**WATTYS 2025 HONOURABLE MENTION** Cas and Vish are best friends whose feelings run deep. Whilst Cas is clever, sporty, and on the brink of a bright future at university, Vish has no such prospects. A painfully shy artist, Vish's horizons end at his daily routine of pills, sensory issues and panicking parents. When they celebrate what could be their final summer together by painting wildlife and swimming at a secret wooded wetland hidden in the Fens, the lads awaken something ancient and sinister lurking in the water. A voice in Vish's head -- Charlie -- tempts him to spend longer and longer in the woods. When villagers begin to disappear and Vish becomes increasingly secretive and distant, Cas is convinced that Charlie intends to claim Vish, body and soul. Lies, heartbreak and obsession push their friendship to breaking point, but nothing will stop Cas from protecting Vish from Charlie's onslaught, not even a fight to the death. --- This book started life as an ONC 2025 prompt: 105. Your childhood imaginary friend who disappeared years ago returns - only this time they're real.

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