Stories

Matthew is a bullied, overweight 13-year-old boy who wants to pass through his Junior High years without trouble. However, Dallas and his friends find great satisfaction in belittling, verbally, and sometimes physically abusing Matthew because he is a quiet kid. Matthew has an intense infatuation with Jonah, Dallas's best friend, and it can only end badly if the torment wasn't enough. Or maybe... all it takes is one person to stand up to a bully.

Lautaro's life is upended overnight as his parents' divorce forces him to leave the town he grew up in, the country he called home, and the best friend he'd grown to love, all just before senior year of high school. Now he'll have to start over in a different city, deal with his unresolved feelings for the boy he's been crushing on for years, and navigate through the whirlwind of his first reciprocated love.

Wrong number...usually a person would delete the number, right? A mistaken text leads to blood money and danger. Chris Johnson, a gender fluid male, receives a text from a mystery guy who shares a card number. Aware that it's an accidental text, he uses the money to his advantage until things intensify.

Eric is a beautiful, intelligent, popular, and fierce University student who is haunted by a dark past, the sins of his father. Eric's life takes a sudden turn when fate brings Sergio into Eric's life, a handsome, intelligent, and equally popular young man that tries to win over Eric in a dangerous game of Love. What dangers Will Sergio bring and is Eric ready for this new storm? Will history repeat itself once again or will Sergio's heart be swept off by this stunningly beautiful boy?

1843. No lost soul is born into the world, but the world makes it so. Redburn must find Toby, nothing else matters, and on three ships of contrasts - well-governed, and hopeless - he thinks of only getting to land and looking for the man he loves.

A short story in four chapters set on the mountainous Italian coast. Michele’s life spirals after a misplaced kiss from his best friend.

The South Pacific, 1842. These are powder-keg times, and in the midst of French Imperial gun boat diplomacy, Redburn has had enough of the sea. He draws a reluctant Toby into an adventure, and in the process loses something more valuable to him than his own life.

A short story in four chapters set on the mountainous Italian coast. Seven years after ‘The Summer of the Firefly’, another teen struggles with his identity following a bust-up with his father and his best friend.

It is the summer of 1839. A 19-year-old boy sets out to be a man. He chooses the sea, or it chooses him, because it is a place where men who love as he does can escape society's pronouncements upon them. The boy unknowingly begins a classic hero's journey of self-discovery – travels 'there,' discovers his task is a deeply personal one, then returns 'home' to find home is not where he wants to be anymore.

At the time it seemed a good idea, but how it played out nearly cost Charlie his life. He had the big ranch, but his wife had died and all the kids didn't want anything to do with ranching. So he decided to sell and move into the city. Everything was good great until he decided to take that walk in the park.

Potluck Theme: Through a Glass Darkly