I’ve longed for the kind of love that makes me sentimental.

But until I met you, I never knew a touch so gentle.

I wish I could explain.

Though I don’t want to complain…

How a person could be so romantic,

Without using manipulative tactics?

True love’s strange, but it’s the most beautiful thing that can grow.

And abuse hurts, but at least it’s familiar though.

I miss the hugs I used to tense up a...

“What if we all just block him at the same time?” Esha suddenly broke the silence, leading to every gaze falling onto her.

“Yeah!” Randy shouted with unbridled passion, “Give him a taste of his own medicine and pretend his sorry ass never existed!”

Of course Val kept her mouth shut as this was discussed. Her mind drew to a blank as she stared at the river with a faraway look. She realized she sh...

Everyone, at some point in their lives, have walked into an old bookstore in hopes they’d be swept away by secret magic, right?

But I wasn’t expecting that today when my friends, Laurie, Hunter and I, entered the small bookstore we used to pass by on our way to our university. Back during our first year, anyway, when we lived in a student accommodation. Now we lived elsewhere, in our third and fi...

It was an orange pencil with an ascending swirly design, topped with a bulky eraser of that one orange dragon Pokémon all the boys in class thought was the coolest. And despite its importance, Jacob let Kiara borrow it.

Then she lost it.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! He’s gonna kill me!” Kiara whined as she emptied out her My Little Pony backpack, scouring it ceaselessly.

“Calm down,” Zoey gestured ...

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful world.

Could life leave me just as wonderstruck?

I adore the stars that I see in the sky.

My upward gaze cannot be unstuck.

They fall from the sky, however.

One by one, they go, every so often.

I watch them all fall for people.

But I’ve learned to have caution.

It’s always so inconvenient. It’s mayhem.

And to think, I used to look up to them....

It was the kind of message that you can only speak from the heart with, but how could you do that if it was stolen?

I still had my heart though. So if he wasn’t going to send the message to her, then what kind of friend would it be if I didn’t do it for him? Well, a good one, probably. But then I wouldn’t be in this situation if if I was.

Three, simple, little letters.

Y…

e…

“Hey!” He blurted...

My mother sent me a video without a word.

It was an old VCR tape of me in my small stature.

I was asked what future profession I preferred.

I smiled saying, “I wanna be a butterfly catcher.”

Memories of an old friend flickered into my brain.

Buttercup the butterfly, yellow like a dress.

Our game was chase, she wouldn’t complain.

She would come to play every single recesss.

But, one day, I came o...

“I’m sorry for killing you,” I said on my deathbed, the hospital’s heart rate monitor beeping steadily like a timer counting these final seconds.

“Don’t say that.” Leif chuckled and shook her head dismissively. “Think of it more like… I’ve lived through you.”

I smiled tenderly, feeling her presence with me. Then I suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion. I didn’t fight it, but I felt terrified. Even ...

I fell.

Patently, my landing was not overt.

For some odd reason, the fall didn't hurt.

I laid there uncomfortably, still, supine,

but you were there too, warm, sublime.

We spoke for hours, watching the stratus and cumulus.

Conversations so pleasant, memorable, and humorous.

However, I had to go. No greater trap than a crush’s smile.

But before I left, you faced me and said, "Hey, stay a while."

...

“I’ll help you find your daughter, Mister!” Gahiji the six-year-old promised. “Hazel, right? She’s in my class!”

Barnaby winced through his lip biting, knowing it’d be wrong to enlist the help of some random kid. But, he hadn’t seen Hazel since he lost custody of her, and this seemed like his only option.

“Who even are you?” Barnaby suppressed an amused chortle.

In a dramatic fashion, Gahiji po...