The Hole

My short story ‘The Hole’ is published in Litro Magazine.

Please visit the website to read the whole piece: https://www.litromagazine.com/end-your-weekend-with-a-collection-of-the-best-stories-litro-magazine-has-to-offer/the-hole/

---

Excerpt

I met Katie the same year I started working, when I was still with Oliver. She had started dating Oliver’s older brother, Matthew, even though she was barely out of school and Matthew was nearing thirty. I kept my thoughts to myself.

The brothers lived together in a disorganised two-bedroom apartment with thin walls. I was still living at home then, saving up to try and buy my own place, but I spent most nights in Oliver’s bed. Katie’s belongings gradually accumulated in the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room, and then she lived there too. I don’t know where she was before that.

Oliver was a creative type, working freelance in graphic design and trying to make enough money. Matthew was his opposite, a high-level banker of some kind who worked in one of the grey high rises in the city. Katie was ostensibly on a gap year, unsure yet what she wanted to study, and she took occasional shifts in a café down the road. She seemed so much younger than she was, small and childlike. She left intimate notes to Matthew on the communal message board on the fridge, and signed her name with a love heart over the i. But I liked her, liked her easy smile and the way she asked me for advice.