The porcupine of truth

Seventeen-year-old Carson Smith is bored with Billings, Montana, and resentful that he has to help his mother take care of his father, a dying alcoholic whom he has not seen in fourteen years

but then he meets Aisha, a beautiful African American girl who's run away from her own difficult family, and together they embark on a journey of discovery that may help them both come to terms with their lives.