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...

I’ll always hate how the roses by your grave die so slowly, when your life was snuffed out so instantly. But I know it’s petty and trivial.

On the other hand, I suppose it must feel so degrading to have people watch your beauty wither. At least they have more time though, because whenever I see a picture of you, you’re so much younger than I remembered you.

It’s so bizarre. You used to be older ...

High on adrenaline, you only care I’m feminine. High, yet from your eyes I descend. Does the clatter of rumoured chatter even matter to you if you’re everyone’s friend?

Even if I decline, your words are your design, you think you want to, need to, cross the line.

“Let’s cuddle.”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“It’s just a cuddle.”

“…Okay, fine.”

It’s never just a cuddle. It’s subtle, but if I struggle, ...