The summer in which Nellie Dreher tries to draw the map to Indie Rao's heart. (cover by @GlamerousDolls)

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."

"Not just a flavour, but a way of life." When seventeen-year-old Flo Kennedy is forced to up sticks and trade her life in London for a sleepy seaside town on the south coast, she's anything but excited. Walden-on-Sea could win awards for being Britain's dullest town, and with a population consisting almost entirely of over sixties, teenagers are an endangered species. Silently struggling with her parents' death and separation from her sister, Flo's convinced she's in for the worst summer of her life. But when she meets the guy in the ice cream shop, things start to change. It's not long before she lands herself a job, a new set of friends and maybe even the beginnings of first romance. For the first time in several years, she's happy. But Flo knows all too well that things can't stay perfect forever, and after all, being on top of the world only gives you further to fall.

One day, Morgana decides to pick up a pen and write a series of letters addressed to those she loves and hates. In these letters, she reveals her deepest fears and darkest secrets, in these letters she tells of the only boy she's ever loved and in these letters she realises that nothing is ever as it seems, and after these letters, nothing will ever be the same again. (used to be named Thirty Letters) (Inspired by the 30 Day Letter Challenge)

"Do you want to talk? You know, about everything?" Evan asks. He's staring up at the star-covered sky as he holds our brown bag of French fries. I finish my sip of my vanilla milkshake despite not wanting to stop and follow his gaze. The stars twinkle against the black and wish I had brought my camera. Somehow I thought that bringing it on our maybe-maybe-not date wasn't appropriate. "I don't know," I smile, "everything seems like a lot of talking." Alabama Reed has fooled herself into thinking that this could work and she knows it. With an accident she's trying to downplay and a loss she can't seem to forget, things aren't looking good. So Bam's parents do the only thing they can think of; they take their daughter and drive her halfway across the country to sleepy Mermaid Bay to live in an empty cottage for the summer. Things quickly start looking up when Bam realizes the newspapers don't cover news that happens hours away, but as soon as she starts making friends and secrets of her past start unraveling, Bam finds out that you can't always run from your past - even if you actually run away. Spiritual #18 May 16th, 2013

Everly Winter hasn't had a day without responsibility in years. Between dealing with her newly divorced parents and watching out for a suicidal best friend, Everly never has time for herself. But then Jace Wasson comes along, self-contained and enigmatic. He doesn't give Everly the best first impression, but the two of them just can't seem to stay away from each other. Everly finds herself falling- falling in love with someone who she never expected to like the slightest bit.