Even a hangover couldn’t spoil the beauty of the photos from last night. Katie lay on the couch, legs dangling over the end, scrolling through them. She and Alex had gone to a rooftop bar that not only boasted glittering, magnificent drinks with names like “Hibiscus Heaven” and “Lavender Lemonade,” but bloomed with walls upon walls of vertical gardens that were bursting with flowers of every shape, size, and color. The hanging gardens , she thought when she first saw them.  O

Something is different in my house. I noticed it changing and I’m not sure when it started or how far it goes. Actually, it’s not really correct to say “something,” I think. Probably more accurate to say “some things.” Though if it’s connected – which I’m sure it must be – then it does add up to a single something . I don’t know who is doing it, or why, or what is going to come of it, but I’ve got my eyes open and I need to talk about. I’m paying as close attention as I possi

Alice knew they didn’t want her there, but she didn’t let go of Mark’s hand. Their parents had gone to ask the ICU nurse to make her leave. She’d come to donate blood. They didn’t want it. Mark was still unconscious. She couldn’t stop looking at him. She hadn’t seen him since Dad threw her out of the house years ago. He must have gotten that motorcycle he’d always wanted. The road rash was bad. Mark’s eyes fluttered open, and she squeezed his hand. “Hey, I’m here,” she wh

1 . Costa had broken his leg. No sooner had he received his diagnosis than a stream of messages came flowing forth in the group chat, beweeping his state and putting in requests for alcohol, food, dexamphetamines, and other miscellania. He was going to be laid up at his mum’s house for at least six weeks, which obviously didn’t suit his lifestyle. For all that he had served our community, he was calling on us now to be with him in his time of need. Lachie and I were the close

“The numbers are in, sir.”   “Oh yes?”   “They are not looking good.”   “Oh no, hmmm?”   He has a dummy, inside which a fungus grows to...

Sarah Rhinestone had skin on her mind as her train pulled into Los Angeles Union Station after a day trip to San Diego. Specifically,...

Charlie Russell sat cross-legged on the seat of his dad’s F-1 pickup, bundled up in his thick coat, his mittens laid on the dashboard....

Welcome to the men’s freestyle flâneur semifinals where two of today’s six competitors will go on to the finals. Flâneur’s tradition goes...

The naked woman in the glass stall slathers on liquid soap, a bridal train of foam swirling at her feet. At the adjacent sink, I swipe my...

Jasmine spends an extra ten minutes in the hostel shower trying to scratch the black sand out from under her toenails, in haphazard...

Of course, he’d be born on a Sunday. A day I use to believe in, now holds weight heavier than my swollen belly. The June morning started...

The first time Nicole encounters him, they are at a youth event, one of those big multi-church affairs, across several days. Nicole’s...

I stole a lot of things when I was 13 and 14. My family lived in Virginia Beach then. My father, who’d been an enlisted man in the U.S....

A man squeezes into the middle seat beside me. ‘Could they make these seats any smaller?’ he puffs. I don’t answer, pressing my face...

I was skin and bone my mother said and she was right, I was Grapes of Wrath skinny, but I  guess Mr. Smalley understood hunger, its...

The dog settles herself in the front seat, her head on the armrest, dozing. You flick through the radio stations until you find something...

When the golf tournament in Sowetos’ slum started, no one thought it was real. It was a joke, a rumor, and a puff of smoke out of...

The boyfriend is a Timothy McVeigh sympathizer, he said he knew McVeigh before he got the microchip in his buttocks. I think he’s...

How long had we been staring at her tiny body? Twenty seconds? Twenty minutes? She was doing her magic trick: breathing in through her...

Once Stu decides to leave, that’s it (except not really, no, not at all).  He moves into action at once (or, at least, he tells himself...