’d think I’d learn a thing or two

About life

About me

About anything that would complete this arc

Yet all I feel is blue

Freshman year was a cataclysm, a disaster

I was obsessed with the idea of Happily Ever After

Then came the pain

And the shame

And the gossip

And all the things that could make a year go awry

Just like middle school, not a single thing changed

Sophomore year — now that was a doozy

And the sorrow I felt was all-consuming

Where drama went, I would follow

Toward heartbreak

Toward hatred

Toward anything that would make me feel

Less alone, less numb, less hollow

II

I took a summer to be alone

2018, I remember it well

My solitude was a kind of safe zone

Away from high school’s antagonizing spell

No lovers, few friends

Sure, it was little lonely

But I found God in the end

Not in heaven, but me

For a brief moment

I saw a glimmer of hope

That finding contentment

Didn't have to be a slope

So, I threw out everything

And buried the drama queen

It was a hard process, changing,

But I became better than I’d ever been

To be wholly remade

Was what I needed, a breakthrough

No longer too afraid

I returned to the world that I knew

III

Junior year? I hit my stride

Coming back with a fire in my eyes

People were shocked

Overjoyed

Delighted

Surprised at how different I had seemed

I was soaring so high

I used to regard that year as my best

Because I kept my nose to the grindstone

Focusing on being poised

Mature

Refined

Dedicated to my grades, peers, and me

I had learned to quiet the noise

So when senior year came, I thought it was my time

Because everything I worked for was finally mine

I was at the top of my game

On competition civics

A section leader

And dating the boy I’d liked for years

I was a dancing, joyous flame

Then came the pandemic and it all hit a stop

Snuffed out, in free fall from the mountain top

My lover ghosted me

With no friends to see

No the end-of-year party

All alone, watching my tears flow

I fell apart alone, so quietly

IV

It’s eleven fifty-nine and it’s all still the same

I’m not going to lie, some things have changed

Little pieces of myself have improved with