Stories

A response to Prompt #68:

Imagine where your character leads a pretty decent single life. Then there is a phone call and that life is turned upside down as they find out, they have just become a parent—to a teenager. Is this a cousin that has been left with no other family members? A god child? A niece or nephew? What is this first meeting between them going to be like?

The circumstances whereby Manny obtains guardianship are a little strange, to say the least. Not to mention what happens afterward.

Best friends, Luke and Matt, have been inseparable since primary school and now, after twelve long years of schooling, the end of those school years are finally within sight. All that is left to do is make it through the night of the school formal, before starting their final exams.

So what will the night bring for the boys and their group of friends? What secrets are about to be exposed? How will they, their families and their friends all react to the events that are about to unfold? And what will they discover about themselves . . . about each other . . . and about life?

To have someone to love is one of life’s greatest gifts, his grandma used to say. However, what grandma didn’t know, and Otis didn’t have the heart to tell her, was that getting there in this day and age required going through a painful phase called dating. Something he’s not very good at, to put it lightly. However, when someone moves in an apartment a few doors down from his, Otis begins to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

Full summary inside.

Being the oldest and growing up in a large family can be hard, especially when you are gay and the family is extremely homophobic. You are constantly being compared to your deceased father. A man whose stature and deeds are always increasing, as time goes by, and are held up as your goals. Anytime you reach those goals, your mother moves the goalpost further away.

You never seem to measure up. You are always being told that you are worthless and will never amount to anything since you cannot measure up to your father. It never mattered that you were a straight "A" student and that you were an athlete.

Chandler Cross, a student at the Chicago Institute of Art, comes across someone new, one day. Someone very much in need of a mentor and a protector. The last thing Chandler ever thought he'd ever be was someone to be looked up to, but that is what he became. A guardian angel for a lost and broken boy, struggling as Chandler once struggled as a gay teen in a less than accepting world. How will he cope with this awesome responsibility now that he has Brandon . . .

Oratorio and Cantata belong to the found-art form. In this case, actual Montreal male sex-workers talk about themselves, and, against the background of centuries-old geisha songs expressing longing for love and freedom, reveal their deepest hopes and fears.

Once upon a time, in a little town called Dog's Creek, there was a boy named Adam...

Ashlee Vance is a young lonely attorney living on her own in Washington, DC. When someone sends the perfect woman her way, she has to put her fears and everyone else's doubts behind her to win her best chance at love.

Thomas has his own secrets from his past, who he used to be. Zack, Thomas's manager at work, has his own secrets too, with his health declining. At first, they both support each other in their secrets, physically and mentally. However, things get a lot more complicated when they begin to develop feelings for each other and Thomas's past gets more violently involved in his present and Zack's health keeps getting worse. Can they be there for each other, despite all that life throws at them?

Another Halloween is coming, and Charlie and friends are off on another adventure in space.

This story is part of a series. You really should begin at the um...beginning.