"You have to learn to live, kid, not just survive."

"I'm distracted from the boy I've bumped into when the world around me begins to change. The grey and white I've seen ever since I was born into this world slowly begin to bleed away, like rain drops sliding down a car window, being replaced with bright, bright pigments. They cover everything, bring to life the world around me. The gravel underneath my feet is no longer a dull grey, the sky is no longer white, the bricks of the buildings no longer black. They're different, beautiful, bright, extraordinary, breathtaking. Colors, I realize. These are colors." x Natalie Grayson has lived her whole life in black and white. She's been waiting to meet her other half- her soulmate- who will make both of their worlds burst in color. It's what she's been dreaming of ever since she was little. She wants to know what color is, how it feels, what it looks like, if it's really as amazing as everyone claims it to be. On her seventeenth birthday, while walking back home through a sketchy part of town, she bumps into a stranger. Before she can even apologize, the last thing she expected happens: the black and white of her world begins to bleed away and is replaced with something else. Colors. When she looks up, Natalie isn't expecting to lock eyes with a rebel. But she does. She also doesn't expect him to run away. But he does.

"AN ANECDOTE is a short account of a particular incident or event, especially of an interesting or amusing nature. Late 17th century: from French, or via modern Latin from Greek "anekdota", meaning 'things unpublished'." Collection of short stories that is added to on a horrifically infrequent basis.

The Diner has seen its fair share of the people of Midland, New York. There's Andrea, who doesn't quite know why she keeps coming back, save for the fact that it's the only place she doesn't feel constantly watched. There's Gregory, who people-watches, filling everyone around him with stories instead of filling himself with food. There's Milo, who often zones out as he waits on his patrons, dreaming of the day he can finally escape. And there's Monique, who simply likes the pancakes (and her waiter) a little too much.