ChromedOutCortex - Stories

Marcus Bennett's life shattered when he was outed in high school. Finally, he finds healing and builds a chosen family with his roommate and their friends.

Years later, Marcus has rebuilt his life. As he builds a future with Andrew, his friendship with James deepens into something unspoken, leaving Marcus torn between the life he's created and feelings he's afraid to acknowledge.

Then a piece of mail reveals a devastating truth. Marcus must confront demons he thought he'd escaped and decide: run away again—or fight back.

A story about trauma, healing, and learning that those who hurt us most can be the ones we never see coming.

Liam, a 52-year-old widower, has decided his one great love was enough. Then Adrian, a 35-year-old cyclist and nature photographer, keeps crossing his path, stirring feelings Liam thought were buried—and forcing them both to question what they’re really ready for.

Adam lives two lives. Alone in his sparse apartment at thirty-five, the tangible world is one of quiet isolation. The other life, vibrant and achingly detailed, exists solely in his mind. There, he shares a full existence with Jamie, the young man in high school that he secretly loved.

Years of regret and yearning have meticulously constructed this parallel reality. Adam has built an entire imagined life: waking together, navigating careers, weathering arguments that end in embraces, celebrating anniversaries, and finding profound comfort in shared, ordinary moments.

A queer South Asian man finds love with a kind Canadian man, only to be shattered when his partner reduces him to a stereotype. Heartbroken, he returns to his family’s unwavering love, and rediscovers his worth.

After years together, Christian watches his life with Henry unravel—not from anger or betrayal, but from quiet manipulation by a charming stranger who made him doubt everything. By the time he sees the truth, it’s too late: Henry is gone, and no one believes him. A story about love stolen not with violence, but with words.

Journey Home follows Adam as he returns to Vancouver after fifteen years with his new partner, Alex. Haunted by Jamie, his deceased boyfriend, Adam confronts his unresolved grief, especially during an emotional visit with Jamie’s parents, who still cherish him as family. Through flashbacks, reunions with old friends, and Alex’s steady presence, Adam learns that loving again doesn’t erase the past, it honors it. To move forward, he must gently release Jamie, not from his heart, but from the frozen space he’s guarded for so long. Grief doesn’t vanish; it transforms. And love, even new love, needs room to breathe beside loss.

Dean had spent most of his life pretending not to feel. It was easier that way, easier to fight, to fix, to fuck, than to face what was underneath. His father taught him early that softness got you hurt. So he built a life of noise and distraction: engines louder than his thoughts, nights that ended before morning could ask questions.

Kris had spent his life quietly holding things together. After his father died, it was just him and his mother, small home, smaller dreams, and the fear that one more break would undo them.

Neither expected love to expose what they’d buried, loneliness, guilt, and the need to be seen.

This story is in response to the prompt challenging writers to write a story without using >> I << in it: Write a short story (at least 500 words) in first person without using the pronoun “I”.

I hope you enjoy this!

After a long period of emotional distance and self-reflection, Jim, a middle-aged man recovering from a divorce, is learning how to navigate life and fatherhood. When he meets Jon, a younger, confident man with whom he shares a mutual interest in fitness and running, Jim feels a spark he hasn’t felt in years. What begins as a casual friendship soon develops into something more, but Jim’s hesitations and fears about his age, his past, and his responsibilities as a father complicate his emotions.