Other Almosts: The Story
Emma is going blind. Forced to take medical leave from school, she returns to her small town and reconnects with her high school friends, all of whom are struggling with their own demons. The future uncertain, the four attempt to recreate their past to pretend - for as long as possible - that everything is okay.
Emma's ambitious. She's got dreams to be a physicist, unraveling the mysteries of the universe, but they're upended when she is diagnosed with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy, a degenerative illness that results in the loss of sight. She feels like she's getting robbed of her future before she even had a chance to start, and she's not sure how to deal with it. So, for the moment, she's going to put off that reality as long as she can. Her family is supportive, but Emma's angry and confused and wants to get away.
Hugh thought he knew where he was going, but unfortunate circumstances caused him to drop out of college. Now, working alongside his father at their family owned flower shop, he has to decide how hard to push for his own dreams, or he could end up following in his father's footsteps forever. And while that might please his dad, it's not exactly the life Hugh dreamed of for himself.
Noah was always the best and the brightest. An easy laugh, an easy charm, an easy time in high school. But when he couldn't afford any of the big universities he wanted, and instead wound up in his small rural community college, he figures out he may not actually have it figured out. Three degrees started, with none completed... Not quite as easy as it used to be.
Ben has so much before him, so many paths he could take, that the future is far too daunting to make a single move. What if he makes the wrong call? As soon as you start down one path, it becomes that much harder to start down any other. Plus, all that time wasted doing the wrong thing? No way. He'd much rather wait it out, and hope that inspiration - and direction - strike.
For these four, being stuck in their small town, with everyone they grew up with, where you can't go to the grocery store without seeing an old teacher, hearing stories of success around them, feels like the end of the world. They don't know where they are going, and they don't like where they are, so they reconnect after years apart to fall back into their high school years - where they were sure, confident, and had nothing but limitless opportunity before them. But falling back into those old relationships brings up tensions they've forgotten about, and new tensions that have been lying dormant under the surface for years. Their corner of the world has always been so small, but suddenly it seems very daunting.
