ALT cover art, "Teehee" by Jasjyot Singh Hans

ALT DERRICK AUSTIN To Friendship After a stress dream, I hallucinated a large, hairy spider on the wall. More and more lately, I wake up to a hairy spider. I close my eyes and a weight presses on my chest. I drink Prosecco from a paper cup. From the futon, my view is a stand of pine trees and the luminous lake. My friends sleep in other rooms. We pooled our money for a weekend cabin. We breathe together. On our trip, we ask for what we need without fear; we refill each other’s cups— I didn’t know I could choose any of this.

ALT Sam and Chen are hugging, with Sam’s foot up like in the princess diaries movie where Anne Hathaway is like “if it’s real love I gotta put my foot up” anyways behind them is like a big giant snowy Portland mountain it’s actually called Mt Hood and people ski there but Sam and Chen did not ski they just frolicked a little and took photos