**WATTYS 2025 SHORTLIST** Sixteen-year-old Cas is clever, sporty, and on the brink of a bright future at university. His best friend Vish has no such prospects. A painfully shy artist, Vish's future won't go further than his daily routine of pills, sensory issues and panicking parents. Cas and Vish celebrate what could be their final summer together by painting wildlife and swimming at a secret wetland that they've discovered hidden in the Fens. But something ancient and sinister lurks in the beautiful marsh that Cas and Vish have claimed as their summer retreat. Vish's childhood imaginary friend, Charlie, has returned, and this time Charlie wants Vish's body and soul. The only thing standing in Charlie's way is Cas, and he won't give up on his best friend, even if it means a fight to the death. --- WELCOME TO MY ONC 2025 STORY! This incorporates the following prompt: 105. Your childhood imaginary friend who disappeared years ago returns - only this time they're real. I'll add in some of the other prompts as I go along. Not sure if I'll make it to the end but we'll see how we go!

NOAH: Sharing a room with Adrian Torres was not part of my academic excellence plan. He's loud. He's always shirtless. And he seems to enjoy pissing me off a little too much. I don't like him. I don't think about his stupid smile. Or his ridiculous abs. And I definitely don't get jealous when he flirts with other people. (Which is constant.) This is fine. I'm fine. Totally, completely fine. ADRIAN: I didn't ask to share a room with the guy who humiliated me on the first day of junior year. But now I live with Noah Hart - the repressed, uptight, annoyingly organized Noah Hart. He looks at me like he wants to kill me. And I like it. Which is hilarious. Because I don't like him. I just like pissing him off. We argue. He glares. I say shit I probably shouldn't. He blushes. I pretend not to notice. (Okay, I notice. A little.) But it's nothing. It's not flirting. I don't even like men. Enemies. Roommates. Something else entirely. Room 208 is a queer slow-burn romance about two boys - one flirty, one repressed - forced to share a dorm room, and everything that unravels after. 🌈 Queer romance. Enemies to lovers. Slow burn tension. Boarding school chaos. Hot boys with no idea what to do with their feelings. 🌈 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞 𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦 🏆 #1 in QueerRomance · Sept 2025