Cora

23 May 2024

Lillie

A normal day takes a drastic turn.

I slipped on my moccasins and walked to my desk where I gathered my notebook and psychology textbook. I lifted my head and stared out the window of the top-story dorm room I shared with my roommate, Chloe. It was a dreary, spring morning. Gray clouds veil...

TomEccleston

22 May 2024

Balance Sheets

Martin tries to unravel what he stumbled in on

“I can explain,” he pleaded, though it came out more like, “I cah eshlaih,” with his mouth stretched around the barrel of my shotgun. I raised my eyebrows, dark rage bubbling inside. “Explain?!” I spat. “Oh, this ought to be good. Let me guess, you came r...

Mendalla

18 May 2024

Plus One

A wedding reception turns into a day of revelations

I came out of my bedroom to find my housemate Charlotte gazing at herself in a full-length mirror. She looked quite pretty dressed up in a long blue dress for her sister Sara’s wedding. Her brown hair was trimmed and styled better than I had ever seen it...

WriterGirl

24 Apr 2024

The End Of My World

What would you do?

October 30, 1938 About a half mile into the Detroit-Windsor tunnel, I smell oil burning from running the engine so hard. I pat the dashboard of my old pickup. “Hang in there, baby.” I’m struggling to drive while rotating my head like a damn owl, worrying...

Chapter 1 Atticus sat with his friends at Pizza Hut, the atmosphere buzzing with excitement and relief after they had all successfully passed their final exams. The aroma of freshly baked pizza and the sound of cheerful chatter filled the air as they indu...

There’s a Blondie record playing on the jukebox in the corner. It’s one you’ve heard many times before but it still pulls you in with its goodness. There’s optimism here, full-on powerpop positivity, to take hold of you in the moment as the night sky fall...

I’m searching for the lost forty-five. Jack was talking about it last night in The Crown. It was when an old northern soul record came on the jukebox, one that they play regularly in there, and which can’t fail to make your feet tap and your body start to...

The record’s an instrumental called Grow Your Own. It’s a Small Faces b-side from some time around ’65 I think. Back at the old alma mater, Miles used to play it to death. We used to sit in his room in hall, getting dragged into its brilliance, playing it...

You could almost be mistaken for thinking that spring’s upon us. The sun’s out at last. It’s been a long, dark winter. We need the sunshine again to bring the good times back into our lives, let us understand what matters. I’m strolling through the park,...

Early morning. Eleven o’clock. It’s about the time I usually make my entrance into the world. I’m coming downstairs in my bathrobe and the letterbox clatters. Two letters fall through onto the mat. I go over and pick them up. They’re both for yours truly....

It’s been a one-night stand. That’s what I’m thinking as I lean against the shelter at the bus station and wait. Don’t ask me why I know it was a one-night stand, but I do. Neither of us said anything but I knew it and she knew it. Maybe it was the way we...

I’m waiting for spring. That’s what I’m thinking as the bus takes me into the city. It’s dark outside. It’s gone cold again, there wasn’t much sun today. I have my hands on my lap, my pea coat buttoned up and I flick my fringe out of my eyes. I’m on the t...

Harry had just got off the train. He had his holdall in his hand and was on his way home. It was a twenty-minute walk and he was thinking about getting a taxi. But impoverished students like him couldn’t afford luxuries like that, not at this stage of lif...

It’s like we’re fixed in time. I suppose it’s always like that with a photograph but this seems more so. I’ve been rummaging, having a clear-out, sorting through drawers and boxes. I pick up a pile of papers it falls out, drops to the floor, looking up at...

I’ve got my red trackie top on and I’m on my way into the station. There are ten minutes until the train leaves and it’s busy. I skipped a lecture to catch this train so it had better be worth it. There’s an autumn chill in the air, which I’m liking. It b...