Denise Webster thought her life was perfect. Until the man she was supposed to marry fails to show up for their wedding. Broke, distraught and heartbroken, Denise has no choice but to move back to her childhood home with her eccentric mother and stepfather to lick her wounds. Hell-bent on avoiding as much human contact as possible, the only person who seems to see past the nonchalant veneer behind which she hides her pain is her childhood best friend, Mateo Ramiro. But with a history of self-destructive behavior and a knack for making the wrong choice, will she ever let him in? FIVE FEET APART meets 13 GOING ON 30 in this lighthearted chick-lit about heartbreak, discovering oneself and the thin line between friendship and love. * * * Written for the Open Novella Contest 2020. Highest Rankings: #2 in saveblackcharacters out of 516 books on 24/02/2022 #26 in realistic fiction out of 6.75K books on 24/02/2022 | Featured in Wattpad's FreshReads Spotlight on Black Writers! |

how far would you go . . . for someone you love? ♔ Levi steps forward, placing himself between me and Jack. Like he's protecting me from him. But I don't need protecting, certainly not from Jack. "Who do you think you are, dude?" Levi spits, getting in Jack's face. "Look, Scarlett was just helping me out with a proj-" "I'm not your dude," Jack bites, and I want to tear my hair out of my head. This is going downhill very fast. Jack turns to me. "Scar, we need to talk," he says lowly. Then loud enough for Levi to hear, "So can you please get this kid to leave." "Hey, you don't get to come in here and start ordering her around," Levi says harshly. "You don't control her." "And you think that you do?" Jack spits. ♔ When Scarlett moved off to college, she hoped to start anew and find her way in this world alone. Two problems. One: her older brother goes to the same college, and it seems like he's everywhere, keeping her from doing everything she hoped to do as a college freshman. Two: her brother's devastatingly handsome best friend also seems hell-bent on ruining her college experience . . . but in a different way. Their paths keep crossing, and Scarlett is reminded of the powerful attraction that they've both ignored for far too long. Not to mention, a new face begins to occupy everyday Scarlett's thoughts. When Scarlett is paired with an allusive, darkly handsome stranger for a film project, her world begins to open in ways she never thought possible. But as his mystery unravels into dark secrets, she wonders if she's falling a bit too hard. Before long, Scarlett is forced to realize that balancing the hearts of two boys at once just might result in the breaking of her own.

James remembers his past lives with Cedric, but each of those lives ended in tragedy. This time, they will try to change fate. ********************************************************************************************** When James finds a strangely captivating photograph of a girl at an antiques store, he doesn't expect it to lead to Cedric. His attraction to Cedric is immediate, but then the dreams start. The dreams portal him into past lives that all share one thing in common: each life takes place during an epidemic. As James and Cedric enter into 2020, James realizes this life may end in the same fate.

In the late nineties asexuality is all but ignored as an orientation. Jess doesn't understand her complex array of emotions or why she finds it so hard to relate to her fellow classmates. Catholic high schools and churches simply don't address the issue, and the internet is still nascent. Jess can't tell anyone the truth. Not even her best friend Care. Instead, she hides behind the guise of faith. Behind a mask of celibacy. Until she meets Eric, that is. He lets slip that he's asexual, and Jess wants to learn more. --- Watty Winner 2021 for best cover, best YA, and the Wattpad Books prize! --- Status: completed and unedited Rating: PG-15 for moderate language and frank discussions about sexuality Genre: teen fiction romance featuring two heteroromantic ace characters --- Cover designed using Canva Pro August 2020 --- Please note: This work is a teen fiction novelization of my multimedia novella "Mask of Celibacy".