Mad Honey

Lily Campanello reflects on how, ever since her parents found out they were expecting, her father had wanted a boy; however, he received a daughter instead and never let Lily forget his disappointment over this. The previous summer, Lily and her mother, Ava Campanello, left Point Reyes for New Hampshire; Ava said it would be their second chance. As they drove, Lily wondered how she’d hide the scars on her wrist from the other kids at her new school.

In the present, Asher keeps texting Lily, claiming that he has the best Christmas gift. His best friend, Maya Banerjee, who has known him since they were in kindergarten, thinks it’s his grandmother’s ring. Asher takes Lily to a diner, where the “surprise” is waiting: her father, whom she hasn’t seen in two years. Lily feels everything spin as she sees “the one person [she hates] most in the entire world” (26). She leaves the diner, remembering the last time her father turned up, drunk, at once of her fencing competitions; Lily hadn’t seen him for four years before then. Asher comes out and tries to talk to Lily, grabbing her arm in the process; Lily is sure it will bruise, and it won’t be the first time, either. Asher and Lily argue about him bringing her father here. He claims he was trying to help her reconcile with her father, knowing what it’s like to grow up without one. Asher asks Lily to give her father a second chance, just like she once did with Asher; Lily suggests that that might have been her first mistake and heads home alone.

Five days later, on December 7, 2018, Lily wakes up sick. She has been sick for the last five days and has stayed home from school; the bruise from Asher’s grip is now greenish blue. Ava checks Lily’s temperature: She has a fever, and the doctor advised her to rest and take Advil. Before Ava leaves for the pharmacy, Lily confesses that she met her father, who is in town. Ava reveals that she already knows, having spoken with him recently; however, he’s already on his way back to Seattle.

After Ava leaves, Lily ignores Asher’s constant text messages but replies to Maya, who wants to talk because Asher is “flipping out.” She heads downstairs to play the cello, and just as she’s finishing a piece, Dirk, Asher’s friend and hockey teammate, arrives at the house. He wants Lily to read through an English paper he wrote for school, and he insinuates that he knows things between her and Asher aren’t fine and comes on to her. Lily takes the paper but rebuffs him and closes the door. As she heads to the kitchen to make coffee, the doorbell rings insistently once again.

Three hours after the incident with Lily, Olivia arrives at the police station. Lieutenant Mike Newcomb lets her in. Olivia and Mike have known each other since they were little; he even took her to her junior prom. Olivia remembers running into Mike at a local parade when Asher was four, and Braden was present as well. Later that night, Braden questioned Olivia about her past with Mike, choking her when she refused to divulge whether she had slept with Mike. Braden later told Olivia, by way of apology, that he couldn’t stand the thought of her with someone else. For days afterward, he left her love notes and treated her with extra tenderness.

Mike reveals that Asher was found holding Lily’s body. He then takes Olivia to see him. With Olivia present, Mike questions Asher. Asher describes how he and Lily have dated for three months. He went to her house earlier that day because she hadn’t been replying to his texts and found her at the bottom of the stairs, unconscious and bleeding from the head. Ava arrived shortly afterward and called 911. As Mike and Asher are talking, Mike receives a phone call from the hospital confirming that Lily is dead. Asher collapses, sobbing, in Olivia’s arms. Back home, Asher retreats into silence and refuses to eat; in the middle of the night, Olivia wakes up to the sound of Asher sobbing uncontrollably.

Five days later, Olivia and Asher go to a memorial for Lily. Maya runs up to Asher and hugs him, sobbing; Olivia remembers that Maya was close friends with Lily too and introduced Lily to Asher. Olivia and Asher see Ava arguing with a man before she storms out; the man greets Asher, who also rushes out, claiming he’s going to be sick. Olivia follows him to the bathroom and runs into Ava, who angrily asserts that if not for Asher, Lily would still be alive. Asher wants to leave the memorial, but on the way out, Mike stops them to ask follow-up questions.

At the police station, they run through the details of the incident again. Asher reveals that Lily wasn’t talking to him because they were fighting about her father. When Asher arrived at her house, the door was already open; he repeats that he found her lying at the bottom of the stairs. Asher claims that he didn’t enter her bedroom that day, but Mike reveals that Asher’s fingerprints were found in Lily’s room. Olivia asks Asher to stop talking, invoking his right to have an attorney present. They leave the police station, and she calls her brother, Jordan McAfee, for help.

In the week before Lily’s death, Lily and Asher have sex in the treehouse on the McAfee farm. Asher’s grandfather built the treehouse for Asher’s mother and uncle when they were children, and Asher and Maya spent many summer days of their childhood in the treehouse.

Lily notices Braden’s initials carved on the wall alongside those of other family members and friends, and they discuss Asher’s father. Asher feels guilty for missing him despite the kind of man he is. Asher asks Lily if she ever misses her father, and Lily feels guilty for having lied to Asher about her father being dead. She’s scared of telling him the truth now, worried that he’ll leave her if he learns she has been hiding more things from him.

Lily questions Braden’s love for Asher, asking why Braden has never invited Asher home to meet his new wife and Asher’s half-brothers. Asher decides to visit Braden’s house that Thursday and asks Lily to come along.

The next day, Maya and Lily practice a piece of music together at Lily’s house; Maya plays the oboe, while Lily plays her cello. Lily remembers Maya’s initials carved on the treehouse wall and wonders if she stole Maya away from Asher. Lily asks Maya about Asher’s father, and Maya confirms Lily’s sense that Braden isn’t a nice man. Maya doesn’t think visiting Braden unannounced is a good idea.

On Thursday, Asher and Lily drive to Braden’s place. On the way, they discuss Braden and Olivia’s marriage. Asher believes Olivia that Braden used to hurt her, though he barely remembers it and doesn’t remember Braden hurting him at all. Asher thinks people can change and wants a relationship with his father.

Asher and Lily arrive in time to watch through the window as Asher’s half-brothers, Shane and Shawn, set the dinner table. Their mother, Margot, comes in behind them, followed by Braden; Margot looks happy. Asher hopes Braden will turn around and see them, but when he doesn’t, Asher leaves without going inside. On the drive back home, Asher and Lily don’t discuss what happened at Braden’s house. Later that night, they have dinner in the treehouse. Asher decides he’ll stop meeting his father. He worries that he’s like Braden, and Lily remembers both Asher’s tenderness and the rare occasions when she saw something in him that scared her.

Lily tells Asher that he gets to decide whether he’s like his father. She confesses that her father is still alive but she wishes he were dead because he hurt her. Asher worries that he’ll hurt Lily, too, like he did once in the past. Lily reassures him that it was an accident and adds, “You’re the most gentle boy I’ve ever known” (75). They have sex again, and he gives her a knife to carve her initials into the treehouse wall.