❝hi this is Panda Express, how may I help you?❞ ❝can i have one order of general tso's chicken? hold the chicken, double the vegetables.❞ ❝how in the world is that general tso's chicken?❞ ☂ lowercase intended. story inspired by many others. ☂ -- just a pinch of love #1 -- #339 in humor 1/2/15

"You're just a girl, not even a pretty one. You were just something to fill my spare time, nothing more. And these? Well they're just notes."

Auburn Ivy runs away from her problems even if it means running away from her family, friends and familiar life. Anthony Kroff is a footballer on the rise but is lonely and lost in the new city he finds himself in. Their lives would have never intertwined if headstrong Auburn and shy Anthony hadn't chosen the same Friday to venture into a side-street cafe. For her it was an escape, for him it was curiosity and together they found something that they hesitated to call love because what if, after everything, they found themselves chasing fool's gold? Carlotta Garcia is the cafe owner and she is hell-bent on bringing them together but we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start at the very start or, if you want me to be truthful, at the very end, with Sabah Taqvi, a bored literature student and desperate romantic. Previously known as "Coffee Shop Love". [ © circularities 2016 ]

Sometimes all you really need is a place to call home. *** Claire is lost and scared and utterly alone. Her family is in shambles after the death of her older sister Ina, and she's left to pick up the broken pieces of herself as her life heads into a downwards spiral of loneliness. Her heart leads her to 5:48, a little cafe by 33rd street, where she finds her new home. With a broken heart and a speech disability, Jasper has his heart and mouth sewn shut by the winding threads of hurt and fear. Painting and serving coffee in cafe 5:48 are one of his last few saving graces, but the smile he's been painting on himself will soon fade away as everything he's ever held dear slips away from his grasp. Ezra is out-of-sync and oddly cold by the way life has treated his young self. Abandoned by his single mother at an early age, he has grown up thinking that he is a mistake. His constant shaking hands are a reflection of what he often thinks of himself, but the delightful pastries he bakes for 5:48's customers are a reflection of what others see of him. Drew is a quirky rarity. He is a dash of loud, a pinch of exuberant, and a cup of eccentric - just like the meals he serves in the cafe as the only chef there. Behind his playful grins and outlandish clothes, however, are his jutting ribs, hollowed cheeks, and too-thin arms. Sometimes he cannot stomach being in his own skin as much as he cannot stomach food. This family has gone a long way from finding each other, and they'll be going a long way together too as reality comes catching up to them, threatening the newfound happiness they've found with each other. Secrets are revealed, pasts become presents, and lives are changed. Slowly but surely, they find their way back home. *** NOTE AS OF 08/2026: This is the old version of the story from 2012, posted in FULL. Another story that will be considered a reprise of this old version is in the works, and will be posted under the name "Hiraya House."

dear stray eyelashes, ladybugs, dark tunnels, wishbones, dandelions, pennies, shooting stars, 11:11, and birthday candles, when will you do your job?

a story about them; through a series of texts. "you don't need to meet someone in real life to meet the real them" 「 copyright @simrankdhaliwal highest rank - first in short story lowercase intended for stylistic purposes 」

two sleepless souls met on a summer's night.

Crippled streets. A silent whisper. Broken beams of light. Her eyes saw it all. The despair; the brokenness of her world. With only her father's hand shielding it all from her. The year is 1948, rubble and collapsed houses littering the streets of Northern France. Marietta, struck with amnesia, remembers nothing from the war. Not her identity, not her experiences, not her family. All she sees is the present, overcome with a cloud of darkness as France slowly struggles to rebuild everything it had before. When her curious mind leads her to the attic, her life is changed in an instant. A broken beam of light reveals a box, filled with photographs. Photographs of her past, of her family, of memories that she can't remember. Slowly the truth begins to trickle out, Marietta slowly crushed with it. As she struggles to find who she really is, and to grasp everything that has happened to her, Marietta begins to find a light. A light that she must learn to follow. [slow updates]

Where a girl receives messages from an anonymous passerby who wants to show her the world. © tilmorning. 2013