Stories

Most of Rick’s life was performed solo and in quiet. He told himself he liked it that way, preferring to keep even his closest friends away from his secrets. But an aggressive woman and a stranger in town found a way to bring out his inner music.

Small town life still exists like this. The pace is slow, and everyone knows your name. And your business.

Jason Andrews has a shitty outlook on the world and is just waiting for high school to be over as he comes back for his senior year. While he maintained a low profile for most of it, he's quickly going to find himself to be the talk of the school and it's innerworkings. Will he be able to handle it?

When Jeff's dad hires a new hand for the ranch, Jeff thinks he may have just found the missing link in his life.

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.

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

Gareth wakes up in hospital after being in coma for several days. As we go along he remembers having an accident. Other information about his life seem to be gone or inaccessible due to retrograde amnesia. When his socioenvironment helps him put the pieces together, he realizes something odd.

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.

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

Jared, Mike, and Adrian are like brothers from different mothers, and, like all siblings, whether by genes or chance, they like different things.

Jared wants a relationship, preferably one that lasts beyond a one-night-stand, Mike hides his vulnerable self under the pretense that he is into a niche fetish, and Adrian just likes to have fun.

In their quest to find the particular things that they believe would make them happy, they hook up, meet lovers, strike new friendships, and learn the taste of love and betrayal.