"Noelle." He spoke. That was my first time hearing my name off his lips, and I may have lost my cool for the first time in my life. "Now that I say it, you more of a Noelle than a Nikki" he gave a goofy grin.

Kai refuses to let him disappear. He finds him, sits beside him, and says: "You don't scare me. You just... act like you don't deserve good things."

"Tell me baby, is this who we are?" Blackbxb. 🖤

They didn't end up in the same space on purpose. Brooklynn is the quiet type. Not shy... just tired. Tired in the "life been heavy for a while now" way. He minds his business, goes to work, comes home, and keeps his world small because that's how he breathes. Azyir is the opposite. Loud, funny, always in motion. ADHD running the wheel every day. Talks so much he forgets to say what he really means. Laughs loud so nobody asks if he's okay. They sit in the same trig class at their HBCU, but they don't talk. They don't dislike each other either. They just... live in two different worlds. Messiah Markell is their professor. Older, calm, strict in the quiet way that makes people sit up straighter. He owns a club downtown called Desirable, but in class he keeps everything controlled. He doesn't like watching people drown in silence or noise. He sees them both slipping. Not failing. Slipping. So he tells them to stay after class. Every day. Not for tutoring. Not for discipline. Just to sit, breathe, work, or not work. A room where nobody has to force themselves to be "okay." And somehow, without anybody planning it... The quiet one. The loud one. And the man who teaches them how to stay. Start learning how to need each other. Not in a fast way. Not in a dramatic way. In the way real connections happen: Slow glances. Shared exhaustion. Walking home together because home doesn't feel safe tonight. Sitting in silence that doesn't hurt. Being seen without having to explain. This is a story about: Black boy rest. Soft dominance. Messy feelings. Learning how to stay present. No fake deep. No forced love. Just real people figuring out how to breathe.

Childhood enemies. Years apart. Now seniors - and the tension between them is nothing like before.

With his life dedicated to the streets, Fetti didn't have time nor the energy for anything else. Determined, cold, and calculated described him when it came to how he moved getting money. He had it all. That is until life took an unexpected turn leaving him to face the consequences. The only thing on Zaytona mind is taking care of his daughter and getting money. But with living in two different states and dealing with a baby mama from hell, it's hard for him to be the good father he's desperately trying to be. When the two worlds collide, things get a little bit messy and very hostile.

"You don't know what you do to me," he murmured against my skin. "You really don't." - Honesty, a Black girl with a sharp tongue and a bad attitude. lives in Brick City, a row of red-brick apartments know for gangbangers and old grandmothers who yearn for a better place to live. She works nights at a corner store, saving every dollar to get her little brother out of the environment before he becomes part of it. She doesn't have time for love, drama, or distractions. Then Cesar, a quiet white boy with a raspy voice and sweet way with words, moves into the building next door. Who is just trying to make a living off his mechanic job. What happens when these two cross paths and fall in love? Read to find out. #2 hoodlove #4 bwwm #3 blacklove

"Threw away your love letters, I thought it'd made me feel better..."

Janeisha "Neisha" Bambi has always survived by keeping a low profile. She don't get caught up in the kind of business that comes with bodies, secrets, and street names that echo. But all it takes is one night-one favor for her best friend-to slide her straight into the orbit of Seven "Saint" Carter. Saint is discipline wrapped in menace. A man the streets don't just respect,they fear. The type Neisha promised herself she'd never look at twice. He doesn't chase, beg, or explain. Yet somehow, he does all of this for her. And when that calm, unreadable gaze settles on Neisha, her careful world starts to crack. Now Saint's patience is running out, Neisha's defenses are falling apart and the pull between them is starting to feel less like a choice and more like fate. He's trying to shield her from the life he lives. She's trying to decide if loving him is salvation or self-destruction.

After twelve years behind bars, Iman has learned to feel nothing. With only six months left on his sentence, the last thing he expects is a new cell mate who forces him to confront everything he buried for so long.